I, ALEC...

...am a proud member of the Volturi. I live in Volterra. I have special powers. And, most important of all, I am kind of a big deal. I'm one of the Volterra Wonder Twins, and my sister and I are totally kick-ass leaders of The Guard. You're jealous, I know.

I'm sorry. I totally just hallucinated.

But speaking of my brief moment of Volterra-esque obsession, I was actually quite shocked to find that amazon.com came through on its promise of bringing the Twilight DVD to my doorstep today. I feel like an effin' champ. The DVD came out today, and rumors of midnight release parties happening all over the nation was rampant.

It's not that I really loved the movie that much. In fact, it's actually pretty awful. But fortunately I read the book (and the three that follow it), and have found a vested interest in the movie for what it was worth: bringing the story of Twilight to life.

I, personally, don't think that I agree wholeheartedly with the overall cast of the film, let alone its direction. But it still does bring the story to life, so to speak. The only character that I felt was casted perfectly was 'Jessica Stanley' (portrayed by Anna Kendrick). I honestly felt the same annoyance with Kendrick's rendition of Jessica's annoyingness as I did when I read the book. Robert Pattinson is, for me, 'Edward Cullen,' although I personally wouldn't have originally picked him to play the role. But he's got the angst down to a science. And you can't really argue about Taylor Laughton as 'Jacob Black,' as well as Jackson Rathbone as 'Jasper Hale.' It's just too bad that the movie Jasper wasn't given as much of a time to shine as the book version did.

The rest of the cast was filled with many questionable choices. At the top of the list: Kristin Stewart as 'Bella Swan.' Bella's character is annoying as it is in the book. Stewart's version of Bella makes her annoyance 101%-more pronounced with her breathiness, her always-open mouth, and her lame facial expressions. Ashley Green wasn't pixie enough to be 'Alice Cullen.' Justin Chon was certainly not who I had in mind for 'Eric Yorkie.' And Peter Facinelli as 'Dr. Carlisle Cullen' was weird for me. I kept hearing "Trip McNeely!!!" in my head everytime 'Carlisle' came on-screen. So weird.

And the movie was riddled with poor dialogue, which was a shame since the book wasn't filled with such lameness (I guess we have screenwriter, Melissa Rosenburg, to blame for that). Of course there were a few lines that came straight out of the book, but for the most part that was not the case. It's a good thing that Catherine Hardewicke will not be directing New Moon. While her attempt at making Twilight was truly a nice one, it fell short on so many levels. If you watch the movie, you will note this quite obviously.

At any rate, I bought the DVD. Call it a personal act of loyalty to the phenomenon, which I still cannot believe has affected me as it has. And today, the day that the DVD was released, was special in a way. My sis, her friend Mai, my roomie Ning, and I sort of made an evening of it. We made dinner, drank beer (Peroni!), watched through disc 2, and then saw the movie again (we had all seen it in theaters prior). We laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, but yet were still entertained.

Twi-dinner: Meatloaf "muffin," rice and grilled squash/zucchini

The phenomenon has now come full-circle. My sights are now on New Moon. Chris Weitz, please do us proud.