Confession:  I saw the first two Twilight films but not the first part of Breaking Dawn.

Today I needed a break from grading papers and sneaked away for a matinee, or maybe I wanted the possibility of feeling like a teenager again.

If you are a regular reader, you know that I’m no Twihard.  I tried to read the first book while using the elliptical at the Y a few years ago and couldn’t stay engaged.

The first movie made me think that I would have loved it when I was 13-years-old.  The second movie offended my feminist sensibilities with the passive Bella and the two beasts fighting over her, not to mention the glorification of broken hearts and teen suicide (dangerous territory for the young viewers).

The issues I have with this film are a bit different.  The effects seem cheesy.  Jacob imprinting on a baby is weird.  There is a narrative device that I won’t reveal because to do so would be a spoiler, but if you remember the original television series Dallas and what happened when Bobby got out of the shower or Bob Newhart at the conclusion of Newhart, then you know what I’m talking about.  Well, what do I expect?  We are talking about Twilight!

Worth noting is that our leading lady Bella certainly makes up for lost time after she becomes a vampire.  No longer passively waiting for Jacob and Edward to fight it out and repeatedly rescue her, she’s a woman of action now.  The movie isn’t very good, really, but I do understand its appeal on multiple levels.

Who wouldn’t like to find the perfect love and, as a bonus, for it to be eternal?  I confess, a couple sequences sucked me right in even though I know better.  Yes, I know, I know, I really do know better and kept reminding myself of that even as I felt a bit of an emotional response a couple of times (against my will and better judgment) and ended up feeling like a 15-year-old by the time the end credits started to roll (the more mature content of this film aged me a couple of years from the way I related to the first movie!).

There will be no apology, however, for falling madly in love with the lush locations.  I noted the natural beauty in the first couple of films, but it wasn’t until I vacationed in the Seattle area over the summer and spent a day on the Olympic Peninsula (I could spend much more time there) to visit Olympic National Park that I made the connection to Twilight.  No Hollywood magic here; those locations are stunning in their own right.

What can I say about the movie in the final analysis?  People who love the franchise will probably love it, and people who resist or simply don’t understand what the hoopla is about will be well-advised to stay home.

As my son said when he was four-years-old, “It is what it is, and it does what it does.”  And, so it does…