Dear Jodie - T is for Twilight

Dear Jodie,

Why would a middle-aged man enjoy a movie about which my favorite critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Twilight' will mesmerize its target audience, 16-year-old girls and their grandmothers?"

Why, indeed?

Because from the time I was wee lad in grade school, I thought vampires were neat (cool). A wretched, wonderful gothic soap opera introduced a vampire into the mix in about 1967 named Barnabas Collins. The show?

Dark Shadows!

Barnabas Collins carried such a tragic demeanor about him.  He could only feed from the blood of humans, sometimes killing them, sometimes make more vampires.

Fascinating!  So much so that when my little brother (a HUGE Barnabas Collins fan) was five years old, he asked Santa Claus for a coffin for Christmas.

You should have seen the look on that poor man's face!

So why then do I get into this movie?

It reminded me of my childhood summers, mostly spent alone with little but my imagination to play with. As a vampire, I had power in my own mind.  I could bite the bully who beat me to a pulp in front of the girl I had a crush on.

I even went so far as to bite my glass of cherry Hi-C fruit juice drink pretending it was the blood of my victim!

So?

Except for her compulsion for Edward (my preference would be Alice), I completely relate to Bella Swan.

I was a misfit in school, as many were, and desperately searched for a world into which I belonged naturally and completely.

I never penetrated any world closer than the fringe, except the one I've created for myself.

I know that Kristen Stewart isn't the best actor on the planet, nor is Robert Pattinson, though he does have a darker brooding quality like Heathcliff on the Moors in Wuthering Heights.

That still begs the question ...

Why do I like this movie?

Because a misfit finds her world and risks it all . . .  ALL . . . to become part of it. That radiates with me.

So, I ask myself, why do you love all five of the Twilight movies.

Because I love them.  I love the story they tell.

And I'm mystically drawn to vampire stories.

As a reviewer, I would give the first Twilight 5 out of 10.

Throw in two and a half more points for the personal factor.

7 1/2 out of 10.

Oops, give it another half point because Alice can bite me any time she wants!

8 out of 10.

I do like the Harry Potter books and movies far more, but if a friend came over in the morning, and said "Let's make this a Twilight festival day" I'd be all over that like flies on a hot cow patty.

I should say that my late aunt LOVED the Twilight movies she saw . . . the first three.  I'm sorry she didn't live long enough to see them all.  We had such fun talking about them!

Read Jodie's review here.

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