Twilight

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There are particulars in the movie that engages its audience, and evokes some sense of identification, which I believe goes beyond Twilight being just a hot pick on popular culture. I watched Twilight on its first day of showing and read the book as well. Though many vampires stories/movies are shown, this one stood out because Stephenie Meyer's presents a vampire identity that could "live", have a life, to love and be loved, to have a family who loves and protects you, to have outdoor activities (i.e. family baseball) without being cursed by your fellow vampires. Meyer's vampires world derives its plot elements from some of the most classic love plots - and the experience of love itself. This makes Meyer's vampires world attractive to its audience, since love is the most engaging theme of all. Some of the romance plot elements used by Meyer are: a.) A girl from a broken family - searching for love, finding someone to take care of her (which is mentioned in the novel that Bella is not used to expressing emotions and receiving emotions from anyone.) b.) The boy who finds the girl who stands out, and then protecting her till the end (like a Prince Charming turned undead) - the stories that use these technique are too many to count. c.) The supportive family of a "different" love choice d.) The discovery of another world through the lover - think "A Whole New World" and "Part of Your World". All of these are cliche. Those who abhor anything cliche would frown at the seemingly shallow narrative. But when I was at the moviehouse, whenever the lines like "You are my personal brand of heroine (or something like that)" or "I lack the strength to keep away from you (or something like that again)" gets delivered, the audiences swoon. And I think, come on, if someone says those lines to you, you'd probably get swept off your feet too. So the cliche works. The plot elements are still effective. They might be overused, but weaving them together in a modern-day story with a vampire element does make the difference enough to establish Meyer's world in contemporary fiction. The movie is worth watching - precisely because you'd find a part of you that would identify to the love story - whether that's a good thing or not. (And besides, the vampires were hot - especially Dr. Cullen. I think the audience didn't expect him to be THAT hot. Everybody, including me, swooned when he first appeared on the screen. But that's just the girl me.)