Monday, November 24, 2008

Off Topic: Twilight Movie

So I can't help myself... I have to post something about the Twilight movie.

First, I will say that I have read all the books and I'm not gonna lie to you... I love them. They are not lovely examples of fine writing, but the series has done for YA lit what Harry Potter did for children's lit; Twilight brought books into pop-culture, teen boys and girls alike are gaga for the books, and kids who have never read a book longer than 100-200 pages are eating up these l-o-n-g tomes.

I have been hearing so many people rip into this movie. I have a bunch of friends in their late 20s who feel like they have the inside scoop on what makes a movie great... you know the type. These are the people who like to sit around with a glass of wine and talk about how much better it would have been if (insert obscure director's name here) had directed it. They talk about how unrealistic it is, about how stupid the vampires' makeup looked, how cheesy some of the lines were, how wooden the acting was...

But do you know what I say? I say WHO CARES! Truly. I know it wasn't a perfect movie... heck it wasn't even a great movie. But neither were the books and that doesn't stop the YA Librarian and avid teen fiction reader in me from loving them! The movie really got one thing right: it will appeal to the target audience, TEENS. Teens in the theater were swooning at every appearance of Edward (actually my 26 year old sister was swooning too), they cheered during the baseball scene, they giggled when Bella and Edward were kissing. Some of the lines from the book have become almost a cult secret language; you know, the lion laid down with the lamb stuff. Even though it was cheesy on film, it was really important to fans of the book; I'm glad they left it in.

I am happy to hear that New Moon has been green-lighted. I truly hope they get a bigger budget for the film so the special effects are more believable. Also, as I live in the Pacific Northwest, I hope they continue filming it in our gorgeous location! What I hope the most, however, is that all the adults who are tearing Twilight into shreds go easier on New Moon. It's a teen movie! I'm definitely not saying that makes it less of an art, I am just saying you can't judge it with the same criteria you use for movies with an older target audience.

What did you think??

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen it, but I'm happy to hear you defending it. (And I do plan to see it!) I had an adult friend say to me the other night that the reviews of the movie hadn't been too great and my response was, "unless it was reviewed by a teen girl, I'm not really interested." With all of the pablum that adults read and watch, I don't know why they think they can talk! sarah

Becky said...

You are SO correct by saying that Twilight made reading popular again!
I've always loved to read but I rarely ever did it.
When I started reading Twilight I couldn't put it down and I fell in love with books all over again.
I read one book every 8-10 days now :) I'd still be watching TV or gossiping on the phone at night if it weren't for those books <333