I never saw the movies, nor do I really care to. I read the first book and found the writing to be utterly atrocious. Meyer took no risks with the narrative, the characters barely developed as characters, if at all, and the interactions with the characters themselves weren't realistic or believable at all. I mean, I know it's a fantasy novel with vampires and werewolves and the like, but there wasn't any depth.

The book's pages may as well have been completely blank.

true! which is exactly my point. It's stupidly simplistic at best but the general audience who reads/watches this are easily able to place themselves in the shoes of these "barely there" characters. Almost anyone could be Bella and a teen girl could swap Edward or Jacob for their current crush. It's just giving a consumable scenario to their target who will eat it up in merch and movie tickets. For that...I can't knock em. Why work hard making quality when you can work smart and make bank?

For me personally, I prefer waiting a long time for quality than waiting a short time for shit.

I would to

i dont hate twilight movies per say, they are good in there own right for what they are. Personally i just don't like there take on vampires, though lycan take isn't to bad they remind me of dire wolves. Over all i just didnt like it i watched first two movies with the " cant be that bad " mentality. But two basic things made me despise the movie...

1: goodie goodie vampires that sparkle
2: bella is a total bitch...

yea sorry but idea of any vampire being truely good is absurd. You can walk the line between the two, even hate having to feed but idea of a vampire living on animals doesn't work through all of literature and history vampires have had one driving feature. The absolute NEED to live on human blood, so this idea just didnt set well with me. I suppose at end of the day i'm an old school vampire fan and new take on vampires didnt go over and so yea i had a distaste in my mouth over the whole affair.

The second thing is bella, from get go she basically isn't in love with edger, she's just attracted by the pharamones, she is in love and doesn't know why. Then when he leaves... she basically goes batshit ok i can buy this much. Here is where things start to go south... see bella obviously has a thing for the lycan kid whose name eludes me... likes him does all this stuff for him and leads him on, then drops him on his face and snaps her fingers and is all " BITCH PLEASE VAMPY IS ONLY THING FOR ME! LAWL!" no seriously she is total bitch in movies...way they portrayed her, how she treated people yea how can i support a character like that?

But all things i hate aside, books and movies themselves are good for what they are. They are a girl chick flick kind of story written with a sci-fi/fantasy flair and presented in a way that women can get into. Heck even some guys were deeply into twilight series BUT as an old guy, and older vampire fan, and frankly some one is a huge novel reader i didnt care for books nor the movies they just fell flat. However same could be said for dark elf trilogy ie drizzit books which many loved and i didnt.

At the end of the day liking a book or movie is a personal preference and just my feelings on it as a whole.

wow, long comments before me o.o i feel inadequate, lol. i just want to say...i read all the books (shortly after they each come out), i loved all the books. except for Breaking Dawn. Breaking Dawn i literally threw against a wall, the plot just annoyed the hell out of me. i have not seen any of the movies, i just have too many issues with the changes and the casting (i really hate the casting). but all the movies looked terrible...except for Breaking Dawn. the preview for the most recent movie actually looked decent. however, i can't bring myself to see it because i already know how much i hate the plot...does that make sense? so...where part of me would like to give at least the last film a chance, i just can't.

on a random side note, it amuses me that whenever i explain some things about the books that are different-in-a-bad-way from the movies, they're responce is "hmm...yeah, that makes a lot of sense. why didn't the film do that?" the mooaaaarrr you knooowwww, lol

correction: *"different-in-a-bad-way IN the movies". so, better in the books, messed up in the films

If you want to rationalize Stephanie Meyer's utterly detestable failure at storywriting however you please, then fine. But don't even sit there and -attempt- to rationalize the existence of these films. Twilight is insulting and infuriating for many reasons, not the least of which is that it's penned by a Mormon woman who had barely seen two vampire movies (and not all the way through), and based her whole book off of this shit. It was already a disgrace in text form, and now we have it in video form. The movies that you've listed? With the exception of the Harry Potter series (which would look like screenplay gold compared to how abysmal Twilight is) and Devil Wears Prada (the book isn't perfect, but it stomps the shit out of Meyer's junk), they did not exist in book form before being put to film. Twilight doesn't have an excuse.

I can list several things right off the top of my head that are more engaging and entertaining that will probably NEVER get the credit they deserve, and meanwhile Stephanie Meyer's drivel gets a Hollywood movie series made out of it. THAT is what infuriates the living fuck out of me.

If you want to sit back and praise cash grabs for being cash grabs, that's your business. But don't expect for a second that we aren't going to call a spade a spade, and that we're going to quiet our outrage.

Now your second point I COMPLETELY agree with! There is MUCH better stuff out there not getting any praise and for that we should be angry. I guess my point is, is Twilight isn't worth getting this mad about and I'm not praising it by any means. It is a cash grab and a very successful one. The fact that it existed in book form first is only relevant in that it got teens primed to see their much loved fantasies come to life in theaters.

There is a much bigger point I'm trying to make that transcends films into most artistic fields. I've seen so much artwork that I personally think sucks a fatty but it sells so well and for the longest time I just didn't understand. I could pick them apart, piece by piece, about why I thought these quickly mass produced art were crap at best and that's when I realized. I was trying to grade it on a completely wrong scale.

I'm not sure if you're aware of a site called Etsy.com. Basically, it's like an ebay for arts and crafts. A little while ago someone made a very simple necklace involving a small bird charm and a leaf charm. They sold like crazy and soon EVERY "jewelry" maker had one in their shop. Personally, the necklace is cute I guess but that's about it. It's a generic cute necklace that people who aren't looking for something serious will buy without thinking much about it. People who are serious about jewelry and craftmanship won't buy those sorts of things unless they too are just looking for a cheap consumable. Those etsy sellers, like Twilight, are working smarter not harder. They figured out what sells and sell it. All creativity is lost...along with originality. That's why every romantic comedy is predictable as heck, all guy movies will have a boob joke and all teen movies will have angst.

In my personal opinion, the ACTING SUCKED. The movie was up my alley plot wise (sadly) So - i'm disappointed in the cast more then i was with the movie. plus ugh. if they were going for generic shock value they did it.

that said they do pander to a certain kind of people. sadly i'm that kind of people but the fact of the matter is the movie's acting was soo poorly played out it wasn't even funny. I guess i like to see people actually be the roles and not play them.

You're right...the acting needed work but I have a theory as to why the characters were like that. I think for a movie like this it helps the general audience to have characters they can substitute themselves into. They're almost shell like if that makes any sense. There are parts of Bella I can say...ya...I'd make that same decision too. Her personality and the other characters all have a skeleton frame and that may have been intentional. I haven't really seen other movies with these people trying to seriously act so I don't know if it's a lack of talent or what I was stating earlier.

In my honest opinion it's fame, and lack of passion between the actors. Rob and Kristen either want eachother too much or completely hate eachother so it's aweward.

And lol something you may find amusing. :D : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vlQd9w0w_4

Really though i think it's mostly fame, because twilight movies are getting awards they don't deserve in my opinion. Both rob and kristen need to go back to acting classes and learn the difference between becoming the role and reading the lines.

I don't think it's the dynamic of the film. again though, just my opinion.

wow... that clip was HILARIOUS! I'll play the devil's advocate and ask, since I haven't seen adventureland, if her character was supposed to be similar to her twilight one? Also, that brings up one thing I can't stand. Actors who can only act like themselves! Nic Cage, Keanu Reeves, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruz, Julia Roberts (muppet mouth!) You have to write movies FOR them to act in! GAHHH!!!

She's herself in every role. it's kind of pathetic if you ask me, The character was similar in the awkwardness, quirkyness and horrible acting. :/

in all honesty i can't hate twilight but, i agree the book goes stale and doesn't pull you into the story. i seen the first two movies and i still didnt get the hype of it all, much like all the mlp hype here. I will say prefered seeing and reading the HP books although the films truly distanced themselve from the books narrative in quite a few ways, that said, this is gonna happen all the time with very popular books.

I kinda knew this already, but it was like a thought in the back of my brain that couldn't quite surface, and now I'll never look at movies quite the same way. Good essay.