(no subject)

[brokenrecord]

So, um. I maybe saw Twilight this morning instead of doing math homework (which I don't understand and need to finish and understand because I'm tutoring Katie tonight) or finishing my 3-4 page reaction paper for Developmental Psych (which I absolutely have to finish because we need to do 2 more by the end of the semester and there are only 2 articles left to write on. On the plus side, I did half of it last night, which I kind of wasn't expecting of myself. On the minus side, unless I want to write the second this weekend at home, I should have finished this Sunday night so I could start on the second yesterday). And now I have an hour before German lab when I could spend time doing the aforementioned things I need to do, but instead I'm going to babble about my reaction to the movie.

Um, I kind of loved it. I mean, here's the thing: if you hated the books or hate the whole concept or hate the fandom and crazy fans or whatever, I don't see why you would expect to like it, you know? It seems to me like a lot of negative reviews are from people who weren't going to like it no matter what, so... I don't really get why they bothered seeing it? I don't know. I feel like if you enjoyed the books, there's no reason why you shouldn't have enjoyed the movie, and if you didn't, I don't know why you'd expect the movie to fix everything you hated about the books. But I don't know, maybe that's just me.

I recognize all the flaws of the book (and, consequently, the movie). The thing is, I kind of don't care. It's enjoyable. It makes me happy. And maybe that says I have horrible taste, I don't know. But, I mean, they're just guilty pleasures for me. And the movie basically satisfied everything I expected it would.

Ok, so there were some things I didn't like. The movie needed more Jasper and Alice (and even more Emmett). I wouldn't have minded more scenes with Bella and her human friends, either. But I guess if less of that meant more Edward, I'm ok with that. But I did like how the secondary characters were a little more fleshed out, despite being in the movie less than in the book. In the book, I pretty much couldn't distinguish between Eric and Mike at all, but in the movie, they were entirely separate characters. Just their attitudes and personalities were totally different. I actually liked Jessica in the movie. I liked that they didn't include the part about the guy who nearly runs Bella over also being in love with her (ha I'm totally forgetting his name. Terry? Or something?), because it did feel like way too many people were in love with her. I mean, it's still a lot, but it's slightly lessened. And there was less about Mike and Eric being in love with her (mostly because they had less time in the movie, but still). Bella seemed like less of a Mary-Sue in the movie. I think part of that is not being in her head all the time, and also that Kristen Stewart really handled the character well. Also, Jacob was pretty cute (although I'm sure I'll hate him in Eclipse. I liked him in the books at this point, too).

I thought the vampire baseball scene was pretty kickass, honestly. And I also thought James, Laurent, and Victoria were really cool and well-done as well. And I liked seeing Edward kick James's ass.

And I thought Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were great. I wasn't sure about them being cast, but they made it work. They have excellent chemistry together, and I think that's really what made me love the movie. It would not have worked at all if there had been no chemistry between them.

Ugh, I don't know. It was just fun, ok? I'm just going to enjoy this movie and try not to feel ridiculous about that fact.


I had coffee this morning, and I try not to have too much caffeine normally, and so now I'm just really jittery. blah. Ok I should probably get work done now so I won't hate myself later for procrastinating and failing at school.

Comments

[overthemoo.livejournal.com]

I did hate the book but honestly expected to enjoy the movie. I thought it'd hilarious, amusing and entertaining. But hardly even the silliness/ridiculousness of it made me laugh, it was anything but amusing, and was overall extremely dull. I watched this at home without an audience. I don't feel like watching it with Twilight fans would have changed my experience too much - I think if I was amused with anything, it would have been with the girly squeals. As for one not expecting to enjoy the movie since they don't like the book, I don't think that is the case. A couple of my friends hat the book and enjoyed the movie a little bit, but not overly so. Also, movies are adaptations and they can change whatever they want. I would have loved if the film expanded on the book. Give Bella some development - have her kind of be annoyed by Edward's odd behavior instead of wishing she knew why he didn't apparently like her. I always thought that was pathetic and the kind of character we were introduced to in the beginning of the book initially had me thinking she wouldn't give a shit about this random guy and his behavior. But that's where Meyer's awful writing first comes into plain sight. (Well, that and HOW she writes.) Or, if you want to keep everything as is, make it a story of lust. Don't have lust there and try to convince me they're in love. The movie certainly could improve the book and I think fans would have liked it even more, and if they didn't, then that'd be their problem. Development and a purpose is nothing to complain about. I mean, I love the Sweeney Todd musical, and I love that Burton and crew messed with it. They changed it around quite a bit to better fit a film depiction. Twilight was the book verbatim, with the exception of adding random killings by the nomad vamps, which was the only good move. So, like I said, I would have loved for this film to be a new guilty pleasure of mine - but I found it incredibly dull and thought they could have done so much more with it, even if they did keep the plot and everything as is.

There were two minor things I very much had a problem with. The first being that I didn't feel KStewart was Bella. If I get into it, it'll turn into a novel. lol And Edward? Not too sure why they allowed him to stutter - he is this magnificent, flawless being, yes? He is suppose to have this unbelievably smooth, unfaltering voice. And this is not something I felt "OMG TOO DIFFERENT FROM THE BOOK!", because frankly I didn't give a crap about those kinds of things. But that is prominent feature of his character. And honestly, I know KStewart and RPattz get along very well, but I didn't feel much of a connection between them in the film. I actually assumed there would be but I didn't see it.

Can we talk about that horrible stutter of a monologue KStewart had in the hospital at end end of the movie? What was that!!?!?? lol It was without a doubt the oddest thing I've ever heard.

[overthemoo.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Sorry I wrote so much. lol Didn't feel like I wrote that much...

[http://users.livejournal.com/brokenrecord__/]

I kind of feel like it came off as rude when I was saying I didn't understand why people who hated the book expected more from the movie. I didn't mean it as an insult to anyone else, just that I really don't understand it because I know if I hated the book, there's no way I'd watch the movie. But I can understand why you'd watch the movie and be disappointed in it from your perspective.

And, I mean, I can't say that I fully disagree with most of your complaints about the movie, either. I find Bella really annoying most of the time in the book, but I kind of excuse that because I really love Edward's character (and I basically ignore all his flaws and the flaws of the book as a result of that). And I feel like Bella was less annoying in the movie because of Kristen Stewart and because we didn't have to be totally in her head for the entire movie. And if you didn't see any chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson then I can also see why the movie would be really dull, but I personally did see chemistry between them, so I enjoyed all their scenes together.

Ugh I don't know, I don't feel like I'm explaining myself very well. Like, I definitely agree that a movie can develop and improve upon the book. I guess I just didn't expect the movie to at all. I had really low expectations for this movie, and I remember back when it was first announced thinking that it'd basically be a disaster. So the fact that it turned out better than I expected made me really enjoy it. I don't know, it's not that I think it is brilliant or anything, but it is a guilty pleasure for me.

[overthemoo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know you didn't. :) No worries! I just had to speak up because I dislike the book but could not wait for the film. I was just disappointed because I expected it to be just as fun as the book was, the fun in the book wasn't intentional of course.

Bella was definitely less annoying in the movie, but Stewart's overall lackluster performance almost negated her being less annoying for me. And I'm glad you enjoyed their scenes together! Maybe it didn't help that I was watching the crappy CAM version?

And right, I didn't expect this movie to improve the book at all, I just wish it did. Not when I was watching it, but when I started watching the behind-the-scenes videos and such. And man, they totally could have used the Cullen family more - Bella's friends had much more in the movie than they did. Which I like for them, but didn't like for the Cullens especially with how welcoming all but one of them are to her. Anyway, glad you have it as a guilty pleasure! :) Maybe with a better quality version, I might like it a bit more? I'm sure it didn't help with the dull factor. And I do agree that that crappiness of the book and the film's close adaptation certainly didn't help me in my liking of it.

[overthemoo.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think I'd just like to blame Catherine Hardwicke for the most part. I think she took the wrong approach for this adaptation. I mean, sure, when I was reading the book - I imagined indie like dull-setting. But I think for this to work and be the most entertaining thing ever, it needed to be a little more mainstream looking. I never saw this film, but I'd guess more like The Covenant. That film looked more hardcore, you know? I think that is what Twilight needed. Also, it was kind of sad that Hardwicke had to rely on close-ups and camera swooping to portray feeling in the scenes - that's what the actors are for, y'know? I feel like a still shot would have done SO much more.