Why I Like Twilight
By Rhea Dee
So, I’m a girl, and I like Twilight.
Why do I like it?
Is it the soap opera melodrama? Well, that’s part of it. I am a fan of ULTIMATE ANGST. (I do like Jack & Kate from Lost.)
Do I like it ironically, a kind of ‘it’s so bad it’s good’ type thing? Kind of. I mean there are some parts that are very wtf. (The last book was all wtf, all the time.) And while I’m not too serious that I can’t appreciate MST3K, I generally tend to genuinely like things that most people think are totally bad (read: almost every horror movie I love).
Do I totally WORSHIP the VAMPIRE GOD that is Edward Cullen?
Eh, no. I’m actually all about Jacob Black, the werewolf kid that vies for Bella’s heart in Books 2-3 (and a bit of 4). I even have a t-shirt that says “Team Jacob” which earns many an eye roll and “Nonono, it’s Team Edward” from random teenage girls I see across town. But that’s not to say that I hate Edward or I hate Edward and Bella together. I just really like Jacob.
The root reason that I like Twilight is something fairly simple.
The Twilight movie is like Sixteen Candles…with vampires. Or rather, a John Hughes film with vampires (I picked out Sixteen Candles ‘cause it’s my favorite). And I have been waiting for a contemporary Sixteen Candles for a very long time.
I should probably start by saying that I think the movie is better than the book. Blasphemy, right? Well, not really. You see the book isn’t really Sixteen Candles at all. The book is straight up vampire soap opera melodrama. And while I like it, I don’t love it the way I loved the movie. You see the movie eliminates my biggest problem with the book: being in Bella’s head 24/7. The book is written in a first person perspective and being in Bella’s head for that long, listening to her go on and on and ON about how Edward is a VAMPIRE GOD kind of makes me want to punch through a wall. (Now that I mention it, I actually had the same problem with Sookie Stackhouse in her book series to the point that I had to stop after Book 3. I’ll just stick to the show thanks, where there’s more Sam.) The Twilight movie is far superior; no constant Bella mind yammering.
And without the play by play thought obsession by Bella, the movie really captures the awkwardness of teenage crushdom, and the film’s high points are when they focus on the tentative yet awkward romance blooming between Edward and Bella. My favorite of these moments occurs pretty early on in the film. When Bella first meets Edward, he is literally repulsed; covering his mouth as though she smells awful (this is explained later in the movie). He then disappears for a couple of days and when he comes back he’s downright chatty. As Edward walks Bella to her locker, she asks if Edward got contacts, noting his eyes are a completely different color than the first time she saw him (a vampire thing which is also explained later). Edward stumbles over his words, telling her it’s because of the fluorescent lighting before walking away mid-sentence, leaving Bella standing at her locker totally confused. I’m really fond of awkward teenage moments (it’s because I sympathize) and this movie is chock full of ‘em. Of course Twilight is not all about the teenage awkward fest. I mean, this is supposed to be an epic love story here. But in the movie all that epic love takes a backseat to the awkward. It makes the epic love feel much more teenagery.
I always felt that Twilight (the book) kind of fell apart near the end, with the out of town killer vampire stalking Bella (which is all just a roundabout way of showing that Edward and Bella’s love is doomed or something). Unfortunately, the movie is the same way. Granted, the movie does the best it can with this weirdness, but it still comes off as bizarre. Also, during this attack, the epic love story is brought front and center which also bogs the whole thing down (like I said, it’s better lingering in the background). Luckily the movie ends with Edward and Bella attending the prom, so we get to end with some of that oh so sweet awkwardness.
There’s this song by Snow Patrol called “Spitting Games” which I think perfectly sums up the feelings and rampant emotions of Twilight’s teenage love story:
I broke into your house last night
And left a note by your bedside
I’m far too shy to speak to you at school
You leave me numb and I don’t know why
Kind of emo, kind of creepy, kind of awkward, yet filled with an enduring enthusiasm towards young love. That’s Twilight. And that’s why I love it.
Oh, and the actor playing Edward WAS gorgeous, I’m willing to admit it. But, I thought he was gorgeous way back in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. So I’m not really dazzled all too much.
Well, maybe a just a little.
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Rhea Dee teeters between hipster and geek (at least that’s what that one quiz said). She spends her time collecting vintage junk, daydreaming about Eli Roth, and pondering the genius of John Carpenter soundtracks. She really likes horror films.
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No, you're right. The movie was better than the book…since the screenwriter and director decided to add a plot to the first half of the movie. Imagine that! lol
Given how much I like the vampire (and related creatures) mythos, I probably should like Twilight, but I just can't. When the craze of the books hit, I had the same instinctive recoil that I did during the early days of Harry Potter. I still haven't read any of those either.
Now that the movie is out on DVD, a friend and I agreed to get together with some other folks last weekend and watch it for the first (and hopefully the last) time. We couldn't get five minutes into it before the MST3K snarking commenced. It was so painful to watch. Maybe it is an honest portrayal of teen angst, but I'm old enough that all the whining is mostly just annoying. And Edward is supremely creepy to me, what with all the stalking and staring and ranting about how he loves her so much he wants to eat her (and not in way that would be fun for her). We pretty much agreed that the most interesting storyline in the whole thing was Bella's dad and his apparent drinking problem.
In conclusion, I am old and set in my ways. These kids today need to stop moping and putting themselves in stupidly dangerous situations. (And get off my lawn.) And for the love of all that's unholy, vampires burst into flame in sunlight. No more crappy CGI sparkling!!!
I like Twilight also and I am absolutely Team Jacob although I also don't have a problem with Edward and Bella. I wondered if the movie worked better also because Stephanie Meyer gave Robert Pattinson her unfinished Edward novel where it's all told from his perspective. He had tons of insight into Edward's head that the reader of Twilight didn't.
The book might have been better if she wrote Edward's point of view into it in the first place since Bella's perspective did get a tad annoying.
How DARE you not be DAZZLED by Edward!
But seriously, the CGI sparkling is hilarious/cringe worthy. In the books I was able to glaze over it…but I will admit, it is frakking rediculous in the film. Have you ever seen Arrested Development? One of my friends pointed out that the vampire sparkles was very similar to Tobias Funke's diamond cream…SO TRUE.
I don't know if the movie is an honest portrayal of teen angst, but it did have teen angst that I could relate to (at least more than some other recent teen movies). In a way, it's kind of weird that I think this movie does teen angst well, since I can not stand the director's other teen angst-y film, Thirteen.
And on a slightly unrelated note, I am still to this day dissapointed with how Harry Potter ended. JK Rowling betrayed me. BETRAYED.
I know! I didn't realize how much meandering around there was in the book until I saw the film.
Team Jacob yay! There are DOZENS of us. DOZENS.
R.Patz (as all the fangirls call him) did a good job, I think. As did Kristen Stewart–I think she did a good job playing t subtle. At the midnight showing (yes I was there) I remember a teen girl sitting in front of me complaining that Bella didn't blow up at her Dad when he told he'd called her Mom (after her almost accident where Edward stopped the car), like in the book. Instead she just seem internally aggrevated and I thought "Wow, that's much better." Hence, one of the many reasons I think the movie is superior.
sweet article
Wow! I am freaked out by how much this article reflects my exact thinking…too much "same brain" going on here! I enjoyed the Twilight books (hated the last one, actually) for what they were: page-turning vampire romance. I, too, was annoyed being too much in Bella's head, though. And, I am firmly Team Jacob, because I like him and kind of find the Bella-Edward obsession creepy. I thought the movie perfectly distilled the emotion of the book. And, agree that the plotting was made tighter – and in some ways better. But, I was a little embarrassed by the misty, Senior picture, romantic camera shots and too much lingering continuous shots of Bella-Jacob "eye-molesting." While reading the book, you don't HAVE to picture that part!
Yay! Same brain ftw! Yay for that seriously, cause I find that a lot of fans of the books/movie often say this "I love the books but they're terrible literature" or "I love the books but only as a guilty pleasure." To quote Pee Wee Herman, there's always a big but. And what for? You can like Twilight without having to get into some super defense mode. And really, it doesn't matter how much you backpedal–if people hate Twilight they're going to keep hating Twilight no matter how you frame your like for the series. So I wanted to write something about how I honestly feel about Twilight, with no buts or excuses.
But, I was a little embarrassed by the misty, Senior picture, romantic camera shots
My least favorite was the swirling around the couple forest scene where Bella figures out Edward is a vampire. WHY movie WHY.
It's nice to find some positive words about Twligfht somewhere outside of my own articles on it! XD I'm starting to feel like I'm going to be tarred and feathered at the next con I go to.
Although there are notable differences between you and I — I didn't hate the movie, but I like the book much better, mostly because while Pattinson is pretty, he and Stewart seemed too wooden (well, aside from the fact that Stweart was very twitchy). The hospital scene was painfully bad to me. And I'm hard-core Team Edward (which is wierd, given that I am generally a far bigger werewolf lover than I am a vampire-lover).
The fact that the vampires sparkle didn't actually bother me in the book, but man, did it look hokey on film. XD
Have you read Midnight Sun? I hope she finishes it someday, as I like what there is of it best out of the series. Actually, my oder of liking them is in order of publication, Breaking dawn second-best, Eclipse third-best, and so on. I kinda hope she'll do them *all* from Edward's perspective.