The ultimate anti-hero

When I first saw the cover of the movie Twilight at the movie rental counter of our supermarket, I was somewhat incredulous that it was actually being watched by anyone. It just looks like pure and undiluted evil. Now I know all the stuff about judging a book by its cover, but just the premise of the movie makes it automatically off my list of things to watch. I never watch horror movies, and Twilight appears to be the latest and greatest of the genre.
But I'm not going to critique the movie, since I've never seen it and I've never even read any reviews of it. But yesterday I was musing about the whole idea of a vampire being a good guy. Something about that idea is counter-intuitive for me. Vampires have (to my knowledge) always been the bad guys in stories; so what's with this new twist, of the vampire being good?
The more I thought about it, the more interesting the problem became, until finally something clicked in my head. Twilight is very subtly. . .
Well, let me back up, here.
When movies were first made, the action adventure kind (like Errol Flynn's 'Adventures of Robin Hood', and 'Capain Blood') were always basically based on the same premise: A good, likable, heroic character going around and fighting evil, tyrannous people. Being dashing and swashbuckling and gallant, rescuing ladies and eventually probably falling in love with one of them. Great plot. Granted, after three hundred movies have been made with the same plot, it might get boring; but clever movie studios always managed to throw some nice twists in there to mix it up a little. Westerns and adventures and romances and all different genres were all centered around a likable protagonist (most of the time). But a suble shift began to occur - too slowly to assign a date to - that began to develop the idea of the 'anti-hero'. Basically, a protagonist who isn't good in the pure sense of the word, he's just not so bad as everyone else so you end up rooting for him. I've never understood why people like movies like that, but it started a trend in the movie industry.
So then Harry Potter came along a few years ago, and while I don't know enough about the series to be able to judge it very well, I get the impression that Harry is actually a likable enough person. My problem with Harry Potter is that it was condoning witchcraft and occultism, and presenting evil practices as good. So it was, in a sense, an 'anti-hero' type of movie
Now along comes Twilight, and things really start to get interesting. Now, a quick background on vampires. To my understanding (and I haven't done any research, so I might be wrong) vampires are supposed to be humans that have something go wrong inside, so that they act normal in the day and at night fly around and drink blood. And they become impossible to kill except by some hocus-pocus routine, or something. So basically, vampires are presented as un-human creatures, but with human bodies. They're not human.
More than that, vampires are always presented as evil creatures. They are basically an embodiment of evil. Count Dracula certainly was not a good guy; in fact, I believe he was presented as totally evil. Vampires almost seem to be the 'artist's conception', if you will, of evil spirits embodied. So it was understood that there was not one little good thing about vampires.
But what did Twilight do? Twilight has taken a totally evil being, and made it the protagonist of a story. That could almost be called the ultimate culmination of the anti-hero idea. See how twisted that is? But wait, there's more!
In order for the viewer to have any sympathy with the protagonist (the vampire), the creator of the story had to make it a little more human-like. So now the vampire has a love interest.
Let me make a statement. Something that is totally evil cannot love. Love is an attribute of God. Evil spirits and Satan cannot love because they are alienated from God. As far as I know, mankind has a unique position as created in the image and likeness of God, but influenced by the enemy kingdom. So if a creature that is not human is evil, it is totally evil. Aside from humans, I don't think there is a single being in the universe that is not totally given over to either God or Satan.
But Twilight has taken a totally evil being, and is telling us that it found a soft spot in it's heart for a girl.
Impossible!!! A totally evil being cannot, nor would it have any inclination to, do anything of the kind!
So what Twilight is subtly suggesting is that this being is, in fact, not 100% evil.

What I see coming out of this whole Twilight-mania is an idea, slowly infecting our culture, that there is no such thing as 100% evil or good. That everything is a mixture of the two.
But let me tell you, that is not true. God is 100% good, and the enemy kingdom is 100% evil. You can't get around it. You cannot make evil good. Our culture is being taught to believe a lie through an engaging story.
Now, you may say that I'm reading through the lines too much, and maybe I am.
This is just what I see happening. . .and I thought I'd talk about it.




Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whasoever things are pure  whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Phil. 4:8

The movie is on hold for a little while

Yeah...Paul had to go to YHEC nationals over the weekend (last weekend), so he was out of town for three days. Then he gets home and I find out that he and his dad are going to Seattle to tour some kind of tractor truck factory. But that's okay, because I've just taken on a new video project that needs to done in about two weeks (if not sooner).
I need to get the project done by next week, in time for a week-long event our church does over 4th of July week.
So the movie just got bumped temporarily to 2nd priority. But I'm sure Paul won't be crushed...

****

Whoops...correction, please.
Paul just reminded me that they had YHEC state, not nationals.

My latest project...

Well, actually, it should be our latest project, because Paul (over at Youth of Chivalry) and I are working on scripting out a short film. We're kind of co-writing it....and we're planning to film it when my family goes to Oregon to visit this fall. Paul's family and mine are very close, and we always stay at their house, so we'll be able to film very easily. We'll be on set all the time.
A sample of the script:

[screen is black]
{sound of:

Paul and Peter: “DAVIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!!!!!!”

And stomping feet}
[cut in to a shot of David’s doorway, from inside]
{Paul and Peter come stomping in, visibly upset}
[camera swings right, and follows them as they march up to the desk where David is sitting]
{Peter and Paul start talking to David}

Paul: “Okay, Dave, start explaining! Our candy is missing, and we found this ridiculous note in the box…”

{Paul starts reading the note}

Paul: “If you ever want to eat your candy again, do all the chores that dad left for me. Then we can talk about terms for the return of your candy… What is this supposed to mean???”
David: “Simply what it says, gentlemen.”

Where [square brackets] indicate camera view/camera action/what the camera sees, and {squoogly brackets} indicate action by the actors/action in the frame.

That's just a little bit. There's lots more done, and even more still to be written!