Cheers!

They always seem to drop the ball at some point during the movie and fall into those same OLD scenarios. “Daybreakers” for example, good original idea: human body farm, then they fall into same boring crap, helpless victim, stupid group capture and killing of survivors, hero saves the day, blah, blah, blah. Why can’t we have a villain, monster, demon, whatever evil devour and win. Kill them all! I know that is what everyone I know wants to see. I film that is not a remake, the victims remain food, tortured, or dead, and evil lives on. Live on in a good way, not like Jason or Freddy, the shame!

Here’s to “The Wolfman”, 2-12-10, our fingers are crossed!!!

I had an interesting experience finding out about Twilight. The first time I heard of it was the summer before the first movie came out, and it was through a Twilight hater on a forum I was a part of. The next I’d heard of it was through hateful articles on the front page of MSN (my homepage) when Twilight was getting closer to being in theaters. By this time I was curious, so I decided to do some searches for it on Google, Youtube, and deviantart. Again, all I found was hate. With all these incessant ramblings of haters moaning about how annoying the fans are, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “What fans?!” The vast majority of what I’d seen was hate. However, once the movie actually came out I started seeing positive promotion of it in stores and in the media. It was really fascinating how the general attitude towards Twilight in the real world and that of the Internet were essentially polar opposites of each other, at least where I looked.

So, one day, I decided to actually see the movie. I thought it was enjoyable. It certainly wasn’t a masterpiece, but I’d be pretty miserable if I was incapable of enjoying anything but masterpieces. Interestingly, the thing I liked most about the movie wasn’t the vampires, the romance, the angst or any of that…..it was Bella’s normal, human classmates. Anyone who’s regularly attended a high school within the past five years (and I have) will tell you that those portrayals of modern high school kids are SPOT ON. Unlike the overly archetypal, obviously-written-by-adults characters you see in movies like High School Musical, these teenagers talk and act like REAL teenagers. Jessica is my favorite character, because I swear I could step back into my former high school tomorrow and she’d be there. That’s how realistic she is. But anyway, I’m getting off-track. My point is, when I actually saw the movie, I found it entertaining; I wasn’t gonna become a diehard fan, but I certainly didn’t understand where all the hate came from.

New Moon has a different sort of value to me. I’ve seen it twice, once with my cousin, and once with my best friend. I enjoyed the movie for its own merits, but a huge chunk of why I loved seeing New Moon was because I got to bond with the people I saw it with. Both of them are pretty big fans, and it was so refreshing to get out of the dark hole of the Internet and all its hatred towards Twilight, and actually see what real people in real life think of it. They both reminded me that Twilight fans aren’t just these invisible Internet stereotypes of rabid, brainless fans with no taste—-they’re real people, with real opinions and every right to those opinions.

So, I’m glad I found and read this wonderful article of yours, because it helped cement that in my mind. Thank you for writing it and sharing it with us!

(Lol, I ended up writing a lot more than I thought I would. xD Sorry for the long-windedness!)

I read the Twilight books about two and a half years ago (before they became so popular) and deemed them a run-of-the-mill teenage vampire romance. I found them readable, though not very original in matters of plot or writing. They didn´t leave any lasting impression on me, so I quickly forgot about them. About a year after that, movie posters appeared and suddenly everyone around me seemed to know the books. I wouldn´t give it much thought, if I weren´t bombarded by Twilight related things every time I surfed the Internet.

I have nothing against fans in general (I hardly could seeing that I´m a fan of several books and TV series myself). I´m just a little baffled at the level to which these young girls take their liking for the book. We´ve seen actors being mobbed by fangirls before – that happens with every bigger movie hit – but some of those girls´ actions border on extreme.

The same could be said about the haters – I marvel at the amounts of energy they are willing to give into hating something. I can understand dislike – sure, no book is perfect and loved by everyone – but active hatred, where a person spends countless hours by going through the thing they hate (book, movie) and then compile epic essays (or 15 minute long videos) about how much they hate the thing – that seems like a pointless waste of energy to me. If you don´t like the book, don´t read it – it´s quite simple.

I usually encounter disbelief when I mention that I don´t care either way for Twilight. Sure, I´ve read the books, seen the movies, but that´s about it. They don´t seem thought-provoking enough for me to spend countless hours on debating, whether the books send wrong messages to young girls or if the books are sexist. I´ll leave that to others.

So, Mr.Nottingham, I don´t think your article was preachy. I read it with a lot of interest, as it´s rare to see a Twilight-neutral opinion these days. Hatred is always awful and the Internet with it´s anonymity is a great breeding ground for it. The only thing we can console ourselves with is the fact that the Twilight-related hatred will sooner or later disappear. Twilight is a fad, a cultural phenomenon, just like hundreds of fads before it. These teenage girls will one day grow up and move on to other books. With the lack of rabid fans, the haters will disappear, too, and the Twilight will become just another wave of passing fancy.

Until then, we´ll have to bear with it.
Thank you for an interesting article.