I watched an excellent program on Vampires and Zombies in history, film, and pop culture to find out more about these monsters. The show's titled "LoveLust" and it airs on the Sundance Channel and is available on ITunes. This post will cover the Twilight series alone and vampires & zombies in an upcoming post.
This essay is a mix of my own thoughts, and some information from the show. "LoveLust" is cited when facts have been used from that source.
The Twilight series of books and movies has become so successful that you've had to been living under a rock to not know something of it. I think the books have been translated into something like 39 languages. The movies have grossed over 1 Billion dollars worldwide, and I wonder why? Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly calls the Twilight series the, "Phenomena of our decade." For the past 2 years the most popular baby names have been Isabella and Jacob, according to the show "LoveLust".
I'm not a fan myself, but some of my family and friends are. I usually have debates, and discussions with them, trying to figure out why this franchise is so popular. From what I've seen the typical vampire love story has been altered so heavily that it really isn't a vampire story. It's a weak, uninteresting plot, with boring characters who have no depth. At the end of the first movie I realized, I didn't care how the story ended. I didn't care if the characters ever got together or had sex. I just didn't care, and I don't see the reason for popularity. Perhaps it's just some gay men, vampire die-hards, and little girls that are propelling this hysteria over the boys acting in this film, and not really the story itself? I mean, let's put Jesse Eisenberg, Emily Browning, and Jay Baruchel in the 3 leads and see how well the movies do then?? Heh?
From what I understand there are 4 books and maybe 5 movies devoted to this vampire/human teen love story that is momentarily a triangle (sort of) with a werewolf Native American boy.
This century old vampire doesn't kill people by sucking their blood, he drinks refrigerated blood (I guess?), fights with other factions of vampires that do kill people, doesn't like werewolves, and sparkles in the sunlight instead of dying. Unfortunately for him, he got stuck at age 15ish and looks constantly stoned and creepy.
I have a lot of issues with this story/movie.
1.) I could barely sit through the 1st movie because they directed it in a way that would appeal to children who suffer from A.D.D. It seems like some scenes are cut abruptly and others are too long.
2.) The actors are terrible. The lead male vamp looks stoned on possibly more than just weed, but he looks creepy as well. If he's supposed to be all head over heels in love with this teenage girl (pedophile) why does he look at her like a mental patient looks at his psychologist? Perhaps he has mommy issues, maybe he hates being stuck in eternal high school, I can't imagine. The girl has a hard time convincing me she's able to play anything else but an angst filled teenage girl. The lead werewolf looks to be 14 at best, even with all his muscles, he's not attractive, and not convincing.
3.) The vampires are sparkly, not scary. They are not very threatening, unless you're a diamond ring and don't want to be outblinged. Twilight has diluted the core vampire story and taken all the edge out of it, all the drama is missing. The "LoveLust" program I watched poses the question, "what happens when your monster is so close to being human, and not your enemy that you don't want to kill it?" The basics of a "I'm in love with a vampire" storyline needs a balance of fear and sex.
One of my favorite ways that the main vampire, Edward Cullen, has been described by full grown women is that he's the "My Little Pony" of vampires - pretty, sparkly, and deeply attractive to very young girls.
Nobody's really afraid of these vampires, and I hear they don't have sex for a long time. Plus these actors (even though they are dating in real life) have no chemistry together on screen. The most dead thing about the entire story is their acting. "LoveLust" calls Edward sanitized, and Kate Harding, an anthropologist on the show says, "He's a vampire who isn't a vampire anymore. He's been conquered by love."
4.) Other stories have addressed the issue of the age gap successfully. Buffy and Angel on the series, "Buffy the vampire slayer" was one of my favorite shows ever. I'm not biased towards or against Vampires. I enjoy any kind of story as long as it is done well.
Buffy was a 16 year old cheerleader in the series pilot. Angel is more than 200 years old. It didn't seem like pedophilia, like it does in Twilight, because they made jokes about it. They drew attention to the fact that Angel is MUCH MUCH older than her and has seen a lot of other women and vampires. Angel, of course, is attracted to Buffy at first because she's pretty, but through repeated exposures, he realizes she is beautiful on the inside as well. Angel is a more well defined, more fleshed out character, specifically because the show makes efforts to show what he was like before he was a vampire, and what bad things he did immediately after turning. They show his change, his very bad behavior, and they show that he is different now, but still struggling with his need for fresh human blood. The writers of the show are very good at pointing out constantly that Buffy and Angel shouldn't be together, but you want them to be together. They do a good job of showing Angel struggling with being a good reformed vampire and fighting off his terrible black past. He is trying to atone, trying to be better. Plus the actors had an intense sexual chemistry that flowed off them like fire, granted, both actors are talented, experienced, professionals at the time of filming this series, but it was so much better than Twilight.
5.) The storyline of Twilight was to be an anti-pregnancy campaign for teens (snooze). The author wrote this to show young teens to avoid sex at all costs, sex is the true monster in this story. I think her motives for writing these novels get in the way of creating a good story. Write a good vampire story or write a religious-inspired anti-sex book. It's one or the other.
6.) Don't make vampires your friends. You take away the basic foundation of what vampires are supposed to be. Stick with the original ideas - they suck blood, they're dangerous, they are dark, they can't be in sunlight, they're not friendly, they like to seduce and trap women, they DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT sparkle - that's the silliest part of all of this. For a likable bad, dangerous, sexy vampire see the character Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, HE was such a rich character and well played by James Marsters. Which reminds me, Buffy had a lazy susan of hot young men to lust after for the entire show. That's another reason to watch!
7.) I think this Meyer woman has done the opposite of what she intended (other than make a ton of money). She should have made a strong female lead, instead she makes the classic damsel in distress character who needs a man to protect her and give her everything. She tried to make an anti-sex story, but the movies are propaganda typical of teen love movies where the couple wants to have sex and is completely consumed with the idea of sex, along with casting actors that are now huge sex symbols and lusted after by t'weens everywhere.
My final suggestion and comment on Twilight is that if you like a good vampire love story, watch the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from the late 1990's. It runs in syndication, on the Logo channel if you have it. Otherwise, just buy it, you won't regret it. Not only is it sexy, it's funny, touching, and shows a strong female lead that doesn't get attacked in the alley, she does the attacking. Joss Whedon is just a genius.
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