Friday night, crazy devoted Twilight fans lined up outside of Hot Topic at the Tempe Marketplace for the exclusive Midnight Release Party, open only to those who pre-ordered a copy of the special 2-Disc Hot Topic edition of the movie. It was packed inside the tiny store as a hundred or so ticket holders streamed in, grabbing free Twilight posters and purchasing Twilight merchandise.
Everyone's jumped on the Twilight cash cow, er, bandwagon, these days -- with everything from Twilight jewelry to Twilight thong underwear -- but we admit Hot Topic had a killer selection. We're talking old-timey-looking Twilight baseball uniforms, key chains, necklaces, patches, pillowcases with Edward's face on them...Sigh. Sadly, one of us may or may not have been coveting this life-size cutout of Edward. (We can neither confirm or deny that rumor, of course.)
Not all of the teen vampire flick's fans were tweens. Mary and Lori, pictured above, saw the movie first and loved it so much that they each read the book series twice and have seen the movie a combined total of 25 times. What exactly do adult women get out of this, besides the ability to have guilt-free fantasies about a dude who looks 17 but is really older than their grandparents? "After finishing the book, it's the way you feel," says Lori. "It's getting back to that youth, remembering what it was like to be a teenager."
What hasn't changed? The distinct lack of men. Well, except for the couple of pitiful looking dudes on the sidewalk outside the store waiting for their girlfriends/daughters/wives to finish up with this silliness. The New Times did catch up with one guy who'd actually read all 4 books though. No, really. We swear.
We know you're holding your breath to know... what did he think? "Compared to Stephen King and J.K. Rowling and most formula fantasy I've read, it wasn't that good," says Campbell. "It was enjoyable, but it's fluffy. There's no depth." Good thing no one but his family heard that one, or our blog headline might've read "Twilight Non-Believer Mauled by Rabid Fans."
What all the fuss was about: A limited edition reproduction film cell from the movie, available only through Hot Topic. There are 250 different film stills of Edward out there, each with an edition of 1500. Somehow, we wouldn't be surprised if an obsessed Twerd somewhere was trying to track down all 250 film cells on E-bay the next day.
