About two years ago, a good friend of mine and former roommate from college (a very attractive girl) invited me to go see “Twilight: New Moon.” She’d read all the books and seen the first movie, and this was her second viewing of the second movie. I figured, “Whatever.” I should’ve figured, “SHOOT ME NOW!”

I’d heard how bad the first movie was, so I thought I was sufficiently prepared. Sparkling vampires? OK, stupid.. but OK. A stupid girl who spends probably half the movie screaming and crying obsessively about Edward the vampire leaving her? Unforgivable. Poor acting from both her and Edward? Even more unforgivable.

The only redeeming part of the movie was the character of Alice. The actress acted well for the crap dialog and script handed to her.

Now, now, before you hate (though I doubt anyone who enjoys the movies reads this), I have heard that the books are much better. Hell, books of pretty much any movie are better than the movie versions. But let’s look at the plot that persists even into the books.

The character of Bella is a poor role model for anyone in the world. She’s a whiny girl who can’t function without some guy to protect her. I know not the plot of the movies, but I’ve heard that when Bella and Edward have sex, she’s left with marks. So the story condones beating and violence of a woman just because he’s a bit stronger and can’t hold back?

Then she becomes pregnant with a freak baby that’s growing abnormally fast and is going to kill her from the inside. She insists on keeping it?

I hear that the appeal of the story of Twilight is that of love. Tell me if this is love. A 55-year-old guy starts hanging around with a girl, acting all cool and gets the girl to fall for him. Only problem is she’s 17. Now imagine the guy is 100+ years old and she’s still 17. That’s Twilight! It’s about pedophilia.

Edward is a vampire born in 1901 (Wikipedia) who retains the body of a 17-year-old. HE’S A PEDOPHILE. It’s not about love, but about an older man preying on a young girl.

The Twilight series should be on the banned books list.