Twilight (2008)

Although I'm into the books, I kind of hate myself for it because they're clumsily written and the relationship at the center is truly shallow. I admit that I'm a sucker for "true love," but I've never been convinced that Bella & Edward possess that pure emotion -- he seems drawn to her by smell only and she is transfixed by his oft-mentioned inhuman beauty. So, they're each obsessed with the other's physicality and it's hard to see any romance in that. I mean, we'd tut-tut at a story that had a guy chasing a chick because of her huge ta-tas, right?

The more interesting angle of the book is the possibility of vampires living as a family that overcomes their dangerous instincts. Unfortunately, the movie focuses most strongly on the "relationship" between Edward and Bella and suffers for it. Basically, the good news is that it was much better than I expected it to be. The not so good news? I was expecting it to be pretty crappy.

C+