Please excuse me while I lapse into a teenage state-of-mind

Okay...a little disclaimer before I start this post.  For those of you who have no interest in the Twilight series, you have my permission to leave now.  You might WANT to leave now as the following will be a lot of blabber about said movie/books.  This has been a public service announcement.

For those of you who are as much of a 12-year-old dork as I am...please continue reading; if for nothing but the purty pictures so deftly nabbed off of the internet.  

I am a HUGE dork...I mean, I dork it up right.  And for some reason...my love for the Twilight series makes me feel like such a dork!  I mean, I'm a 26-year-old woman with kids, reading a saga intended for teenagers, starring teenagers, involving vampires and werewolves.  I'm somewhat ashamed and embarassed about my passion for these books (read all 4 of them within the span of 4 days).  

In true dork fashion, I was at the Walmarts at midnight Friday night/Saturday morning to get my copy of the DVD.  I hadn't been able to make it to the theatre's to see it, so you can imagine my excitement.  I was about 13 years older than EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the store that night...I felt like I had a huge 'I COULD BE YOUR MOTHER' sign stamped to my chest (really, though, if you do the math I couldn't be their mother...but you get the gist.  I wasn't carrying around a Hannah Montana backpack like everyone else...I was an outsider, people.)

I watched the movie immediately when I got home...which didn't put me in bed until after 4 am.  And, of course, watching the movie just made me want to read the books again...so I re-read all 4 books (with a generous amount of skimming) Saturday and Sunday.  

Yeah.  I'm doin' it Dorky-style.

So...because of my wealth of knowledge on the topic of Twilight (I use the term "wealth" lightly), I've decided to post my review of the movie.  And also because it's raining outside and I'm secretly pretending that I'm in Forks.  (Dorkalicious!!)

Stephenie Meyer clearly wrote the Twilight series with a teenage audience in mind...which is wholly appropriate considering the story involves teenagers.  The movie was also geared towards teenagers...heavily.  Very heavily.  I mean, like, totally.  

I enjoyed the movie, though not as much as I think I would have if I were younger.  The acting was fine (as with most teenage movies), but not spectacular.  I think casting was pretty good...Bella was spot-on, Edward took some getting used to, Charlie was my favorite, Jacob irritated the living daylights out of me.   

A lot of the things from the book would be amazingly hard to reproduce on film for inexperienced actors.  For instance, Robert Pattinson (who played Edward) tried to portray Edward's difficulty in smelling Bella...but I think most of the time he just came across as constipated.  Which is funny considering his diet.  You know...blood, rich in iron...Well I'm laughing anyway.  

And the pacing of the movie seemed off...another difficulty of turning the book into a film.  They just fell in love too darn fast.

The scene above, however, was great.  At the prom...talking about Bella becoming a vampire.  It was lovely.

And I'll be darned if That isn't exactly how I pictured Edward.  All cool and casual.  

But this scene above was my very favorite in the whole movie.  Edward has just saved Bella from a group of thugs in Port Angeles, and they are talking about what he is...that he can read people's minds.  You know, it's the "I feel very protective of you" scene...yeah...that one...

So after watching the movie, and re-reading the books...it dawned on me why this story is so wildly popular with teenage girls and middle-age moms alike...the love.  The throngs of teenage girls love this story because they are living it...the angst of middle school and high school, the boys, the whole atmosphere of young love.  It's such a hard time for girls...don't you remember just wanting someone to protect and love you at that age?  

Now, for the many Twilight Mom's out there...I've discovered the allure.  It's not so different from the one discussed above.  It brings us back to that time in our lives...the memories that arise in my chest are thick with detail.  The smell of my High-school cafeteria, the guy I found to be irresistible.  My first kiss.  Mostly it makes me think about when Marty and I were just dating...the breathlessness I would get from just being around him. The desperation when we were apart.  Those feelings dull after years of marriage, with kids and responsibilities washing away the passion that was once all we needed.  

So many of us out there dive into this love story for the thrill of it...the thrill of those resurrected feelings.  And for me...it serves as a wake up call in a sense:  I've gotten my Edward, why should the passion have ebbed?  So I'm going to be doing my darndest to surprise the heck out of Marty with how stinkin' romantic I can be.  I'm going to revert back to my passionate self and kiss him more, tell him more how cute I think he is, and let him know every second that I'm so grateful for who he is, and who I am with him.  

How about that?  Twilight as marital counseling?  Who woulda thunk it?