Stephanie Meyer's Twilight has always been the source of derision among critical discourse. Her books sparked an international trend that went viral like only massive properties like Pokemon have achieved, and the books directly spawned 50 Shades of Grey through Erica Mitchell.
But to say they've been hated and berated would be unbelievably understated.
I remember watching The Vampire Diaries for the first time and the experience of watching a scene where one of the principal characters in the adaptation of a series of Young Adult novels reading and talking down to another similar brand of a Young Adult novel was shocking. It was like a Coke vs Pepsi ad, but played like Pepsi was winning the game of "Who Comes Off As Higher Brow Fiction".
Now to be fair, The Vampire Diaries as a show does outclass the Twilight Saga by a fair margin but you'd think there would be more honour among hated Vampire Fiction Franchises.
But it's been lingering in the back of my mind since, and now that I'm a fair bit older and I'm over the irrational hatred of this schpiel, I wanna examine it. I wanna examine it in good faith. I wanna dissect and understand this series of films in particular.
So to that end, I will be taking Twilight seriously. Starting with the 2008 film, Twilight.
The film starts off with a monologue where Bella says "I'd never given much thought to how I would die, but dying in the place of someone I love seems like a pretty good way to go. The deer is then hunted in a highly edited sequence by a vampire, likely one of the Cullens.
Underneath this opening statement, there's the imagery of a deer drinking water at a pond, and it's clear this is supposed to represent the death of innocence, the deer representing Bella's innocence and the death taking the form of Bella having to choose her mother's happiness over her own. It's not a bad leg to start the film on, a lot of vampire literature does. The stakes are set, and I actually don't hate this shot, so the film at least starts on a strong note. The editing obfuscates a lot of the action and while I'm not a huge fan of the jumpiness and shaky cam, which was prevalent in the late 2000s and early 2010s, I can still enjoy the tension of the scene.
It cuts to Bella waxing lyrical about how she'll miss Phoenix and her mother. "So I can't bring myself to regret the decision to leave home" is a weird sentiment to follow up that first statement with. The implication here is that Bella sees moving in with her father as the end of one life, but she "dies" in place of her mother who wants to travel with her new boyfriend. This sets up Bella as kind of a martyr figure and honestly makes her mother kind of a bad parent. But Bella is making the adult decision to leave her old life in Phoenix for a new one with her father, and that's actually one of the few endearing qualities she has as a protagonist.
Cue travel montage, indie folk song, helicopter shot and title card.
So, Forks Washington.
Phoenix Arizona is sunny and hot, Forks, Washington is cloudy and miserable. Contrast. Allegorical for Bella's view of her new life.
Phoenix Arizona is sunny and hot, Forks, Washington is cloudy and miserable. Contrast. Allegorical for Bella's view of her new life.
Also, that shot where the truck oddly has no driver comes in. Always weirds me out.
Bella's back in her estranged Dad's house and Charlie is trying to make a connection in his estranged dad way, and can I just say that Billy Burke as an awkward moustache dad is my favourite part of this whole production. Charlie comes off as very human and likeable. Bella also refers to her dad by his first name. Unsure if this is supposed to add to his estrangement, but I know a lot of kids from divorced parents and even the most estranged still call their biological parents Dad or Mom. There's nothing to really indicate that Bella and her father have any lingering animosity, it just seems mostly like two people who fail to connect.
Enter Jacob and Billie Black. I'll give props to Taylor Lautner for making the scene that extra bit awkward with an attempt at a handshake with him then retracting it because... They've already met. No really, they used to play together as kids so this is oddly endearing, although it makes Jacob into more of an ass knowing what's to come. But right here, about five minutes into the film, it's not nearly as offensive as I remember it on first viewing. Also, Billy Burke as an awkward moustache dad pretend-fighting in the background still makes me laugh. Can we have more of him, please? He's like a grown Michael Cera.
Next is Bella going to school I think there's also a relatable feeling here, being the new kid coming halfway through the semester in a shitty second-hand car, that, while well meant, kind of makes you stand out as the outsider.
Eric, the eyes and ears of this place, is immediately kind of an ass. He comes off way too strong and you gotta really feel for Bella, five minutes at this place and someone's already given her shit for the car her dad bought her and her childhood friend painstakingly fixed up, then this douchenozzle is asking her on a date after knowing her only from the myspace account he probably stalked her on. And also makes her front page news. Which means this school must have the absolutely slowest news days. Like, even my small town school paper had like, people winning awards, or regional snakes, or something on the front page. "New Girl Transfers To School" is the opposite of news.
Bella's remarkable unatheleticism is also hilarious to me. Like, they're not doing anything super involved, this is a casual game of volleyball and her face is magnetically attracting the ball.
Mike Newton, the jock dude, is the second person she's met and he's already trying to hit on her, which makes the attitude of boys at this school alarming. Yo, give them woman like a minute to breathe before you hit on her.
And here comes Anna Kendrick as Jessica to try adorkable the scene up a little. Also, Jessica, you can't just ask people from Arizona why they're not tan, come on, get it together.
Okay, lunch room, and then the dude who gave Bella shit about her car then kisses her on the cheek, which is like, dude, you need to learn a thing or two about consent before you Kevin Spacey yourself out of a career.
If you're wondering why I'm spending so much time on Bella's friends, it's because the film spends an inordinate amount of time introducing these characters who are ancillary at best. They're props in the background and The film would probably have been better if this was made more concise. Also, Bella's friends are all kind of shitty people.
Anyway so onto the introduction of the Cullens.
So allow me a weird tangent; This whole set up is really awkward.
Like, I get it, they're supposed to be hundred-year-old beings trapped in the unaging bodies of adolescents but it still baffles me as to why anyone would want to return to highschool. Also, the "foster kids" story they cooked up is unnecessarily convoluted. I mean, a boarding house run by eccentric rich folk would have worked just fine.
Jasper played by Jackson Rathbone was also in The Last Airbender as Sokka. That's a reminder I did not want to sit with alone.
So just, as a human who once was a teenage boy, the scene where Edward sees Bella and gets a whiff of her scent is... Hilarious.
What's supposed to be happening is that Bella's scent sends Edward into a lustful state where he wants to feed on her so bad his fangs pop out, but the implication here, was he looks at Bella, leans awkwardly in his seat and the pulls this face like he's seconds away from puking his lungs out because he smelled her hair.
And that's unintentionally hilarious. Why was this shot this way? Why was this written this way? Why was this edited this way? It's so tonally dissonant from the meet-cute that I'm expecting to happen that Twilight almost neuters all of the romantic intrigue in this one scene.
Also, there's the angel symbolism which is a little weird. Like, thematically, Edward Cullen supposedly saves Bella from the humdrum of her boring life with her father. Within the narrative, he's lined up in front of angel wings in a shot where he can't contain his vampire boner and Bella thinks he wants to puke because her hair has a dank stank. I cannot reiterate enough how tonally confused this scene is.
After that, we're in the diner with her dad and there are two parts of this I wanna draw attention to. The waitress mentions that her dad has the berry cobbler once a week, her favourite dessert on the menu when she was a child. This happens to be the second time where we're told about how much her dad misses her, but the next shot, Charlie reaching for the ketchup as to hand it to Bella at the same time she does? That actually worked. I like how it shows that Charlie still does on some level know his daughter, even though it's awkward and he struggles to close that gap. Honestly, I think Twilight inadvertently began a much better story of a girl and her dad reconnecting after a long period of estrangement but instead opted to start this fantasy romance which is, unfortunately, not as strong.
Bella's mom calls, Edward doesn't show up to school for a couple days, nothing super interesting happening here.
Cut to the shaky cam of the antagonists of the film claiming their first victim, a factory worker. Already said my piece on how I am not a fan of the way this was shot, but the pacing of the scene is decently quick, almost making it seem like an action movie for a second. While their introduction is necessary to forward the plot, they're going to have one more scene where they kill another ancillary character from the diner and then won't be mentioned again until the last 40 minutes of the film. And these three vampires are going to attempt to fill out the drama of a lot of Twilight's ongoing narrative, despite being kind of an afterthought.
Bella's dad replaces her tires and can I yet again just say that Billy Burke tries his hardest to carry this film, bless him.
Cut back to Bella's friends being the literal worst and now the actual plot of this movie starts. We're about 20 minutes in and this is what we've been setting up for, girl has met boy, boy has met girl, and now the inciting incident happens where our protagonists speak.
The first thing that happens is this whole scene is interrupted by the science professor promising a Golden Onion to the first partners who can separate and label the cells into the phases of mitosis correctly.
Also, Edward keeps awkward pushing shit along the desk towards her which serves very little narrative purpose and honestly, Robert, not one of your best performances.
So Bella and Edward make a connection, and while I hate the way Kristen Stewart just doesn't finish half her sentences in this scene, there's almost the glimmer of some chemistry here. Guy has been weird around girl, girl is stand-offish, guy asks about the weather, girl is nonplussed but answers anyway, girl lets something personal slip and guy asks about it.
Formulaic but it does get our protagonists where they need to be. Some decent J-cuts to keep the conversation going.
Edward shows some emotional intelligence by honing in on the fact that moving for the sake of her mother's happiness has made Bella unhappy, and that observation is surprisingly keen for the guy who had a vampire boner just a couple scenes ago. Edward's flip-flopping between charming highschooler and near sociopathic behaviour is a running theme and it muddies the character of Edward Cullen a lot. I'd personally have leaned more into his charm, and Robert Pattinson can do charming really well. Edward exits the scene in a huff when Bella notices his eyes changed colour, which is honestly such a narrative footnote that it's barely worth mentioning.
Next, the black van nearly hits Bella, Edward stops it, Bella ends up fine but in the hospital Doctor Carlisle Cullen is there and can I just say that vampire doctor is basically an oxymoron.
Carlisle, Edward and Esme have it out because of Edward's recklessness, but Bella overhears. After some back and forth about the accident, Edward tries to gaslight Bella and that's always the sign of a healthy and emotionally stable person to enter a romantic relationship with. And for the next bit, we have Edward just... Just being the worst.
More flip-flopping between being stand-offish and the film really doesn't know how to portray Edward's inner struggle with wanting Bella but also not wanting to hurt her. There's some good drama in there somewhere but the script doesn't carry it, Pattinson can't sell the little he has to work with and it all falls flat in the worst way.
So the gang goes to the beach, Bella invites Edward, he says no, Jacob spins Bella a story that makes her curious. Bella's friends invite her to go prom dress shopping, and then after a trip to the book store, Bella finds a group of rapists ready to rape as they get their rapey friends and alcohol for the raping. I mean, you can watch this scene for yourself and decide how problematic it is, but the overbearing threat of sexual violence is so lazily inserted that this would knock an entire point off my final rating were I to review this film.
Edward comes and stuntmans in his fucking Volvo and then is like, "I should have ripped their heads off" and Bella still somehow doesn't see Edward as the twelve red flags in a trenchcoat that he is.
After that, they end up at a restaurant, where Edward switches from murderous maniac to cool suave guy, and this date is almost charming, despite the lazy attempt at infusing tension in the previous scene. This could also have been made more concise by just having Edward and Bella meet in the book store, and there could be some intrigue with Edward knowing his way around the store and charming Bella with his book knowledge, but no, Edward Cullen, Volvo Stuntman. So unnecessary but it got a good laugh out of me.
Inside Edwards acts cute for a second but then turns the stalker to like, 11. Edward talks about his mind-reading powers for a bit but then accidentally makes it out to be that Bella is vapid, then mocks Bella for thinking he insinuated that she's vapid. Classy.
Of course, there's the scene. You know.
The scene.
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The scene.
Of course, there's the scene. You know.
The scene.
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The scene.
This is the point where there is some decent albeit cheesy romantic dialogue thrown in, but Pattinson botches the delivery so badly that what would have been an endearing line just comes off as terrifying.
I'm going to jump ahead of time to Edward and Bella finally getting over the initial barrier to their relationship. There's a scene where Edward comes to pick Bella up and her narration here is probably indicative of how unbelievably out of place it is. Bella's entire character could probably have been improved by cutting out most of her voice over, save for the opening lines, and the ones where the vampire James pretends to kidnap her mother. But I'll get to that in a moment.
Eventually, Bella's mom calls, and we have the return of the thematic throughline; The room is brightly lit, and Bella admits for the first time that she likes living in Forks Washington, albeit only because Edward also lives in Forks. Edward interrupts and the two have a scene where they stay up late talking. Notably in this montage, Bella falls asleep, and Edward gently strokes her cheek. Bella then cuddles up closer to Edward. Moments like these are ones that the film needed more of, just to really sell Edward and Bella's relationship.
After that, Vampire Baseball.
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It's goofy and silly and it might be the one time everyone on screen is having any actual fun. There's some sloppy wirework and you can physically see the actors gear up to jump on a trampoline. But, it's still fun, despite the relatively low production quality of the scene.
That's cut short by the arrival of James, Victoria, and Laurent. For what are essentially our main antagonists, they've all been extremely uninvolved in the plot. Sure, they committed two on-screen murders, but they were of characters we didn't really know or care about. And that's the biggest downfall of these characters. The Cullens don't know anything about them, they've really only been making Charlie's job hard, and their reasons for wanting mess with Bella is... Contrived. Actually, only one of them actually wants to mess with Bella.
They start and Edward gets super protective over Bella, but as they're about to leave, James ends up down wind of Bella's dank stank, which makes the man go full-on hunter mode. Which makes him get the most characterization out of the three. It's also notable that Laurent is the third black character, and I think he might be the only named one in the film, which is emblematic of other problems in the film, but at least there's some representation of Native American characters. Notable that this isn't only a problem with Twilight, it's also a huge problem with shows like Buffy, and the Underworld movies.
Anyway, James begins to hunt Bella and she decides that in order to keep Charlie safe she has to come up with an excuse to leave. Bella interprets this as an opportunity to then repeat the same hurtful sentiments her mother used all those years back. It's notable that this is the kind of reckless thing a misguided teenager might do, but watching Charlie try his best to hold onto his daughter who, by all accounts, thinks martyring herself for the benefit of others is still the correct thing to do.
James, being a smart person, listens in on the conversation, and figures out Bella is going to her mother's or is at least pretending to. He then uses a recording of her mother from a videotape from her childhood to trick Bella into thinking he has her mother, and she must now abandon the safety of the Cullens and confront him.
So the thesis of the film is then fully met as Bella goes to meet James, now narratively coming to a head as Bella chooses once again to die in place of her mother, although the death is now literal rather than allegorical. She's also chosen to try to protect her father from James, which has brought her further unhappiness.
To me it seems that the logical conclusion here would be to have Bella learn a lesson about how martyrdom doesn't pay off, and that she has to focus on her own safety and happiness, instead of trying to keep others from sharing the burden with her.
Instead, Edward comes in and saves her, she nearly dies, then the movie ends with her at the prom. Also, Jacob shows up to remind us that he's still in this story.
To be fair, Bella kinda does get put through hell for deciding to martyr herself once again, but Bella never really learns from her mistakes. James humiliates her, threatens her, breaks her leg, tosses her around, bites her and thereby injects her with a venom that puts her through excruciating pain, but all of this builds up to a moment for Edward, in which he learns to find the willpower to exercise restraint. Which, honestly, kind of sucks as a climax.
It's clear that this isn't Edward's story, it's Bella's. The filmmakers have essentially robbed Bella of her great revelation moment. And she didn't learn to find happiness on her own terms, the closest thing she finds is the desire to die and end her human life in order to find happiness in a life with Edward.
This discovery within Bella isn't one of character growth, it's the same mistake in a different flavour. I think this represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the themes the filmmakers brought up.
If I had to rewrite this ending, I would have had Charlie be the one to burst in and save Bella, and the two of them together then find a way to beat James. Edward could then be too late to save Bella, and the ultimate lesson here for Edward could be that he can't keep pushing Bella away as a means to protect her.
To me it seems that the logical conclusion here would be to have Bella learn a lesson about how martyrdom doesn't pay off, and that she has to focus on her own safety and happiness, instead of trying to keep others from sharing the burden with her.
Instead, Edward comes in and saves her, she nearly dies, then the movie ends with her at the prom. Also, Jacob shows up to remind us that he's still in this story.
To be fair, Bella kinda does get put through hell for deciding to martyr herself once again, but Bella never really learns from her mistakes. James humiliates her, threatens her, breaks her leg, tosses her around, bites her and thereby injects her with a venom that puts her through excruciating pain, but all of this builds up to a moment for Edward, in which he learns to find the willpower to exercise restraint. Which, honestly, kind of sucks as a climax.
It's clear that this isn't Edward's story, it's Bella's. The filmmakers have essentially robbed Bella of her great revelation moment. And she didn't learn to find happiness on her own terms, the closest thing she finds is the desire to die and end her human life in order to find happiness in a life with Edward.
This discovery within Bella isn't one of character growth, it's the same mistake in a different flavour. I think this represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the themes the filmmakers brought up.
If I had to rewrite this ending, I would have had Charlie be the one to burst in and save Bella, and the two of them together then find a way to beat James. Edward could then be too late to save Bella, and the ultimate lesson here for Edward could be that he can't keep pushing Bella away as a means to protect her.
Bella would then make a meaningful connection with her father, tell her mother that she'd like to remain in Forks, and the death of her innocence could be capped off with a shot of like, a baby deer learning to stand by itself and become an adult, that from the death of innocence there can be the birth of adulthood.
But the planting of themes that the filmmakers never follow through on is kind of the gist of Twilight. It's not thematically driven, and it's trying to be character driven but the only character that's even remotely worth watching the film for is Charlie.
The first twenty minutes of the film actually does set up a strong premise, but within the three acts the film meanders too much in a premise it doesn't follow through on, which is Bella coming to terms with and finding happiness in Forks, and when the supernatural elements pick up, it's like the end point of a 40 minute pilot episode rather than the midpoint of a two hour film. The romance between Edward and Bella is almost believable but Edward's damage comes off so strong that his relationship with Bella is just toxic, with very little admittance of how toxic the relationship really is.
But there exists a good film in there somewhere. If you remove the supernatural elements, there's a strong narrative about reconnecting with an estranged parent and not taking the happiness of others as your responsibility. And if you cut out more of the creepy scenes with Edward, with a couple changes there is the germ of a fun teen romance hidden in there.
I will say that there's a lot of newfound appreciation that I have for Twilight in a lot of regards. There are things I like, this isn't a total garbage fire of a script and plot, there's something in there that in the hands of the right director and scriptwriter, could be a good film. There's probably a way to still marry the supernatural elements and small-town drama.
Maybe in a couple years, there'll be a worthwhile reboot.
