***Twilight Move Spoiler Alert!***

Funny thing is that if you're concerned about spoiling the movie, then you probably have not read the books (like me) and thus might not even be interested in the movie, so you would not care if I spoiled it for you! And if you do want to see the movie, you've probably already read the books in which case, I'm not really spoiling anything.

I'm fairly positive I was one of the few people in the sold out theater this evening to see the first showing of Twilight in Arizona that had not read the book! The theater was packed with mostly teenage girls, but there were several boys and at least one grown man (that I saw). Some were dressed in prom gear to earn a free Twilight poster. Some, including members of my party (my mom, sister, aunt and her friend Jody) were donning "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" gear - t-shirts and stickers alike. There was cheering and "ooooohhhhoooo"ing during specific scenes. In fact, it made it more exciting for me; as certain characters were introduced and the audience recognized them from the teen novel there was cheering. I would turn with excitement at each entrance and look at my mom as if she truly was going to interrupt things to tell me who each one was.

I found myself instantly sucked in. So here's the plot. Girl moves from Phoenix (the author of the series lives in Cave Creek, raking in the revenue now) to Washington state to live with her father. Her parents are divorced. She is pale. At the high school there is a clan of children adopted by a local doctor who are all pale with incredibly dark eyes. I have to admit, when Edward (one of the adopted boys) entered scene, my heart skipped a beat. The teens around me giggling made me feel like I was 14 all over again! Edward and Bella (girl from PHX) make friends awkwardly. Turns out, Edward is a vampire! He saves Bella's life by stopping a car from hitting her with his bare hands. Then, Bella becomes suspicious of Edward and it turns out her friend Jacob has some answers, but won't reveal all the dirt on Edward. So Bella goes to a book store to buy a book about the local "lore". As she leaves the book store, she is about to attacked by a group of older, drunk men when OUT OF NOWHERE there is *gasp* Edward! Once again, he saves her life. And much to my dismay, I am eating this shit up!

They fall in love, from what I can ascertain, because Bella is "not scared" of Edward, although she now knows he's a vampire. He's come out of the closet to her, so to speak. He uses his super speed and jumping abilities to take her places she's never been before, like mountain and tree tops with beautiful Washington state scenery.

Edward is conflicted though. He and his family have trained themselves not to feed on human flesh, but rather to kill and eat animals. They are the vegetarians in the vampire realm. Every moment with Bella is torture for him because although he loves her, he wants to kill her at the same time (kinda like some relationships I've been in). But again, she is "not scared." She says something to this affect multiple times to reassure him. I'd be asking more so, "Do you feel like killing me right now?" If he replied, "no" then I'd say reassuringly, "I'm not scared." But alas, Bella has the trust of a teenage girl. Oh, those were the days when I would trust a vampire... And I digress.

So basically, I swoon every time Edward saves Bella's life and secretly wish for her to sacrifice her normal life for him to bite her pale, white neck. Much to my disappointment, there is no sex in the books, nor the movie. However, there is a HOT kiss scene where Edward tells Bella he wants to kiss her, but that he does not know if he can control his urge... to kill her. I wanted him to "kill" her a few times. There is the sexy image of him pushing her back on to her bed and crawling on top of her, but then he loses it and has to stop. Seems to me like many a "normal" teenage make out scene where the guy has to use "willpower" to stop himself. I suppose this is a good message for young men.

However, there is a finally a climax... to the plot with a big vampire battle and Edward saves Bella's life for the third or forth time; I lost count. And he finally gets to suck her blood to save her life - this is the twist I won't explain. But it's another good scene.

Much like Edward, I, myself, am conflicted. I was so viscerally affected by the movie that I found my heart beating faster and butterflies in my stomach.

However, Bella is very one-dimensional. Sure, she is brave to date a vampire, but she is in constant need of saving and is portrayed as weak and meager. Twilight teaches 14-year old girls all over the world that there will be a man (or vampire) there to save you. Continue reading and fantasizing because it's not exactly like that in real life. Although there is a scene in the end where she uses pepper spray in attempt to fend off a predator, it does not, apparently, work on vampires. Finally, she tries to save herself, but again, Bella needs saving. This is the wrong message to send young women. But it works. And I don't like it!

But I do. The small part of me that wouldn't mind a man to save her came out tonight with butterflies and made my heart beat faster.