By Lyndsey Gilpin
One inhale inside the doors of Cinema 16 theater, and hormone levels immediately increase. Teenagers, middle-aged moms, preteens and young adolescent women fill the lobby. High-pitched screams and excited whispers hang in the air. Popcorn and candy are not a priority at this point in time; everyone here has more important things on their mind.
The only thing anyone wants to know is: team Edward or team Jacob?
It’s printed on shirts, written on hands, ironed on purses. Mazes of lines hold packs of girls with fake vampire teeth, matching outfits, painted pale faces and the occasional boyfriend that has been dragged along to see the show.
It’s an hour and a half until the movie officially begins, but the lines to every theater wrap around the hallways. People slump against the wall, chattering about what the movie will be like, who’s the hottest monster in this sequel and how many times they plan on seeing the movie before it is released on DVD.
As a line slowly files inside theater seven, a girl asks everyone around her which team they are on.
“Edward, definitely!” says a blond woman, who gently tugs at her boyfriend’s hand to walk faster.
To be polite, the girl then asks the woman’s boyfriend for his opinion.
“Team ‘I don’t give a crap,'” he spits out.
He can’t be blamed. The deciding factor for voting on teams seems to be who looks better shirtless.
The theater seats around 200 people, and it’s filling up fast. Already the crowd is yelling for the movie to come on, although it won’t start for another hour.
Near the back of the theater, someone starts a cheer.
“Give me an E!” she yells.
The crowd happily obliges. They’ve been waiting almost a year for this.
“New Moon” is the second book in the Twilight saga. Bella, an 18-year-old who lives in Forks, Washington, continues her relationship with her vampire boyfriend, Edward. But when he breaks up with her, she finds herself trying to stay alive, with the help of her best friend, Jacob, a werewolf. The sequel is a little darker, filled with Bella’s depression and evil vampires set out to kill her.
The full books series has been out for a while. But it seems that there are plenty of girls who can’t get enough of the love story between Bella and Edward, and, occasionally, Jacob.
Gabby Maxedon, a junior justice administration major, has read all four books in the Twilight series twice, and was one of the many standing in line at midnight on Nov. 20.
“I think I like it because you can live vicariously through the characters,” said Maxedon. “Everyone wants their fairytale, you know?”
Many others shared the same sentiment as Maxedon, and felt that the movie portrayed the book very well.
“They had to obviously shorten the book into the movie,” said Meghan Dawson, a senior biology major. “But I think they did a good job carrying it over from the book to the movie…I think this movie is a much better portrayal of the book than the previous one was.”
These girls, along with millions of others across the country, ordered tickets in advance and stood in line for hours to see “New Moon.” They wanted the escape.
The Twilight saga has offered this escape—a journey to a world that many wish actually existed, and some pretend it does. Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series, has created a world much like the one we live in, but packed with drama, adventure and a love story that many people cannot pull themselves away from.
At 2:30 a.m., the theater doors release the masses of devoted fans. The air is filled with shrieks, gasps and chatter of when to see the movie next.
But no matter what happens in the saga, or how many times the movie is watched, the original argument remains: Edward or Jacob?
