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User Reviews for: Twilight

Cluisanna
7/10  5 years ago
_Twilight_ becomes both much more funny and much more bearable when you are familiar with the genre and take it as the film equivalent of a shōjo manga or otome game, including all the same tropes. Under these criteria, it's actually a pretty fun movie.
Hot Take: If you can tolerate James Bond movies but this one somehow makes you feel weird, perhaps it's because you're more used to or more comfortable with male fantasies of sexual desirability. Either way, I used to hate _Twilight_ because I felt superior to all the stupid girls who liked it. Now I just accept it for what it is: wish-fulfilment. Sure, Edward would be a creepy stalker and borderline abusive if not for story mechanics that tell us he can be trusted because he's a good guy, but that's the beauty of fiction: in real life there's no such thing as "good guys" and "bad guys," but in stories, there is. Similarly, James Bond would be a serial sexual harasser if not for the fact that all the women he encounters are super into him, but again, that's the beauty of fiction: they always are, and we know it's okay for him to be a dick sometimes because he is, you guessed it, a good guy. And yes, there's some weird puritan ideology here about the dangers of male sexuality, but that's still a hundred times better than for instance the subtext of Bram Stoker's Dracula (which, funnily enough, is about the dangers of _female_ sexuality).
So, once more for the people in the back: _Twilight_ is silly, implausible, and often ridiculous. And that's absolutely okay.

That being said, things I like about this film: the great way in which it captures teenage awkwardness (which I find hilarious and at this point have to believe is intentional); the fact that Bella just accepts he's a vampire because it's the most logical conclusion, and there's no drawn out "I can't believe this guy stopped a car with his bare hands, I'm going to tell everyone about it - oh no, no one believes me!"; the quotability of so much of the dialogue (coming close to the SW prequel trilogy in that department); the absolute dead-pan way in which everyone delivers their lines ("It's like diamonds. You're beautiful." - "Beautiful. This is the skin of a killer, Bella."); The way literally no one looks like they want to be there; the fact that Bella does not seem to be able to fully close her mouth; the implication that vegetarians are "never fully satisfied"; Seemingly endless scenes of piggyback rides (now I finally know why they never actually show how The Flash carries people - it just looks so fucking weird); the shot of Bella's father rolling his friend in the wheelchair right in front of the stairs leading up to his house, followed by a cut so that it's never explained how he actually got inside; the fact that Bella just seems absolutely chill with everything ("I don't sleep." - "Never?" - "No, never." - "Okay.").
Things I don't like about this film: how everyone takes it so goddamned seriously. Oh, and that there is absolutely no instance of "_What_ are you?" - "A waitress."
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Reply by jonginnie
4 years ago
@cluisanna The female vs male fantasy can’t really be compared here. I don’t like James Bond either because I find him obnoxious, FYI, but someone sneaking into your bedroom to stare at you at night for _months_, is not cute or romantic. Knowing he is “the good guy” won’t make this any less creepy. Plenty of movies show this “female fantasy” without it turning toxic, that’s not why people hate it lol.
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Reply by Cluisanna
4 years ago
@luhanniie I think there are two different types of people who criticise this movie: the ones like you (as I take it) who see the toxic conceptions of relationships between men and women as well as gendered roles it idealises and are worried what kind of message is being sent to the teens this movie is aimed at. I absolutely agree with this criticism, I probably wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone who's impressionable and not particularly media literate, like most teens, and I definitely think a thorough examination of what values and ideas are portrayed in any movie is a good idea. <br /> The other types of people, however, are the ones who dislike and make fun of twilight because it caters to women instead of men and thus is inherently inferior. These are the same people who dismiss all books written by women as "chick lit" and make fun of male musicians that have a large female fan base - kpop groups today, Justin Bieber 10 years ago, The Beatles 60 years ago. These people don't actually criticise media aimed and women and girls because of any reasoned analysis, but simply because of misogyny, and these people are who my comment was aimed at.
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Reply by DavisNL
3 years ago
@cluisanna I get your post is more political point making than movie review, but there are way better examples of "female wish-fulfillment" than this. You like this movie, and that's okay... but the people who don't like it, don't like it because it is a bad movie, not because they're uncomfortable with female-driven stories.
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Reply by Cluisanna
3 years ago
@davisnl I am fully aware that this movie is terrible in many regards and it's fine to dislike it for lots of reasons, and I'm also not saying that if you dislike it, you're a misogynist. As I wrote in my second comment, my argument is simply that there _are_ plenty of people who disparage this movie just because it's directed towards (heterosexual) women, and that's not a particularly good reason.
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