I heard someone say that the movie Twilight was the "girls' Harry Potter." After wondering what exactly the "boys' Harry Potter" was, though, I had to admit this was true. People have been going crazy for these books — namely girls, and especially pre-teen girls. I refuse to believe that this series has made an impact as monumental as J.K. Rowling's, but they are good.

Stephanie Meyer, somehow, has been able to turn a seemingly uninteresting world of vampires and werewolves (something that people are still trying to capitalize on) into another huge series.

Twilight (the best way to show these girls just how perfect they all imagined Edward Cullen could be) is about a girl, Bella, who has just moved to Forks, Wash. Funny thing is, there happens to be a vampire coven also living there. They're all teenagers (who wouldn't want to repeat high school 40 or 50 times?). That isn't true, Carlisle (the original member) and Esme (his wife) could be in their 20s. Edward Cullen, the only one without a companion, falls in love with Bella.

In the books, Meyer tries to show just how perceptive vampires are, and the best the director could come up with to portray this was with lots of action — people climbing trees, playing baseball — and with several trancelike staring contests.

The movie stayed pretty true to the book. A few of the negatives: probably not a good date movie — especially if your date has read (and liked) the books — and the prom seemed way too nice for where they were. I heard people complain about the movie not being like the books because most of the werewolf connections have been deleted. Jasper and Emmet were hilarious. I think altogether they had maybe three lines. Alice's seeing the future felt a little forced.

Apparently, when directing a film targeting the younger generation, there needs to be an unbelievable amount of indie-style editing going on (funny angles, a lot of cutting from one shot to another, that sort of thing). I did like the way everyone else was interpreted around Bella and the Cullens. All of the other students were happy-go-lucky and ridiculously immature, which really highlighted how quiet and different the Cullen family acted.

By far the best part of this movie was taken up by Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen), who was not in any of the commercials I saw. People might remember him from Can't Hardly Wait, where he played Mike Dexter.

This was a fun movie, true to the book, and wayyyyyy better than Queen of the Damned ...



Zerach Wieder, 18, has an associate degree in culinary arts from Santa Fe Community College. You can reach him at zerock123@hotmail.com.