Twilight... (Don't shoot me yet! Read the thread first!)

[Mozared]

So I just saw the Twilight movie.

And I just can't figure out what all the negative fuss was about! For the past couple of months people have been making fun about the story, the 'sparkly vampires', how lame it was and how the whole franchise was just absolute shite. But now that I've actually seen the movie, I sincerely wonder why. Sure - this was far from the best movie I've ever seen, there were awkward dialogues, editing issues etc, but IMDB gives the movie a 6 and I quite agree with that.

For someone who knows absolutely nothing about the franchise (aside from the fact that it's about vampires), the story was interesting and the actors seemed fine. You just have to be able to live with the fact that people showing emotions take up 3/4th of the film and a lame action sequence takes up the last 30 minutes.

So I ask you, Escapists, to partially quote Yahtzee, 'What has it done to earn so much ire from the community?'. Is it something I'm missing? Are the books perhaps ten times as worse as the movie (seeing as I haven't read them)? Why exactly is it 'that bad'?

 

[Sassafrass]

Prepare for the sparkly vamp and emo romance excuses.
I enjoyed it too. I enjoyed it for what it was, a work of fiction.

 

[Aesir23]

*puts on a fireproof suit* One of the reasons why so many people hate it so much is BECAUSE it's so popular and people like to be different.

For me, I dislike it simply because it's not my type of book and I wasn't particularly fond of the writing. That and the last book seemed more like a badly written piece of fanfiction because the plot had been done by fanfiction authors about a million times over.
However, the books aren't extremely bad and neither is the movie. But neither are they excellent and worth the obsessive devotion these fangirls have for them.

 

[Julianking93]

Because its just a mediocre movie that takes itself way too seriously and who's fans are the biggest problem.

I have nothing really against Twilight. To me, its just an average movie (I read the book first, so, an average book) that deserves nothing more than a D+, but its the fan girls I hate who make it out to be the greatest thing ever when its so poorly written that it might as well be fan fiction.

This is the same problem I had with Titanic. There's nothing particularly wrong with the movie, but the fans are what drives me crazy.

Its not the best movie in the world, its not the best book in the world, its just average, so just shut the fuck up about it you stupid fan girl twat! (not directed at OP)

 

[Random Argument Man]

Well... I could make a small list

-The analogy between these "vampires" and the classic ones.
-The fanbase.
-The movie was.....You already mentionned it.

 

[Aura Guardian]

So I just saw the Twilight movie.

And I just can't figure out what all the negative fuss was about! For the past couple of months people have been making fun about the story, the 'sparkly vampires', how lame it was and how the whole franchise was just absolute shite. But now that I've actually seen the movie, I sincerely wonder why. Sure - this was far from the best movie I've ever seen, there were awkward dialogues, editing issues etc, but IMDB gives the movie a 6 and I quite agree with that.

For someone who knows absolutely nothing about the franchise (aside from the fact that it's about vampires), the story was interesting and the actors seemed fine. You just have to be able to live with the fact that people showing emotions take up 3/4th of the film and a lame action sequence takes up the last 30 minutes.

So I ask you, Escapists, to partially quote Yahtzee, 'What has it done to earn so much ire from the community?'. Is it something I'm missing? Are the books perhaps ten times as worse as the movie (seeing as I haven't read them)? Why exactly is it 'that bad'?

Apparently, people love vampires too much that this movie/book ruined their views on vampires and think her views are just stupid. It was an ok movie despite being very under bugdet but people think that their views on vampires are superior to her views. And opinion doesn't equal fact. I'll also add that the fans of the series aren't helping. They think it's the greatest thing ever and continue to do so by bragging about it. And the haters of the series aren't helping either.

 

[Empireth]

Actually, it was also all of the corniness of the movie.
There was more than one time when I said aloud what a character repeated.
It was really dumb.

And, you know, the fact that Meyer left behind all traces of vampire lore and made them sparkely and shit. She essentially de-vampirized them, but decided to call them the same name.
Kinda like the new Guns'n'Roses. They're only GnR cause they've still got Axl, and they thus have the rights to play the songs.

...I just compared Twilight to Guns'n'Roses.
Shoot me now.

 

[Dark Knifer]

I don't really have a problem with it, just the people who talk about it. If it's one thing I hate, its fan boys/girls.

 

[sariadragon]

it has gained so much ire because it has become a popular thing complete with screaming fangirls and has totally distroyed what it used to be, just another take on vampires. before it became a movie and uber popular, it was actually cool

 

[quiet_samurai]

I honestly don't really care about Twilight at all. I read the first book years ago when it first came out because someone here at work was reading it. After reading it I thought "Eh... cheesy high school love story with vampires....next." I was actually really shocked at how popular it became when the movie was announced and the fact that there are even more books after the first one. I actually completely forgot about it entirely until the last year or so.

The only time I ever made fun of something realted to Twilight is when a few of my friends bought the DVD's. But that's because they are my friends and they deserve it.

So for me it;'s no big deal, I;'m not one of those people that freaks out when sombody likes something different then I.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

It seems to be the fanatacism of the fangirls that draw out my ire for the series itself. Sure, the story itself is absurdly, excruciatingly mediocre, but it gets on my nerves when some girls tout it as the "bestt seriez EVAR." Also, the fanbase behind Edward Cullen is insulting. Why so many girls think he is perfect, that sociopathic, bipolar, emo, awkward stalker, it is beyond me.

EDIT:

It also doesn't help that Mrs. Meyer took vampires and made them, for lack of a better term, lame. I'm alright with an author taking creative liberties with an already established intellectual property. Alucard of Hellsing didn't necessarily follow the rules that Dracula of, well, Dracula followed, but he resembled vampires of the older myths enough to say that there is a definite resemblance, but at the same time, he was something completely different (and fucking rad).

Meyer's vampires just kind of... suck. The liberties she takes with the vampire archetypes add nothing interesting to the mix. In fact, those liberties taken by herself are not only uninteresting, but silly.

 

[LeonLethality]

I can't say vampires are cool without being called a twilight fan anymore... they ruined awesomeness for me...

 

[Spleenbag]

I don't have any problem with people liking whatever they want to like. Part o' my little philosophy, that.

What I do have a problem with is the rabid fans who shove it down peoples' throats. That's all, really. I read the first book for the hell of it and it wasn't ridiculously shitty. It wasn't a great work of literature by any stretch but it was at least readable and very mildly interesting.

 

[Artemorus]

it's beecause people wan't to retain the cape wearing, slicked back hair vampires. not emo douche bags who take their shirts of and twinkle like little pansys and don't drink the blood of the women who want to get Bumsen herauf den Esel.

 

[ethaninja]

Please tell me your a woman. If you are a man, SHAME ON YOU. What kind of vampire fucking sparkles?

-.-

 

[Versagen]

Eh.
The books were mediocre at best and the movie was a little better, if nothing else but because it was so funny. The writing was horrible, but it kept me interested. And in the movie the actors all looked as if they were dead inside, so it made the cheesy "romantic" lines comedic gold.

I think what I dislike the most is the author's arrogance; she insults other authors and anyone who doesn't have the same opinion of her and then runs and hides behind her brother.

That and the crazy fans; some of them believe that Twilight is the best series ever written and they'll hunt you down and kill you if you say otherwise. It makes it hard not to sneer at every copy of the damned book I see.

 

[Xanian]

Several reasons why I hate it;

1. I'm a high school Educational therapist who had to hear about it for hours. Slowly driving me crazy...

2. I hate the whole romance novel genre.

3. Doubly so when it's a movie...

4. I particularly hate it when the "tall mysterious stranger" is a vampire.

5. I hate the idea of eternally beautiful people feeling "so-wy" for themselves because they're too damn pretty, strong, awesome, etc.

6. It fuels Hollywood's desire to make mediocre romance movies over and over again in favor of profits, instead of putting their money into something with any thought or death.

7. Oh yes, and I have mad, passionate love for movie dialogue, something the movie not only failed at, but made okay to fail at.

So there it is. Compound it repeatedly by the fact that my students won't stop talking about the new one, and yes...I hate it.

 

[Wayte]

The movie is ok actually. Like all movies-from-books it misses some details, but this makes it better because it exclude my main reason for hating it. I used to hate it because:
1.Ed was a possessive toolbag,
2.the sparkly vampires,
and 3. supposedly bad story.

However after reading it I've changed my tune on those points:

1. Vampires are supposed to be possessive toolbags. Its their thing.
2. Fantasy is flexible, and anybody who argues one version of it is missing the point.
and again 3. Its about Harry Potter level as far as writing, and i loved Harry Potter.

I still hate Twilight though, because Bella is a shallow, um, girl. (ya lame, myoriginal word would most likely get me in toruble.) Within 20 pages she's turned down 3 perfectly nice guys, understandable on its own. But then the stunning Ed gives her a look and she attains the vaginal equivalent to Noagra Falls. Its not even a nice or a funny look, its a look of deep confusing hatred.
I'm not saying main characters need to be perfect. But those flaws are supposed to be addressed in the least, and fixed at best. But Bella's blatant superficiality is just sort of ignored, like we're supposed to sympathize with somebody so obviously broken. THAT'S why I hate Twilight.

 

[Dys]

It cops so much shit because it's cool to hate. See also; Halo, Greenday and Republicans.

 

[Mozared]

And, you know, the fact that Meyer left behind all traces of vampire lore and made them sparkely and shit. She essentially de-vampirized them, but decided to call them the same name.

This is what I hear more often, but it's no reason for me to *seriously* hate something. I just thought it was an interesting take on vampires.

Take Trolls for example. In the Warcraft universe they are muscly obscenely agile green/blue men with a mohawk, jamaican accent and throwing axe. Now I can complain that Warcraft's Trolls are different from the traditional 'huge lumbering beasts' (à la LOTR) idea, but frankly, do I care? It's just another take on what a 'Troll' is, really.

Regardless, because of all the hate I went into the movie with a fairly strong idea that it was going to suck, and really was pleasantly surprised. It's something you have to like (and 'depressive' is really the only word that can describe the movie), but I was definitely entertained for 2 hours.

As for the fangirls; hate for those I can understand, but I can't really relate it to Twilight. I hate mindless fanbois/girls regardless of what exactly they're a fan off. It's the fact that they're being mindless that makes me hate them.