Why possibly torture myself by watching the whole damn saga?
Look. they are all on Netflix, HD, I did read the book when they came out out of curiosity (have since given them away), was all Team Jacob and thought the actor playing Jasper was cute, the music was nice and even danced to the freaking baseball whatever song that plays in it with my classical jazz class in a dance performance, and mind you we thought we were lucky at the time to have the coolest song from the most popular movie (I think there might have been some fighting for it as well since it was so popular, we even wore baseball uniforms) and finally this made me know the song ‘Clair De Lune’ by Debussy, which is actually quite nice so that’s a positive from the first.
So there’s the whole explanation and reasoning I give to you and myself, also I’ve got time so why not. I’m not about to rent these on iTunes so its now or never. And if it was a choice of reviewing The Twilight Saga vs 50 Shades of Clear Emotional and Physical Abuse I would choose Twilight in an instant, less painful and you know, these books and movies were meant for my age bracket when they came so there’s that.
A summary:
Isabella “Bella” Swan moves from her mother’s house in sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy and grey Forks, Washington to live with her father Charlie. There she goes to a new school where she takes an interest in the Cullen clan, particularly Edward. She is also reunited with her childhood friend Jacob Black. When mysterious things start happening around Forks and around Bella in particular and they all might be connected in a supernatural way. One could even say in a Vampiric way…
Okay, first off this wasn’t as bad as I remember, but boy it sure was more unintentionally funny, I mean some of the lines really made me laugh. Also its so bizarre that it captured actual teenage behaviour so well and not in a too stylised way as they do now, but in a kind of small “normal” way. I mean there are scenes were boys act stupid and make a scene with anything they can get their hands on, girls trying to act cool by not showing any emotions shown on their faces because too much is thought to be childish, the small town shopping with dresses that actually looks like what one could by from them at the time, the clustering smallness of everyday and the not in your face from a fashion magazine wardrobe that today’s costume designs are for teenage dramas (see every CW show ever from Gossip Girl to Riverdale). So yea, that surprised me in a good way. It’s stylised but not too stylised.
So Kristen Stewart is Bella and she does a fine job for a character whose supposed to be awkward, shy, purposely unemotional on the face and one that as a teenager you can easily project yourself in to. She’s what even girl thinks they are at that age being clumsy and book/internet smart and socially inept. She thinks of herself as unattractive, but really is quite pretty according to everyone. And when the criticism comes that she doesn’t have any expressions then I say count the times she smiles, she does it a lot, be it an awkward “Dad don’t say that you’re embarrassing me”, the one everyone has with “I don’t know what to do in this situation but I don’t wan’t to look like I don’t enjoy it” and the classic “My your hot and I don’t know how to deal with it, but inside I’m squealing like a happy pig” and so forth. I’ve had those small smiles on my face and so has everyone, except we don’t have a camera on our faces. So yes, Kristen does a very good performance with the character she is given, its just sad that me and the rest of the world soon began to hate her because of it when she was playing a character who was supposed to be like it and we judged her for it, forgetting out own faces in teenage years in the process. So I am officially going to say I am sorry Kristen Stewart and you deserved better.
Then to our resident vampire with Edward Cullen played by Robert Pattinson. He does a good job again with what he’s given and I’ve seen some of his interviews about Twilight and how he said he HATED being in it and it sort of shows in his performance. There is a kind of melancholy there that you think that after saying some of the funniest lines (especially in the woods), after the camera cuts he goes off by himself regretting his life choices and how he can’t get away from this even though he wants to because of a damned contract. You pity him for being in this, but then again there isn’t any one that I can think of doing this role. Also, he says and does some of the more melodramatic things like he is thinking “I have to say this?” and you can see it in his eyes and smile and its HILARIOUS!
Oh and the rest of the cast is the same, except we don’t get to know much other than the dynamics and how they relate to Bella or Edward, though Billy Burke as Charlie is certainly a highlight. With Anna Kendrick being a surprise gift, even the best musical talent has to start somewhere in films.
(There was a post on Tumblr a while back about this and it basically summaries the whole thing as the perfect cast in a badly written franchise, and its true)
And now to address the classic blue Twilight filter and the creepy factor of the romance. As I say in the title that the beginning is good and it really is. The camera movements, the flow, the jokes, the realness and then it all sort of disappears as we get in to the love story and the vampires with all the drama. Thankfully it sort of returns in the end until its once again ruined by the story with the inevitable sequel hook.
Now the creepy romance thing is not too bothersome for me in this one (I mean almost every girl daydreamed about scenarios like this in our introverted brains before all the books and movies that came after Twilight came, then things started to change for the better). To start with the one where he watched her sleep in her bedroom before they were together, after it is fine since she knows of it and approves (for reasons??), but before its just creepy. I mean watching someone sleep is really cute and sweet and all if the context is right, like in a sleepover, a long movie night, just a lack of sleep in school in a chair, all that, but when going in to someone’s bedroom to do it it just turns creepy and just plain not good. Sure there are elements there of how this isn’t going to be all hunky-dory, but those are for the next films, here with the story and all its easy to forget how messed up this whole romance thing is (not the ageless immortal vampire and human stuff, vampires are fictional creatures so I let it pass and that kind of story has always been told with Beauty and The Beast stories and immortal gods and mortals (tale as old as time..), but the drama that comes with this pair is a whole another problem in itself).
So I finally finished the first one, here’s going to the second tomorrow! But watch this movie for the jokes and corniness and melodrama, its so fun and I found myself laughing at many points. If the boys can have their stupid franchise of Transformers then we girls can have Twilight as our guilty pleasure movie, there is no shame in it other than the backlash others bring to it for even liking something like this.
Thank you for reading!
The Little Corner 