Twilight saga....

[craigharmann]

So, during halftime of the football game, I'm being a good hubby and loading the dishwasher. The wife is watching one of the Twilight saga movies, in preparation for going to see the new one Friday night, if our baby girl isn't born by the time. But, as I'm loading the dishwasher, it's like a train wreck. You can't look away. I know most of the board is populated by males, which leads this to be the appropriate forum for this question....do any guys like these movies? If so, why in the world would you? I can't get past the vampire dude's paleness, accentuated by his ruby red lipstick and then you have Mr. Werewolf walking around shirtless! I ask my wife why the guy is shirtless, and the answer is because he doesn't have have to put a new shirt on every time he changes back from a werewolf. Really?????

[hawing]

I know I'm not in your fella target audience, but I'd like to point out that while XX chromosomes may turn out to be required (or strongly encouraged) to enjoy this saga, not all XXers fall for them. The S.O. was flipping through channels recently and we had this conversation:

 

hawing: Is this a Twilight movie?

SO (hits Info button on remote): Yup.

hawing: Are they all pale and brooding?

SO: Apparently.

 

And we moved on.

Despite my utter absence of interest now, I hate to think how I would have reacted had the saga been created/released 30 years ago. The results could have been different. I think I would have been turned off by the vampire/blood component, but would the romance/brooding have been enough to interest me anyway? The world will never know.

[craigharmann]

Excellent! I have a hard time getting past the vampire/werewolf goofiness, but then the paleness and the lipstick! Ugh! One of the biggest guy pet peeves of mine is guys wearing lipstick or "guyliner". Annoying! And then the whole shirtless thing. That and it seems from the little my wife has explained to me, the story is a little convoluted and goofy.

[JimH5]

There are international female fans of that stuff, too.

 

When we lived in Singapore, our maid (25-year old Indonesian with passable but fairly limited English) was a fan of the Twilight stuff. Her whole circle of friends (Indonesians and some Filipinos) knew way more about Twilight than I certainly expected.

 

Part of it was their voracious appetite for American and European culture, and the other part was for the romance.

 

But it's certainly not for everyone. I'm a 49 year-old man who wouldn't watch 5 seconds of it, even if it were performed live in my living room.

[craigharmann]

That's my working theory, Jim. If a male watches the Twilight movies, it's not of his own choice, it's because of a female. And so far, the theory has proven true.

[greeg35]

I enjoy them. I'm a guy. There are aspects I don't like (for example the heavy breathing); but overall I find them ok. In fairness my wife likes them a hundred times more than I do.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Stephanie Myers has single handedly destroyed literature for this entire generation. Walk down the book aisle at any retailer, and 70% of the fiction is now cheap vampire romance knock offs. There's no room on the shelves for anything that appeals to someone who isn't a vapid 15 year old emo girl.

 

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[rwa12]

A few years ago, everything was Harry Potter knockoffs. Next year, it will all be variants of The Hunger Games (which I read, not knowing before I started the first that it was teen fiction, they're not terrible, and the first book was fairly decent).

I've watched one of the movies, at my wife's request, and found it awful. I most likely will have to see the new one as well. It's not the story that is the problem, it is the horrible acting.

[bjkrautk]

I know that she's in them, but there can't possibly be enough Anna Kendrick on-screen to justify my sitting through a Twilight film.

 

 

(I also liked The Hunger Games when I read it earlier this year, but am worried how far they might go in the teen romance direction in the other two books.)

[Gobias Industries]

From Community (season 2 I believe):

 

"Well Shirley, since you have clearly failed to grasp the central insipid metaphor of those Twilight books you devour, let me explain it to you! Men are monsters who crave young flesh!" - Jeff Winger

[razzzorsharp]

If I was a high schooler I would be going to the midnight showing. Just think of that ratio of guys to girls.

 

You have to like those odds.

[Point Beer Is Best]

I ask my wife why the guy is shirtless, and the answer is because he doesn't have have to put a new shirt on every time he changes back from a werewolf. Really?????

 

 

My response to that would be, Why is he wearing pants? The wolves aren't seen wearing any.

I have so many issues with this, I don't know where to start. A vampire's skin is supposed to burn when exposed to sunlight, not sparkle like a Christmas tree. You can't just re-write the strengths and weaknesses of an established monster. My wife read the books and loved them. She was very excited when they made the first move - until she actually watched it. I'm sure the books are OK, but the movies are dreadful.

[mothershipconnection]

I'll pile on - I hate Twilight. Just a cookie cutter ridiculous high school romance movie, except it's with monsters. Everyone would die for everyone else's love, breathes every breath for them, blah blah blah. Also, I hate how the main girl always bites her freakin lip.

[logan82]

I love the vampire guy, no wait the wolf guy, or was it the vampire guy no wait it's both, no wait the vampire guy. Mix in making vampires into shiny people and you have Twilight. Next thing we know they will make vegetarian zombies.

[Raw Biz]

I ask my wife why the guy is shirtless, and the answer is because he doesn't have have to put a new shirt on every time he changes back from a werewolf. Really?????

 

 

My response to that would be, Why is he wearing pants? The wolves aren't seen wearing any.

I have so many issues with this, I don't know where to start. A vampire's skin is supposed to burn when exposed to sunlight, not sparkle like a Christmas tree. You can't just re-write the strengths and weaknesses of an established monster. My wife read the books and loved them. She was very excited when they made the first move - until she actually watched it. I'm sure the books are OK, but the movies are dreadful.

This is my main reason I hate them too. I don't care if it's a stupid romance story, that part doesn't bother me. What gets me mad is that they are called vampires, yet they are able to walk around in sunlight. That's like calling someone a hobbit who's 7 feet tall. If they weren't called vampires, I wouldn't care.

[GAME05]

you all hate the movies yet you know so much about them. sure guys, sure.

[DuWayne Steurer]

you all hate the movies yet you know so much about them. sure guys, sure.

I have a 20 year old daughter, who was the right age to fall into Stephanie Myers trap when the books started coming out.

 

And really, anyone that watches tv or is exposed to media would have a hard time NOT knowing about it, as the saturation of Twilight/crappy vampire romance has reached it's absolute zenith.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I ask my wife why the guy is shirtless, and the answer is because he doesn't have have to put a new shirt on every time he changes back from a werewolf. Really?????

 

 

My response to that would be, Why is he wearing pants? The wolves aren't seen wearing any.

I have so many issues with this, I don't know where to start. A vampire's skin is supposed to burn when exposed to sunlight, not sparkle like a Christmas tree. You can't just re-write the strengths and weaknesses of an established monster. My wife read the books and loved them. She was very excited when they made the first move - until she actually watched it. I'm sure the books are OK, but the movies are dreadful.

While I will be the first to say Myers is a hack, and sparkly vampires are........something, she's certainly not the first writer to 're-write' vampire mythology. Anne Rice's vampires were vastly different from Bram Stokers. Heck, watch the Blade movies, with Wesley Snipes. In that one, they put on sunscreen and walk around freely during the day. Many writers have rewritten vampire lore, Myers is just the first one to turn them into whining emo's who fall in love with uninteresting teenage girls.

[Katuluu]

I have so many issues with this, I don't know where to start. A vampire's skin is supposed to burn when exposed to sunlight, not sparkle like a Christmas tree. You can't just re-write the strengths and weaknesses of an established monster. My wife read the books and loved them. She was very excited when they made the first move - until she actually watched it. I'm sure the books are OK, but the movies are dreadful.

This is my main reason I hate them too. I don't care if it's a stupid romance story, that part doesn't bother me. What gets me mad is that they are called vampires, yet they are able to walk around in sunlight. That's like calling someone a hobbit who's 7 feet tall. If they weren't called vampires, I wouldn't care.

To be fair, in the original mythology vampires could walk around in daylight just fine, and even in Bram Stoker's novel they could walk around in sunlight.

[Raw Biz]

I have so many issues with this, I don't know where to start. A vampire's skin is supposed to burn when exposed to sunlight, not sparkle like a Christmas tree. You can't just re-write the strengths and weaknesses of an established monster. My wife read the books and loved them. She was very excited when they made the first move - until she actually watched it. I'm sure the books are OK, but the movies are dreadful.

This is my main reason I hate them too. I don't care if it's a stupid romance story, that part doesn't bother me. What gets me mad is that they are called vampires, yet they are able to walk around in sunlight. That's like calling someone a hobbit who's 7 feet tall. If they weren't called vampires, I wouldn't care.

To be fair, in the original mythology vampires could walk around in daylight just fine, and even in Bram Stoker's novel they could walk around in sunlight.

They could walk around but it greatly reduced their powers. It doesn't affect them at all in twilight except makes them sparkle.

[Baldkin]

I'm on team Jacob!

 

I don't even know what that means. I just like saying it very loudly whenever I see/hear people talking about Twilight. Reactions are always priceless.

[SquirrelMaster]

The only reason why I get any sort of enjoyment out of the movies is that I have been a fan of the vampire/werewolf mythology since I was a kid. I think interview with a vampire, bram stokers dracula, and the lost boys have better acting AND better stories. Will I be seeing it opening night? No. I will probably see it for the matinee prices. There's just not enough justification to see it during the more expensive evening hours.

[jjkoestler]

You know the movies are bad when "The Lost Boys" has better acting.

 

My partner digs the Twilight movies because of the pretty men. I don't think they have any other redeeming qualities.

[hawing]

So, you probably don't really want to know that apparently Nyjer Morgan is at least a casual fan of the saga, or at least a fan of being at the red-carpet premiere for the newest movie Monday night in LA.

 

This thread is beginning to feel like a reality show. Or maybe it's the life of Nyjer.

[GAME05]

What gets me mad is that they are called vampires, yet they are able to walk around in sunlight.

 

is it really that bad to give a few tweaks to known monsters? i don't remember werewolfs being particularly good at basketball until Michael J. Fox came along, either.

 

and should a movie whose target audience is the teenage girl really be required to stay absolutely true to a monster genre? why try to market authenticity to an age group that doesn't care who Bram Stoker is or has ever heard the name Nosferatu?