Twilight

STARRING: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Taylor Lautner, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Cam Gigandet

OPENS: November 21

By insideEonline's Emer Schlosser

The hype surrounding Twilight turned to hysteria when hundreds of teen fanatics began counting down the days and hours if not minutes til their favourite handsome vampire descended upon the big screen on November 21. In fact, Twilight has already broken all records previously held for pre-sales at Cineplex Entertainment Theatres. An impressive, but not surprising fact considering you’d be hard pressed to find any media outlet not covering the frenzy surrounding the flick (think NKOTB, Tickle Me Elmo and Jonas Brothers all rolled into one).

Part romance, part action, part supernatural, part horror, part teen flick (yup, that's a lot of parts); the story centres around the Romeo and Juliet-like romance between Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Bella recently moved back to her hometown of Forks, Washington to live with her father (Billy Burke) after her mother takes up traveling with her new amateur baseball-playing husband. Almost immediately after Bella reenters the cloudy town, she falls heart, life and sucker for the beautiful but broody Edward. The attraction is immediate and intense to a point where Bella seems more scared of those deep feelings than finding out her beloved in undead, has been undead for quite some time now, and lives off blood. Edward’s thirst for her is equal (the draw he describes by telling Bella she’s like his “own personal brand of heroin”). While I mean the thirst part both figuratively and literally, Edward suppresses his literal desire to nibble on her neck (in the bad, blood draining way), because he and his “family” of vampires are the equivalent of vegetarians like Angel in Buffy (Edward even compares those undead who refrain from feasting on human blood to humans who eat tofu: never fully satisfied). Nevertheless, they fall hard for each other and thus begins what fills a large portion of the movie: intense broody stares with underlying sexual tension and a dash of fear. I was reminded of when one of my awesome English teachers from highschool paused the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice to point out Colin Firth’s passionate “sex eyes.” These two definitely got their “sex eyes” down pat (see pic above).

While the chemistry took me a while to believe, the awkwardness was extremely well done (to the point that I squirmed in my seat with sympathy discomfiture). But all in all Stewart and Pattinson put in a solid performance. Once the film got going it managed to suck me in and even gave a tiny tug to my heartstrings (which triggered some tickling of the tear ducts at one point). Some of the action sequences are pretty cool (like a brawl in a mirrored ballet studio), but many of the effects are kinda corny (like the speed-piggyback-hiking and a baseball game that somewhat resembled Quidditch) and some of the edits were jarringly choppy. While I liked the idea of film and love that a series like this gets people excited to read (a la Harry Potter, which, Pattinson appeared in as the cute and courageous Cedric Diggory), I couldn't help but feel like something was lacking.

But let’s be honest, the real reasons people - and by people I mainly mean teenage girls and smattering of parents and boyfriends that may be dragged along - will flock to the flick are twofold: the success of the book series by Stephanie Meyer and hot guys. The amount of girls I saw wearing shirts with the faces of Pattinson and (bad boy vampire) Cam Gigandet were too many to count. These undead boys, particularly new heartthrob Robert Pattinson, have created an epidemic of crushes that will override any criticism the movie may endure and provide piles of pictorial content for Big Bopper and Tiger Beat.

Photos courtesy of Seville Pictures