It's unofficial poll time. I want to know whether your blood is up for Twilight, the Stephenie Meyer bestseller of near Harry Potter proportions that hits the multiplex as a movie on Nov. 21st. I won't see it until three days before the opening, which is usually a sign that something sucks. I mean, if it's good why does a studio have to hide it? Most guys I know say they haven't read the book because the girly story about a teen virgin, Bella Swan, in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen, is an offense to their macho sensibilities. Despite the guy aversion to Twilight and its three bestselling sequels (New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn), these manly men seem to know an awful lot about what happens in the saga of the ever-youthful Cullen family and their civilized decision to hunt animal predators for blood instead of humans. They know enough to say that the book's lack of hardcore sex is a turnoff. They prefer HBO's True Blood where vampires get it on with humans every 20 seconds or so. Women are more honest about the book's romantic appeal. They can see beyond Meyer's breathless overwriting to discover the book's hidden power: the fears it raises about aging. Bella is eager for Edward to bite her since that will make her a vampire and freeze her for centuries at the primo age of seventeen. But what will she have to give up? So obviously there's more to Twilight than vapid vamping. Which leads me to ask these biting questions:
Did you read the book? And if so, what did you think of it?
Did the Twilight trailer excite your appetite for the movie or kill it?
What do you think of the casting of Kristen Stewart, the 18-year-old actress best known as Emile Hirsch's wild crush in Into the Wild, as Bella? And what about Robert Pattinson, a 22-year-old Brit best known as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as Edward?
Will Twilight be a blockbuster or a bust?
Let's predict now and compare notes later.