Due to Recent events, I feel I should give my honest opinion on the media phenomenon we all know and love, Twilight. Now, I did actually see this movie over the weekend, and saw the first one, but I never read the books(thankfully). First here are some observations I noticed about this phenomenon:
- There is no plot.
- Well there is a plot but its similar to a sitcom and is incredibly small and bad.
- Edward is abusive and controlling.
- Bella is an idiot.
- Bella is kind of a bitch.
- Girls will watch anything if they think the guys are hot.
- Twilight is great to make fun of.
With my ranting and my opinion out of they way, I'd like to comment on the franchise of Twilight. Over the weekend I noticed a Burger King commercial which advertised Team Edward and Team Jacob water bottles you can get for a limited time. Not only is Twilight and Burger King capitalizing on the release of New Moon, it is taking a concept that was completely developed out of fandom. Although this is similar to the "shipping wars" of relationships in Harry Potter where fans would argue about what relationship they liked best of the characters, this is the first time the idea is marketed. Twilight as a franchise took the idea of Team Edward and Jacob, and marketed it. It is very simple yet genius. If only Harry Potter had thought of it, but it might not have been as big because people aren't irrational fans of Harry Potter as they are of Twilight.
With Twilight, the movies have become more about the actors and their fan bases than about the actual movie and story. After seeing Facebook posts all weekend of "New Moon was amazing!!" I wonder whether people watched the movie, but then i remembered the irrational fandom of this franchise and how Twilight takes advantage of it.
As i stated earlier, Twilight brings out something unnatural in people, as seen in this photo:
Unfortunately, Twiholism has the same symptoms as its brother addiction, alcoholism. People do irrational things, and tattoos are apparently both a highlight of alcohol and Twilight benders.
Now lets take deeper look at the fandom. Gender is a main analytical factor in looking at Twilight. Women love Twilight obviously. Why? I personally believe that the casting of actors for the movies definitely plays a part in this. RPatz has definitely evolved from his previous role as a pretty boy wizard to a pretty boy vampire. Unfortunately, the agelessness of vampires is not important to portray in the movies, as Edward looks a good 4 years older in New Moon than in Twilight. I rarely heard any discussion of Twilight when the movies weren’t in production, with the exception of a few of those weird book readers. This brings me to one of my main points of the fandom, that the serious is more about teen idols than literary qualities or the story itself. I find it interesting that a 40 year old woman could go insane over a 16 year old actor, but if it were a 40 year old man going crazy over Miley Cyrus, it would be considered weird and disgusting.
Obviously, women love Twilight…obviously. Is the because women appreciate an overbearing man eater who sparkles? Apparently yes, but I find that it might be because of the connection they have with the main character, Bella. She could be renamed Bella Everygirl, and it gives most female readers a connection into this ridiculous novel.
Men, fortunately, for the most part hate Twilight. If this was an exciting movie, I, as a man, would be much more appreciative of this canon. But the movies, for the most part suck. Sure, some guys love Twilight, like this NPR author:
Man loving Twilight? (This is another reason why I can’t stand NPR)
Even though Mr. Meltzer in the article has his own preferences, he lost credibility saying he did not understand sports, somewhat in a pompous way too. If I wanted to know about his preferences maybe he should keep his own blog, instead of writing for an official news website.
Overall, Twilight is a highlight of a cultural phenomenon very popular today, known as the canon. With that evolves fanfiction, where fans create their own stories using the same characters and stories. I think that this evolved from science fiction fans, but has moved into the mainstream with the popularity of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and of course Twilight. This definitely is an effect of the internet, as fan fiction can be published and read by anyone.
As you I stated before, I'm not fan of Twilight. Vampires fighting werewolves sounds like a great story and movie. But Stephanie Myer ruined it by putting them into a romantic novel and made it not cool. I'm an avid movie enthusiast, so i enjoy critiquing movies. But Twilight is way too easy. They didn’t even attempt to make it a good movie, but instead only attempted to make the movie and franchise marketable. In the end, that’s what makes the production of the canon genius.
All information gathered from the Twilight fandom Wikipedia.
