Consider Taking a Bite of “Twilight”

Over the holiday season, each family celebrated with their own traditions. In my family, a tradition of the holidays is to go out and watch a new movie released for the holidays. Although I don’t consider myself or any of my family members “movie buffs,” we all love to sit and watch movies each year, both at home and in theaters. The movies that came out around Thanksgiving left me a little puzzled as to what to see with my family in theaters over winter break.

Being a fan of comedies, one possibility was the new movie “Four Christmases,” featuring Reese Witherspoon and the hilarious Vince Vaughn. Another option was the new James Bond movie titled “Quantum of Solace,” the action packed sequel of “Casino Royale” featuring Daniel Craig.

Another movie we could have watched was one I hadn’t originally even thought of going to see. But once I caught up with Lycoming College student Melody Johnson, my outlook on the movie “Twilight” began to change. I asked Johnson what movies she had seen for the upcoming holidays and right away began to tout Twilight as the top movie to see this holiday season.

For those who might not know, “Twilight” is a movie based on the first of a series of books by Stephenie Meyer, and has become a huge hit in theaters. Johnson explained to me that she had learned about the Twilight books in an unorthodox fashion. “I found out about the book series through Facebook bumper stickers. I saw a picture of Edward and Bella and he’s saving her from being hit by a truck. I typed it into Google and found out it was from a book and ordered it immediately.” From the moment she started reading the book, Johnson said that she was hooked.

Johnson also gave a quick plot of the movie for those who don’t know about the “Twilight” series. She explained to me that Edward and Bella are the main characters of the story, and then went on to describe the plot of the movie. “Edward is a vampire who had been denying himself for years. Bella moves to Forks, Washington to live with her dad, and ends up meeting Edward. For the first time in 108 years, Edward is overcome with the desire to kill a human, but he resists his urge and wants to protect Bella from the other vampires who want to kill her. Because of Edward and Bella being together, he puts her in danger of being killed by other vampires, and he has to protect her” she said.

Occasionally movies based off of books turn out to be big disappointments for fans who have already read the books. This could be because of the images readers imagine through the descriptions the books provide. Johnson says that “Twilight” does a good job of converting images accurately from the book into the movie. “The movie follows the book pretty closely. It’s missing a few chapters where Edward was asking Bella questions about being human. Some of the phrases also seemed cornier in the movie than in the book. Overall, the way they portrayed the characters was very close to the book’s way of describing them, and the special effects were amazing,” she said.

Johnson recommends this movie for both those who have read the book, and those who are going to watch the movie first.  “For someone who has read the book, I would recommend seeing it twice because I was disappointed in the dialogue the first time because a lot of it didn’t seem natural compared to the book. The second time I saw it I enjoyed it even more. If you didn’t read the book and you’re going to see the movie, then you’ll fall in love with it from the first time you see it and get yourself hooked on the books.” Clearly, Johnson is a strong supporter of the “Twilight” books and movie, and she recommends that everyone should take a chance and get to the theaters.

Despite my early skepticism of what to see in theaters this holiday season, it seems as though there is at least one movie worthy of seeing, and that movie is “Twilight.”

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