Why I Loved Twilight And Understand Why Many Others Didn’t

John Campea 62 Comments

It really wasn’t until Comic Con that I had any idea about the phenomenon Twilight had become. To be honest, I hadn’t even HEARD of Twilight until just a few short months before that when word of a film deal was released for the property. But if you were at Comic Con, you knew there was something about Twilight that had tapped into a serious fan base that made them… well… fanatical (And that’s a good thing). Comic Con was over run by rabid Twilight fans who single handedly put the project on the radar for a lot of outlets (like The Movie Blog) who up until that point hadn’t been paying much attention to it. The fans at Comic Con made that impossible to continue. This was going to be a hit.

But still, over the last couple of months I have sounded off a serious doubt about a Twilight movie. No, I never said it would be bad and I never suggested it couldn’t be a great movie… but having never read the book I simply couldn’t understand what the big deal was. After all, there is nothing original about the basic concept:

“There’s a vampire, and vampires are bad, but not THIS vampire. This vampire is a good vampire with a heart of gold. And this vampire you see… he falls in love with a mortal girl which is totally forbidden. And the girl you see… well she’s so in love with the vampire she overlooks his beast side”.

Yeah yeah yeah… we’ve seen this specific idea done a thousand times before. So while I never “hated” on Twilight, I just openly questioned what all the fuss was about considering it really didn’t strike me as being anything original. This got a lot of Twilight fans mad at me, but I was just being honest with my thoughts.

I was so indifferent about Twilight that I passed on an opportunity to see an advanced screening the studio invited me to and let someone else go in my place. I just didn’t care about the movie.

So opening night for the film comes and someone invited me to go see it with them, so I went. To my surprise I ended up LOVING the damn thing. And oddly enough… many of those Twilight fans who were mad at me for not speaking positively about it in advance… ended up hating it.

I believe there are some very legitimate reasons to love this movie. However, I also can see some very legitimate reasons why many people dislike it as well.

**WARNING – FROM HERE ON SOME SPOILERS WILL BE DISCUSSED. IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE AND DON’T WANT TO KNOW ANY SPOILERS THEN DO NOT READ ON**

I’ve said this a million times: The most beautiful thing about film is the pure subjectivity of it. It’s like a work of art hanging on a wall. 10 different people can stand and look at it, and each person can see something totally different from what the other people see and have a unique experience with it. That’s the movies.

Let me start by talking about why I enjoyed this movie so much.

First of all ironically enough my one biggest apprehension about the movie (The lack of originality) actually ended up being the most striking thing to me. This was the first Vampire movie I’ve seen in a long time (probably since Lost Boys) that really introduced some new and unique ideas to the whole vampire mythology that I had personally never really seen done before.

For instance, the concept of daylight. In just about every vampire story telling, sunlight burns and kills vampires. Some smoke and burn, some just flat out explode. But in Twilight, the vampires don’t stay out of the sun for fear of spontaneous combustion, but rather because their skin glimmers as if it were made of some sort of diamond crusted armor when exposed to direct sunlight which gives them away. Just the fact that it was so different from the way any other vampire genre film had dealt with this really made me sit up in my seat and honestly wonder what else we would learn about these creatures.

In film, you get most engaged with a movie when you share in the journey with the main character. But in vampire movies, even the best ones, you can never share in that journey with the character… because as the human character is unraveling the “mystery” of this dude who ends up being a vampire… is discovering strange things about them that leads them to the revelation of them being a creature of the night… we can’t share that suspense because we already know everything. We already know the mythology, we already know what kills them, we already know what their weaknesses are… WE ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING. So the journey of the character becomes just time filler to us until the revelation is made and then the real story can start.

But with Twilight, because of some of these subtle differences (Like the glimmering skin in the sunlight) I found myself more interested in the journey Bella was on. I didn’t know what else we might learn about Edward or his family.

Edward can read minds?
His sister can paint the future like Isaac from “Heroes”?
Different vampires have different unique abilities?
The glimmering skin?

All of these changes, these differences that makes them unique allowed me as an audience member to become more engaged in the film because I, like Bella, didn’t know what would be discovered next. This alone added a lot to my enjoyment of the movie.

I LOVED the history of the Cullen family. The Patriarch of the family is a DOCTOR who loves to save human lives!?!?! His “family” are people he’s turned into vampires over the past couple of hundred years who were once his young patients that were terminally ill and did it to save their lives… and then he brings them up to be “vegetarian” vampires who only feed on animals and not humans. LOVED IT. Great backstory… and to me backstory is 30% of a movie like this.

Speaking of the family, I loved them. The dynamic of the family was a lot different than I was expecting. It was quirky, sweet and had an almost “Leave it to Beaver” feel to it, which to me was hilarious when you remember their vampires. But they were never “goofy” or silly or crossed that line. You never forgot they were indeed vampires.

I liked the whole family, but I think i liked Jackson Rathbone (who played Jasper) the most. He only has a couple of lines, but his expression and just general disposition made me grin every time he was on screen.

I’m finding myself becoming a big Billy Burke fan. To me he’s becoming one of the most solid and reliable character actors out there, even when whatever movie he’s appearing in sucks (which has happened a lot). Personally I think he a “A list” potential and would cast him in anything I did.

Scenes like the family day of baseball out in the woods gave some depth and developed the “family” nature of these vampires for me and let us understand the bond between them without using cheesy dialog or some hack monolog scene to convey it. The action (when there was some) was pretty tight, the effects weren’t half bad either and the film had a great pace.

All together, for me they put together a movie that hit it’s mark and made for a very enjoyable time at the theater.

HOWEVER….

Those that are complaining about Twilight have some very legitimate beefs. Beefs that for me weren’t enough to negate my enjoyment of the film, but I could understand why it would spoil it for them.

1) The core of Twilight is the love story between Bella and Edward… and I’m sorry to say I never bought into it in the least. I never once really felt any chemistry between them on screen. It felt forced, awkward and at times extremely contrived. That spark, that passion, that electricity so many fans of the book tell me are on the pages just never made it on to the screen for me at all.

2) The acting. Oh dear heavens the acting. Kristen Stewart (Bella) for the most part was actually ok, except sometimes she came across as a psycho girlfriend with an over extended sense of dependance than a loving girlfriend. Good grief… that scene near the end when she was in the hospital and freaking out on Edward about how he can never leave her… man… if I was Edward my “crazy chick” alarm would be going off like nuts and I get the hell away from her as fast as my little vampire legs could carry me. Speaking of Edward… sorry… Robert Pattinson may be dreamy to look at for you ladies, but his acting chops need a lot of work in my opinion.

3) Not enough action. Yes I know this is primarily a love story so I’m not expecting a Jackie Chan flick here. But come on, its a movie about vampires! Let’s see some more vampire stuff!

4) They ruined a potentially cool villain in James. James suffers from what I call the “Darth Maul Syndrome”. It’s a situation where you’ve got a solid bad guy, but then hardly ever use him and kill him off pretty unceremoniously and quickly (although I must admit seeing the Cullen family show their “bad ass” side by ripping him apart was pretty cool).

5) They didn’t give us enough Jacob or reveal enough about his true identity. I thought giving us just a little bit more of him could have added another layer to the film without giving too much away.

There are more, but you get the point.

All in all, I stood in front of the Twilight painting on the wall and was able to engage it, appreciate it and love it. However I can completely see why others had a different experience from mine too. We know that a sequel is already planned, so here’s hoping that they build on the aspects of Twilight that worked and made me love it, and better develop those aspects that didn’t work and made some people hate it. As always, we’ll have to wait and see.

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62 thoughts on “Why I Loved Twilight And Understand Why Many Others Didn’t”

  1. If anyone’s heard Robert Pattinson has cut his hair and now everyone’s mad ….does anyone else think this is completely and utterly ridiculous ITS HAIR FOR PETES SAKE!!!!!!!, come on he’s not that good looking, its only hair (it’ll grow back) and it’s his life he can do what he wants with it. GET OVER IT!!!!!!

  2. OOHH, thanks for clearing that up…it didn’t look like her. But why was she crying? Does she like Edward, or was she just thinking about James? And wouldn’t the students at prom notice that a girl they had never seen at the school before was just wondering around their prom?? I have never read the books so I may not know the obvious.

  4. Can someone please explain the end of the movie to me?? Who was that girl watching Edward and Bella dancing from the window and why was she crying? I just didn’t get it.

  6. What about the horrendous score… Just awful -worthy of a Lifetime Network movie of the week. When Edward plays the piano for Bella I thought “9 decades to perfect his piano playing and musical tastes and he ends up a cheap John Tesh knock off – yikes”

    The additions to the vampire myth are all well and fine, but not enough to make up for the what was otherwise a very middling average effort that utterly lacked even the slightest hint of passion or heat.

    I see all vampire movies on principle, and have absolutely nothing against popular female focused teen fiction being the source for popular entertainment, but this was my all time least favorite vampire movie.

  7. @ Drewbird

    I stand corrected with the director of Across the Universe.

    However, if you think the relationship that is formed in Let The Right One In can be compared to the relationship that is formed in Twilight… then I guess you see things different than I. As far as I am concerned, and through personal experiences, relationships developed in the pre-teens are completely different than relationships formed in the teens. Maybe that is just my opinion, though.

    Release dates I will admit were close, but not the same. In fact, if the new Potter flick had not got pushed back til next year, then Twilight would have still been released in December like it originally was planned I am sure. But yes, rather than being only a week difference it would have been a month which is still pretty close. Whats that got to do with the similarities? Nothing. But if we are going to take this route, then should we not compare all the movies that came out that weekend to these movies as well?

    A new kid in town, wow that is a good comparison of the two, and about five billion other stories with and without vampires.

    You sir, are correct. The similarities are amazing and these two movies should be compared.

    All I was trying to say is that the two movies are quite different and should not be compared. Check them both out. You may like one or the other, like both, or dislike both… They are different enough that I would not advise a person to see one over the other under the false perception that if you see one you have seen them both.

  8. The same exact beefs you listed are the ones that I could never get past. Not only did the main two stars of the film lack any chemistry and acting ability, but the dialogue was painfully simplistic and flat. e.g. The conversation about the weather. Why? Why waste valuable screen time on the weather when there seems to be valuable back story, relationship development, et cetera to be told?

    Oh, and then there were about half a dozen useless, swirling, sweeping montages to music. Those montages were a poor attempt at creating the chemistry and romance that just weren’t inherent in the actors or story, respectively.

    I’m infinitely glad that I didn’t have to pay money to see Twilight, and had to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes afterward for some vampire storytelling angst, tenson, and action done right.

  14. Yeah, I agree. Twilight was a really slow book, and the Inheritance Cycle is much better. My only problems with book adaptations are that fans of the book will hate it because it cut this scene out or they changed this around, oh and (sarcasm on) my favorite, the book is 500 pages, who is it 100 minutes!?” I think films should stand on their own, and that you can’t compare a book and the film it’s based off of, otherwise you’ll really hate the movie. For example, if I talked a lot of crap about how much they cut from Eragon after I’ve told you that it was a fun film and a good film, it wouldn’t sound like it, would it? That’s the only thing I hate hearing from people. We get it, the book was better, but for me, films should stand on their own.

    I didn’t like the book Twilight, nor do I see any reason for me to see this film in the theaters, but I don’t think people should hate the film because of the differences and changes.

  16. AARON
    the huge 20 on 20 vamp/wolf fight in eclipse puts that book on top of all others for me…and breaking dawn i think i jacked off to

    twilight was very slow because it introduces all the characters and jacob and it introduces that there are bad vamps…

    ….well…i liked the eragon series better BECAUSE of the action, and they where great books…but did you see what they did to the movie? holy shit!

  17. unless let the right one in has a part where a vampire gets his head ripped off by another vampires neck bite and you see her head roll off or italian expensive black suited freternity vamires called the vulturi or 5 werewolves eat a black vampire (you thought the black dreadlock vampire from twilight gets away?) then let the right one in doesnt interest me, sorry…i just didnt get attracted by the trailer…

    hey, twilight freak
    thats a good thing! jacobs a fucking werewolf!! lolololol
    although i know what you mean but remember that theyll cut those parts…and theyll show the vulturi at the end…i cant get over how BADASS those guys are….

  18. JEREMY,

    First, Catherine Hardwicke did not direct “Across the Universe.”

    Second, a vampire is the only thing comparable between LTROI and Twilight? How about a love story between minors, one of which is a Vampire. Not only that, but the one of the players is of course the new kid in town. That and the fact that both films came out ostensibly on the same weekend makes them easy to compare as well. But you’re right, on most accounts LTROI is 15x better.

    HAZMAT_LOVES_GWYNETH_PALTROW – go see it instead.

  21. I saw Let The Right One In on Thursday night, and then Twilight on Friday afternoon. Two movies that are completely different apart from the fact that they have vampires in them, so do not even bother trying to compare the two. Let The Right One In was a really good movie. It was a little slow paced, not that it is a bad thing, but fitting for what the director created. Both the kids acted their asses off and the girl played a perfect vampire. Now for Twilight. I agree with John completely on this one. I would take it a few steps further though. The director has already proven herself capable of directing with Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown, and Across the Universe. The cinematography for Twilight was on par with these other flicks, BUT casting was most definitely poor. Edward was hideous and I found myself wanting to hate the movie because of him alone. The special effects in some of the scenes (running through forest and climbing trees) was pretty weak, but I am going to chalk that up to budget. Rather than gliding up the side of a tree with the arms and legs moving as if climbing I would have done different. I would have had him jumping from limb to limb at a fairly fast pace. Would have looked cooler, and that weird gliding effect could have been avoided. I would have done the running through the forest different as well. Some first person perspectives of the forest whizzing by in a blur, a few slow motions of a foot catching position on ground and rocks, and finally a few scenes in the run where they are running at a normal speed while the rain and maybe birds or butterflies are stopped in mid air. Once again, this would do away with that sliding effect while they are mimicking running while sliding across the screen. Yes, Twilight had a shitload of short comings, but I found it still enjoyable. Kristin Stewart (i think that’s her name), the chick that played Bella, was quite a surprise to me. I thought she was going to do horrible, but I enjoyed her in the part. I think the movie was filmed in Canada, but they caught the look of Washington really well. I lived up there for ten years, and would move back there in a heartbeat. Being a little homesick for the northwest might play a part in my enjoyment in some of the cinematography. I also really liked the narration from Bella at the beginning and how it is tied to the end, very well thought out and what I would expect from the director. At the same time, I understand why people are going to hate this movie. Most people probably are not as forgiving as I am when it comes to movies.

  23. There was absolutely nothing about this movie to like. The main vampire pattison, worst acting by an …and introducing.. I’ve ever seen. Tweezed eyebrows, lipstick, pale skin, and cocked head, hushed voice does not make a sexy vampire. The dialogue was excruciating – by everybody. This is a movie where you should get your money back immediately. There were moments when I literally put my head in my hands and wanted to tear my eyes out. Anyway I know this was not a movie for me. I took 2 10 year olds to see this and they were ok with it but could see the pain it was inflicting on me and held their enthusiasm in check. I felt bad about that and wanted to let them enjoy it on their own terms -BUT IT JUST SUCKED SO MUCH I COULDN’T – i guess that makes me a horrible dad or at least one who should know what movies to stay away from.

  28. I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you here John. I thought that this movie was awful. The acting sucked, some points did not even make sense (for instance, when she went up into the mountain and Edward followed her for absolutely no reason), and the special effects were awful. Also, the things that you enjoyed about the film seemed to be things I hated. I really did not like the sparkling, that was just lame. Especially the glimmering noise that accompanied it. Worst off was that it did not even follow the book that well. I did not like it.

  29. Hey, don’t disrespect John’s opinion. I’m a guy, i’m straight, and I LOVED the book and movie. I’m definitely grabbing the Blu-Ray when it’s released.

  30. You complain that James was underused and that you didn’t get enough Jacob.

    But that’s the book. James isn’t really introduced until the last 100 pages — before that it’s all love story and it’s like James is just thrown in there once they fall in love as something to come between them.

    And Jacob is touched on in the book a few times, but that’s all. We never get anything more.

    I haven’t seen the movie yet and I’m not rushing to see it anytime soon, but if what you’re saying is true, it sounds pretty much like the book to me.

  36. Let me guess John…You liked Twilight more than The Dark Knight? lol

    I tried “Twilight”..i tried the Books and the Movie..went into both with a open mind but they didn’t do one thing for me!!! They sucked…sucked some more!…oh..and they sucked a little bit more!

  38. I think like any other adaptive book movie with a cult following, the movie never lives up to the book. I haven’t personally read the books but whenI wiki Twilight I saw a long list of difference…And it was thinks like his eye are suppose to be blue not green or a a scene plays out in a different location in the book verse the movie. It things like that that turn me off when it comes to fandom. Don’t get me wrong I am a big fan of children/teen novels and there corresponding film but I don’t go crazy because minor things are changed. I hated when major plot point are left out though. I think that what might have happened with Twilight. I mean I thought the vampire families and werewolf families had this ongoing feud/ treaty. In the movie there only like there mentioning of this rivalry. Overall Twilight was decent and maybe good enough to check out the books.

  43. Sounds to me like your more a fan of the book than the actual movie; even though you havn’t read the book, it’s the unique mythology and story of these vampires that you admired. Not the direction, the cinewmotogrophy, the acting, the overal plot. So again, you’re a fan of the book, not the movie. I hear a lot of people who say, the books are good, but not the movie. I personally havn’t read these books, and I plan on seeing this movie until it ends up on Starz or HBO, and I have nothing better to do; just like I did with Transformers, which I actually ended up enjoying, so you never know. I do watch watch True Blood though, and from what I understand, a lot of this mythologyand stgory lines is identicul to the Sookie books that spawned the HBO show, like reading minds, and the love story between a human and a vampire, who deep down is a good person. Even in the Sookie books, a boy was dying from a disease, so a vampire turned him. These books came out before Twilight, so she is seen as a rip off, but I don’t know. My point of telling you this is because, your main acknowledgemant of this film is based on something that’s already been done before. You say you admire the originality of the backstory, and the mythology of the vampires, but if you watch True Blood, you’ll see that Twilight really isn’t original at all. Sorry to burst your bubble.

  44. LOL at T-VO…it is interesting that u liked it tho…..i have no interest in seeing the movie, not a fan of the modern interpretation of the vampire and teeny romances aint my cup i tea…….the story sounds interesting, but meh, ill just chalk this one up to another crank situation….good read tho

  46. JOHN
    im glad you liked it man, i didnt liek it so much

    and the action will be plentysome in new moon. hence the werewolfs…and they didnt show much of jacob in this one but in the next one hes a main character…one of the werewolf pack dudes

    i see you didnt mention emmet, SHAME on you. hes the one responsible for pwning james (and jasper really…)

    and in twilight their relationship is supposed to be awkward because he really wants to bite her ass and suck her dry 100% of the time. but its okay, in the sequel he nails her the water (yes. sea sex)

    i know this is totally irrelevant, but in new mon the italian vampires (vultri) are fucking awsome…ive loved vampires since i was little (cant wait for uinderworld 3) and the italian vampires fucking rule…they wear expensive ass coats…they for some reason remind me of prince nuada from hellboy (who LOOKS like a vampire!)

    i hope they get the werewolf morphing RIGHT in new moon though cuz movies liek underworld have lame werewolfs…van helsing had awsome wolfs though. i hope the CGI doesnt suck
    well it was 30 mil to make it and they just made over 70. so hopefully more money will be invested on it….and on the vultris costumes!!!!!! (cmon! an italian freternity of vampires!)

  47. I enjoyed large amounts of Twilight ironically, so it became a pleasure to watch in terms of the way it plays with vampire conventions (as you point out), Gothic nature scenes, and modern-day romance. I wonder sometimes if film critics try to approach every film like its Citizen Kane, and therefore can’t admit to the campy delights of a film like Twilight.

  48. there are two vampire films out at the moment with similar themes.

    One is average and one is the best film of the year by a mile.

    seriously folks if you haven’t already you all need to track down let the right one in and see immediately before the cloverfield director fucks it up in his remake.

    Its a masterpiece. and I don’t throw that word around freely like a lot of people. I take it rather seriously and the film is fucking amazing. believe the hype.

  53. like i said up in my post, i didnt hate the whole thing, but most of it. and im glad John agress with me about the action! that one scene towards the end where Edward and that one dude (yeah, thats how much i know about twilight, lol) had that fight, that could’ve been a great scene but they ruined it for me> But, yes, some scenes were good

  54. I’m glad I watched it, it’s an entertaining flick. Scenes of Bella & her father were nice to watch as well as scenes of the Cullen family together. Those scenes stand out to me more than Bella & Edward, and their cheestastic lines if I may add.

  57. I, like you, knew very little about the movie when i went to the midnight showing with my fan friend. I had your experience, she had the other.

    Though I love to read, when I hear a book is being turned into a movie, I wait until I see the movie before I get the book. Reading it first tends to build up a lot of expectations that I know just won’t be met. But reading it after means I’ll be introduced to the characters and the tone already and, perhaps, be able to enjoy it more. That’s what I expect will happen now.

    BTW, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed reading a blog entry as much as this one. Write more John!

  58. wow! it’s good to see you back John! it’s cool that you liked it and I very much respect your opinion. To me, the film didn’t do anything. But it’s cool that it did for you and you bring up some very interesting points too

  59. There have been so many freakin contradictory things about this movie that I want to see it now. Although I am a very harsh critic and sometimes cannot get past certain weaknesses in a movie and I’m not sure I’d be able to overlook the weak elements in this case.

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