I've been cruising around DA for the passed couple of days, and I've noticed a surge in Twilight fan art/hate art. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the movie was the catalyst for all the noise. I just thought to write down my two cents about it, since I have a mixture of emotions about Twilight.

First, I want to talk about the movie. Now, I want it to be known that I'm 21 years old and more often than not, I'm pretty subjective when it comes to mainstream fads. I did not read the books beforehand. As far as the movie is concerned, I was getting pretty sick of hearing everyone making a big deal out of it. I went and saw it because I'm a fan of vampire movies; always have been and always will be. As far as the movie is concerned in that aspect, I was sorely disappointed. Vampires do NOT glitter. I was expecting a cool horror effect like on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But NO, I got glitter...wow...talk about fruity.

Admittedly, that is the only problem I had with the movie, and even though I was disappointed that he glittered like a disco ball, it proved humorous both times I watched it. I thought it was cute; Jasper and Rosalie made me laugh because one looked constantly constipated and the other was paranoid/bitchy all the time.

The acting could have been a little better, but it was still good. Since Bella and Edward are supposed to play the part of awkward teens, I guess it was fitting. Personally, I prefer Rob Pattinson as Cedric from HP4.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie, and I'm looking forward to New Moon being translated into movie form.

Now, I'll make a couple of comments about the book. I just started reading it, so I haven't finished, but I think I can give a subjective opinion about the writing style. Stephenie Meyer is interesting because her writing style is a dichotomy of wonderful vocabulary and somewhat childish descriptions. Reading the first paragraph I thought, "Well...she should get an award for writing useless information..." But then I got into the second paragraph and I was stimulated by her use of non-colloquial vocabulary (I don't know if it was the word "omnipresent" or "inconsequential" but one of them put my mind back on track).

I think she does this a bit ingeniously because she seems to purposely write simply for the younger audience and she switches gears to write more formally to attract an older audience. I'm not going to say that I'm the only one who thinks that, but I haven't seen anyone else comment on it.

As far as Bella being a Mary Sue is concerned...I don't think that title is completely fitting. Her character needs to be put into perspective:

*Everyone loves her as soon as she moves to Forks: Well, I don't think that's accurate. Generally, there is at least 1 person that will befriend the school newbie, introduce them to all their friends, etc. I don't know how everyone else was raised, but I was taught to be welcoming and nice to people, so I generally did that when I was in high school too. Of all the Cullens, Alice was the only one that was like "OMGBFF!" everyone else, save Rosalie, was accepting.

*Edward falls madly in love with her at first glance, therefore she's a Mary Sue: Um, no. It started off as a pheromone/scent thing, then it turned into love. It takes him a while to actually calm down enough to get to know her. It wasn't POOF! they're in love, like most people seem to think. I think the movie does a better job of showing that than the book does. Also, stop being such pessimists, geez, where's your sense of romance?

*All the guys wanted her: Okay, I will admit that THAT was a bit Mary Sue, however, I'd ask Bella out too if I had to choose between a blond bimbo and Skeletor...

*She's helpless/Gets Kidnapped/Needs saving: Well, DUH! She's a human and gets involved with vampires, of course she's going to need protection/saving. It would have been REALLY Mary Sue if she had suddenly tapped into some uber awesome power and had been able to kill James all by herself.

Those are the only things that I can really think of at the moment. I'll probably add more later, but I can't seem to find anything else to address. All in all, I enjoyed the movie and the book is tolerable. It's not the best novel that I have ever read, but it's not the worst.

All the anti-Twilight followers are entitled to their own opinion, and I can see where most of them are getting their fodder from. The writing style isn't perfect, the characters don't really have enough personality to make a relationship work and there are supernatural things going on. Yes, all these things would make certain people roll their eyes in disgust. But what needs to be kept in mind is that it's a Young Adult novel. It's supposed to be senseless drivel for preteen kids. I acknowledge that, and the sooner everyone else does, the sooner we can get on with our lives, ha ha.