I recently was forced by my insistent sister and mother to watch the two Twilight films. About a year ago, I had read both of those books to see what all the hype was about. But I stopped after the second one, deciding I had better things to fill my mind with than a book series that so blatantly manipulates the masses of teen girls who read it. To me, Twilight is like Chef Boyardee. People really like it, but it is not, by any means, quality stuff. Nor is it good for you...
When watching a film adaptation of a book, one has to realize that the film and the book are separate. If you watched these movies and said you liked them because of the interesting story, that is not due to the genius of the filmmakers. The film is not responsible for the "interesting story." That is all due to the mind of the author of the books, Stephanie Meyer (who really didn't do anything special either as I'll explain later on). Now before I focus solely on the films, I would like to delve a bit into the books.
The books do a good job at manipulating the minds of those who read them. The Author takes a concept that's been used in countless other stories: An average girl falls in love with a dreamy, guy that turns out to be a monster. He likes her too, but cares about her enough to know that she shouldn't be around him, cause she'll end up getting hurt, so he pushes her away. But in the end, "true love" conquers all.
(eg.-The Beauty and the Beast
-Every superhero movie ever made.
-The Phantom Of The Opera
-King Kong (these last too don't really follow the "love conquers all" thing, cause they end on more somber notes, with the monster not getting what he wants)
-etc...)
Along with the unoriginal story, Ms. Meyer "creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn't described in detail; that way, any female can slip into it and easily fantasize about being this person." (TheOatmeal.com) Bella has no distinguishing characteristics of either her appearance or her personality. She is only "portrayed as insecure, fumbling, and awkward." You may be thinking, "OOOH! That's ME! I'm insecure, fumbling, and awkward." Yepp...we all are. And now you've been sucked in.
So if Bella isn't really even a real character, why would Edward be so madly in love with her? That's a great question. What is there to love? Well frankly, it's basically because he thinks she smells nice. "But you - your scent, it's like a drug to me...my own personal brand of heroin." (IMSDb.com) Plus, Edward (who has the ability to read minds) for some reason cannot read Bella's thoughts. This mystery intrigues him, and he wants to figure her out...like a puzzle. Bella is Edward's Rubik's Cube. She's a game. Something out of the ordinary routine of his 109 year old life.
From now on, I'd like to focus more on things that are the responsibilities of the filmmakers. Not character or story, as I said before, because those are created by the author of the book. But everything else, basically.
The first thing I noticed when watching Twilight was the overall look. To me, It felt like a movie made by the same people who made Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, just with a slightly higher budget. The visual effects were laughable. Even within the first minute, I had to stifle a laugh, seeing a "vampire" awkwardly reach out from behind a tree and grab a jumping deer out of the air. Also, the camera movement was trying WAY too hard to look...interesting (?). So much so that it just seems silly and immature. The strange angles and movements that were used weren't stylish. They were just distracting. Finally, I'd like to bring up the costuming and makeup. On most movies I see, I completely ignore this, but on this, I couldn't. I don't think that's a good thing. The point of makeup and costume is to blend in and seem natural. However the makeup and costuming on the Cullens were just too fake and noticeable. In fact, that's how I'd describe nearly everything in this movie, "fake and noticeable." Like plastic.
Another thing is the direction of the actors. The nervous lip biting and tention-filled stares got ridiculous after a while. Plus, Kristen Stewart made me nervous the whole movie. She was always very tense and would never even seem moderately happy, even when she had every guy in the city fighting over her, and was dating a mythical creature. Every once and a while a good performance would leak out of the otherwise factory-made, and one-trick-pony-esque actors, but this was hard to find buried under their bad direction.
I was surprised to see that New Moon was much better than its predecessor. The direction was more mature and less distracting. It basically improved on every problem I had with the first movie. (it didn't entirely solve those problems, but they were, as I said, improved upon.) That is, except for one thing: the manipulation.
Jacob Black is a Native American teenager who becomes a werewolf, and joins a pack of fellow indian wolf-boys. He is best friends with Bella, the empty shell. What really steams my clams is that the wolf-boys ALWAYS have their shirts off. This is really cheap. There are countless scenes in which either Jacob or his buddies are missing their shirts, while they're doing everyday things like...eating muffins or hugging girls after jumping into their windows. Last time I checked that's not necessary, and it's just so obvious that the makers of this movie thought "This'll really get 'em in the seats!"
Also, although this is not due to the filmmakers, the story is more intriguing than that of the first movie. Instead of a story of unriquitied love with a dash of chase-scene at the end, we get a complex love triangle that reviels lots of conflicts between and within characters. We delve into Bella a bit more and flesh her out to the extent that that is possible with the empty shell she is. And we really find that she's...not very likable. She is inconsiderate, irresponsible, selfish, whiney, and slightly insane.
Although New Moon is a bit more depressing and manipulative, than Twilight, I believe that it is far better than it. I really couldn't think of anything about Twilight that was any good. Honestly though, neither of them were very good movies. But maybe I'm expecting too much out of a series of films whose only goal is getting as many teeny boppers as they can in the theater...at all costs.
Sources:
http://www.imsdb.com/scrip
http://theoatmeal.com/stor
^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I highly recommend you read the article in the link above. Very entertaining and true.
The books do a good job at manipulating the minds of those who read them. The Author takes a concept that's been used in countless other stories: An average girl falls in love with a dreamy, guy that turns out to be a monster. He likes her too, but cares about her enough to know that she shouldn't be around him, cause she'll end up getting hurt, so he pushes her away. But in the end, "true love" conquers all.
(eg.-The Beauty and the Beast
-Every superhero movie ever made.
-The Phantom Of The Opera
-King Kong (these last too don't really follow the "love conquers all" thing, cause they end on more somber notes, with the monster not getting what he wants)
-etc...)
Along with the unoriginal story, Ms. Meyer "creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn't described in detail; that way, any female can slip into it and easily fantasize about being this person." (TheOatmeal.com) Bella has no distinguishing characteristics of either her appearance or her personality. She is only "portrayed as insecure, fumbling, and awkward." You may be thinking, "OOOH! That's ME! I'm insecure, fumbling, and awkward." Yepp...we all are. And now you've been sucked in.
So if Bella isn't really even a real character, why would Edward be so madly in love with her? That's a great question. What is there to love? Well frankly, it's basically because he thinks she smells nice. "But you - your scent, it's like a drug to me...my own personal brand of heroin." (IMSDb.com) Plus, Edward (who has the ability to read minds) for some reason cannot read Bella's thoughts. This mystery intrigues him, and he wants to figure her out...like a puzzle. Bella is Edward's Rubik's Cube. She's a game. Something out of the ordinary routine of his 109 year old life.
From now on, I'd like to focus more on things that are the responsibilities of the filmmakers. Not character or story, as I said before, because those are created by the author of the book. But everything else, basically.
The first thing I noticed when watching Twilight was the overall look. To me, It felt like a movie made by the same people who made Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, just with a slightly higher budget. The visual effects were laughable. Even within the first minute, I had to stifle a laugh, seeing a "vampire" awkwardly reach out from behind a tree and grab a jumping deer out of the air. Also, the camera movement was trying WAY too hard to look...interesting (?). So much so that it just seems silly and immature. The strange angles and movements that were used weren't stylish. They were just distracting. Finally, I'd like to bring up the costuming and makeup. On most movies I see, I completely ignore this, but on this, I couldn't. I don't think that's a good thing. The point of makeup and costume is to blend in and seem natural. However the makeup and costuming on the Cullens were just too fake and noticeable. In fact, that's how I'd describe nearly everything in this movie, "fake and noticeable." Like plastic.
Another thing is the direction of the actors. The nervous lip biting and tention-filled stares got ridiculous after a while. Plus, Kristen Stewart made me nervous the whole movie. She was always very tense and would never even seem moderately happy, even when she had every guy in the city fighting over her, and was dating a mythical creature. Every once and a while a good performance would leak out of the otherwise factory-made, and one-trick-pony-esque actors, but this was hard to find buried under their bad direction.
I was surprised to see that New Moon was much better than its predecessor. The direction was more mature and less distracting. It basically improved on every problem I had with the first movie. (it didn't entirely solve those problems, but they were, as I said, improved upon.) That is, except for one thing: the manipulation.
Jacob Black is a Native American teenager who becomes a werewolf, and joins a pack of fellow indian wolf-boys. He is best friends with Bella, the empty shell. What really steams my clams is that the wolf-boys ALWAYS have their shirts off. This is really cheap. There are countless scenes in which either Jacob or his buddies are missing their shirts, while they're doing everyday things like...eating muffins or hugging girls after jumping into their windows. Last time I checked that's not necessary, and it's just so obvious that the makers of this movie thought "This'll really get 'em in the seats!"
Also, although this is not due to the filmmakers, the story is more intriguing than that of the first movie. Instead of a story of unriquitied love with a dash of chase-scene at the end, we get a complex love triangle that reviels lots of conflicts between and within characters. We delve into Bella a bit more and flesh her out to the extent that that is possible with the empty shell she is. And we really find that she's...not very likable. She is inconsiderate, irresponsible, selfish, whiney, and slightly insane.
Although New Moon is a bit more depressing and manipulative, than Twilight, I believe that it is far better than it. I really couldn't think of anything about Twilight that was any good. Honestly though, neither of them were very good movies. But maybe I'm expecting too much out of a series of films whose only goal is getting as many teeny boppers as they can in the theater...at all costs.
Sources:
http://www.imsdb.com/scrip
http://theoatmeal.com/stor
^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I highly recommend you read the article in the link above. Very entertaining and true.
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