twilight

So the final count down begins to the release of Breaking Dawn. Teenage girls everywhere are lining up, going to midnight release parties and getting set to read until dawn at their local Chapters store. Me, well I am indeed pretty frigging excited. I didn't pick up the Twilight series until this summer and had the bonus of reading one after another without months of waiting between issues. It's not often you get an entire summer of escapist literature handed to you like that. So I'm excited, yes I pre-ordered my copy and yes I'll likely devour it all right away. But no parties for this girl I'm afraid.



Let's discuss the movie for a moment. Twilight is set to be released December 12th, 2008. Of course, when a book describes its characters in such exhaustive detail, all eyes are on the casting of the lead characters. In my opinion, I think the overall casting of this movie is total crap. Of course, not having seen the movie they could turn out to be amazing but based on looks alone, it just doesn't seem like they tried hard enough. First the obvious, Edward the vampire. In the books he's described as so incredibly beautiful it's unnatural. In your head you have this picture of this strong, gorgeous man with that edge of something not quite right. And who do they cast? Robert Pattinson, the same guy that played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter. The same guy who looks like that creepy guy in the bar who asked to buy you a drink. The same guy who looks like he could get beat up by a girl. I don't believe him as Edward for one second. He looks 13 years old and is just not, not, not a handsome enough guy. Not by a longshot.

And of course there is always the guy that was the first choice, Henry Cavill, the insanely handsome actor who plays Charles Brandon in The Tudors. This is a guy who looks the part. He's so dreamy it should be illegal, he actually looks like he could throw a punch and looks a bit like a vampire even without any make-up. This is the Edward Cullen from my head. Not the sissy looking boy with the "I'm so serious look me pretending to be a vampire" pretty boy face.
Seriously, look at this man. This is a man you'd believe to be a level of handsome not found normally in nature.


As for everyone else, I don't get it. The Rosalie character is again someone who's described as being so over-the-top beautiful that people can't even look at her without feeling uncomfortable. Nikki Reed, while a pretty girl, is not that level of pretty. To top it off, she can't carry the blonde hair at all and it just looks like a giant fake wig.

Same with Ashley Greene who plays Alice, not the image in my head at all. I was picturing an Angelina Jolie type from Hackers -- super short pixie hair, abnormally gorgeous features, pale skin. Not this 13 year old girl annoying girl next door look they've given her.

And don't even get me started on the guy playing Jasper -- he looks like a useless frat boy summering on his parents' yacht! At least the guy playing Emmett isn't a total loss -- he looks mildy tough.

The only redeeming casting choice seems to be Kristen Stewart as Bella. She has that clueless innocent look about her and although she's got a voice like a truck driver, I think she'll do alright.
All in all, the movie should be some good fluff movie watching and who doesn't love a good vampire movie? Hell, who doesn't love a bad vampire movie for that matter? It is what it is.