Twilight (2008)
The General story: Bella Swan, a quiet, reclusive teenage girl,
lives in the rainy town of Forks to be
closer to her father. Her dad, the Sherriff, watches over his only daughter
with his shotgun! Eventually, Bella catches the eyes of a good-looking guy in
her class, also quiet and reclusive. Edward finds himself drawn to the girl,
and she soon discovers his secret; he’s a Vampire! Bella is thrust into a world
of darkness and becomes the object of Edwards lust and love, but he will have
to fight back his own urges for human blood and protect Bella from rival
vampires that come strolling into town.
What influenced the movie? Based on the first in a series of novels
by Stephanie Meyer, the film adaptation took its inspiration straight from the
page, appealing to it’s large readership of teenage girls. Any teenage boys who
read the books may have been ordered to do so by their girlfriends, but despite
it’s obvious target audience, the boys can find some things to like in this
movie. Twilight cashed in on the trashy romance novels devoured by young girls,
and planned to launch a saga in the making, speaking directly to a generation
of teens who were sad and sombre, but made it look cool. Emo’s, basically.
How the movie influenced the 00's: Twilight was a case of capturing lightning
in a bottle, as the clever casting paid off, and it’s follow up stories were
quickly rushed into production. Each year for the next four years, it was all
about The Twilight Saga. “New Moon” followed, ditching Edward for his muscular counterpart
Jacob, who spends the movie shirtless purely to show off his abs. Then “Eclipse”
came along, focusing on a love triangle
and a new crop of vampires. It was all building up to the wedding of the
century in “Breaking Dawn”, where Bella says I Do to Edward, and accepts her fate of becoming a vampire just so
she can be with him forever. The success of the movies and the books meant
every Young Adult fiction writer was cashing in on the Vampire Love Story
genre, and bookstores were flooded with a seemingly never-ending series of
books about teenage bloodsuckers in love.
What makes it stand out as a film of the
00's? Twilight came along
later in the decade, but it’s timing wasn’t an issue. Given the quick
succession in which the movies were made, capitalising on the youthful looks of
its cast, Twilight showed there was a bundle of cash to be mined from the
extensive collection of novels written for teenagers. Its success meant book
series like “The Hunger Games” and “The Maze Runner” would be filmed, and each
series went on to find its own successes.
Impact of the movie still felt today: Twilight gets repeated viewings from it’s
core audience, who will argue endlessly over which side they are on; Team
Edward and Team Jacob. The series garners new fans every year or so, as young
girls fall in love with the idea of love that is pure, unconditional and full
of sweeping romance. The only catch is those hunky guys are vampires or
werewolves, but you’ve got to take the good with the bad sometimes right?
Vampires get reimagined in the movies at least once a decade, and Twilight was
definitely the vampire movement of the 00’s, which not only spewed out
countless imitators on bookshelves, but also inspired TV shows like “The
Vampire Diaries”, or any other show featuring teenagers with powers, curses or
deep, dark secrets, who try to make sense of the world and fall in love – as all
adolescents do – while dealing with the macabre. Despite your tastes, Twilight
went this way, and an entire generation of teenagers went with it. And it’s
author and filmmakers went all the way to the bank!
You can read my more in-depth "analysis" of The Twilight Saga here. It's not painful reading, although my viewing experience was painful 😣
No comments:
Post a Comment