Shalee the Critic: Revamping Vampires

By: Shalee H

            One of my many goals for my high school senior experience was to attend a midnight showing of a movie.  Two weeks ago, four friends and I attended the midnight showing of the movie Twilight, based on the book by Stephanie Meyer. The night started off with getting McDonald’s at 9:45.  We were at the theatre by 10:15, and more than thoroughly excited to see our movie.  If you don’t know me very well, you don’t know that I tend to have bad luck, and of course my luck didn’t fail us on the 10 degree evening.  We got to the theatre a good two minutes after they had locked the doors, and waited outside in the bitter cold for over an hour!

            After finally entering the theatre and beginning to regain the feeling in my fingers and toes, my friends started talking about what parts they were excited for in the movie, and wondering what parts they did differently than the book.  I would add a nod here and there, but had very little to say, most likely due to the fact that I had never read the book.  I know, I received plenty of criticism from my friends on that fact, so trust me, I learned my lesson: you MUST read the book before you see the movie. 

            During the entire movie, I was mesmerized; only distracted by the occasional sounds of admiration from the crowd when Edward Cullen (the lead vampire heart-throb) appeared on screen.  I believed it was truly a great movie.  However, after receiving a ton of both positive and negative comments from my peers who had seen the movie and also read the book, I was inspired to begin reading the Twilight series. 

            My binge-reading addiction kicked in, and in about two and a half weeks I had read the entire series of four books!  After reading the first book, I returned to see the movie for a second time.  To make a movie that includes fantasy creatures like vampires into a realistic story is an exceptional challenge, but the movie Twilight is above and beyond what I would have expected it to be.  Many people believed that there wasn’t enough ‘special effects’, or that they did things differently in the movie than they had in the book, but I believe the movie was produced in the most logical way. 

            If they were to include all kinds of special effects in the movie, then, in my opinion, it would have turned out to be a complete joke.  The vampires are supposed to be inconspicuous in the first place, which eliminates the need for all the extra special effects.  The movie was also presented in an order that would make sense to the viewer.  In the book, you can go back and re-read the significant parts when you missed something, but when watching a movie you have to be able to piece the significant parts together the first time.  They did their best to make the significant parts obvious to the viewer, regardless of whether or not they had read the book.

            I believe the book and the movie are both very, very good!  I expected a terrible horror film with vampires and blood and all that jazz, but I was pleasantly surprised to experience what I did in the theatre.  You are probably wondering by now, what on earth this book is about?  Well too bad, I’m not giving away any clues!  I challenge each and every one of you to step out of the well-defined comfort zones, and pick up something different, such as the Twilight series.  The reading is very easy, and also very quirky and funny.  It’s something new and different, and also very refreshing.  The series includes: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.  These books are not only about love, but friendship, war, strength, and family as well.  It’s time to revamp your idea of vampires.