Every Monday morning, InsidePulse Movies Czar Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings an irreverent and oftentimes hilarious look at pop culture, politics, sports and whatever else comes to mind. And sometimes he writes about movies.
One of the amusing things this weekend has been the give and take between Twilight fans and film critics. You don’t have to look farther than Travis’s review who was less than loving towards the film; the comments were rather amusing in and of their own right, I admit. And it opened up something amusing in my mind about the film series from one of the comments, about how the film was about “first love” and whatnot, and something from my review kind of sparked some thought in my mind.
It’s hard for anyone to get into the Twilight films if they weren’t either a fan of the book series before or an overall fan of the gothic romance drama genre before. And I get that and took it into consideration when I saw the film; I can see why people would enjoy but I didn’t. However just because one doesn’t get into a material doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate it for what it is. My inherent loathing of anything Twilight shouldn’t influence my ability to watch the films in the genre; I tend to dislike the whole fan base and how over the top it gets but that’s more of a pop culture loathing than a true loathing of Twilight.
But I’ve been unable to respect it like I do with other massive franchises like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. And it’s mainly because the two characters we’re supposed to care about the most, who have this romance of extreme largesse for the ages, look like they wouldn’t be Facebook friends much less lovers when put on the silver screen.
That’s been my major problem with the whole series; and yes, I have seen the whole series. Any good movie aficionado has to watch them, I think, because they’re valuable in the pop culture lexicon as well as they represent a specific moment in time like Titanic and Avatar do to a great degree. Now we look back and wonder in amazement why the former grossed as much as it did, and in 10 years will do the same with the latter, but now we have something similar and much easier to mock.
For me, when I watch film the biggest thing that bothers me other than crappy story-telling is lack of chemistry. In some films it’s ok but for what has always been that the film is a grand romance between Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) it’s so remarkably absent that it’s baffling. Considering they’ve been linked together romantically since the franchise began, and part of their mutual fame rests on the “are they or aren’t they” aesthetic of their romantic liaison, the fact that they don’t have chemistry on the screen is shocking.
And it’s supposed to carry the entire series.
These two never really have chemistry on screen and it kind of kills the franchise the way a dark “drama” like Precious with “Yackety Sax.”
But here’s the thing; it doesn’t matter who you would’ve cast for the two star-crossed lovers (in retrospect) because the film’s fan base is something to behold. I will give them credit for coming out en masse for a project with nowhere near the visibility of a novel series like “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” were. A “Potter” book coming out was an event that mobbed stores with people of all ages whereas “Twilight” and its sequels all just popped out and was gobbled up by the usual sorts who devour all things with “romance” in them.
And it’s part of the reason why I think that people outside of those who were already fans haven’t been able to get into the film franchise at all. It’s what separates this franchise from something like the Harry Potter franchise because Potter was less character dependant than Twilight is. Same with Rings, too.
Harry Potter as a whole boils down to good triumphing over evil in an epic, multi-storyline laden franchise. Harry is the embodiment of good, Voldemort of evil, and the film is an epic journey that finds Harry going through what amounts to a training montage to get ready to face a villain that would make Ivan Drago crap himself.
Lord of the Rings is about power and temptation; the one ring to rule them all is the ultimate temptation and the series deals with various personality types trying to avoid that sort of fate.
Twilight is a grand love story between an immortal and a mortal who find themselves at the right time in the right place with a dude who apparently hates wearing t-shirts hanging around all the time.
We can joke all we want about Twilight at its heart being a franchise that has a theme of “get a boyfriend you dull girl, you” but really it’s about a grand romance. Bella and Edward are Romeo and Juliet but without any of the subtle character nuances or tragedy that mires Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers. They may make for good characters in a novel but in terms of cinema they’re not up to par.
A Movie A Week – The Challenge
This Week’s DVD – It Might Get Loud
I’m not a big music fan, I readily admit, as I stopped trying to discover bands like I do films when I left college and didn’t have the time to do so anymore. That and music really stopped being interesting to me on the whole a long time ago, as well, but I can give proper credit to the artists behind it. Being an artist in anything takes talent and music is no exception. I may not really care all that much about the music but I love listening to musicians talk about their tradecraft; there’s something to it that gives you an insight into the creative process that anyone in the entertainment field goes through. Thus It Might Get Loud fascinated me from the get go.
You can click here to read my original review of the film from over two years ago when I saw it in theatres.
The film follows three of history’s greatest guitarists as they meet for what amounts to an extended, glorified jam session. You have Jack White of The White Stripes (and a handful of other bands too, apparently), U2’s lead guitarist “The Edge,” and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and The Yardbirds all getting together for one day to talk about musicianship amongst one other and jam, of course. In between this fairly historic session, documented by the documentary film-maker in Davis Guggenheim that people proclaim Michael Moore to be, we follow all three as they discuss what brought them to that point as famous guitarists.
We get to see their origins as musicians and get an insight into what pushed them to become the men they ended up becoming. Seeing Edge discuss his gadgetry is an insight into how U2’s power-pop sound came to be. Page gives us an insight into the history of rock and how the genre evolved over the years. White grew up in Detroit during the great hip-hop and rap era of that city; you can see why he’s so possessed in becoming a better guitarist because of his childhood comprising of people who’d rather be microphone controllers instead of lead singers.
It’s an utterly brilliant documentary and well worth the view. This is Davis Guggenheim at his best, allowing the material to dominate instead of bloviating about some random point like Moore and the guys trying to capitalize on that sort of perversion of a documentary that plenty have wound up becoming.
Strongest recommendation possible.
What Looks Good This Weekend, and I Don’t Mean the $2 Pints of Bass Ale and community college co-eds with low standards at the Alumni Club
Arthur Christmas – One kid doesn’t get a present. It’s up to Arthur to get her it or else she won’t believe anymore.
Skip it –If Santa runs his gift-giving as effectively as the trailer does, you’d think he’d have done a cost-benefit analysis and realize that one kid not believing versus all those resources to make sure she still believes would turn out to be a negative. But that’s the Grinch in me. The film fan in me says that animation that comes out closer to the end of the year is usually cheap cash-ins with the holidays, like this one, thus making it avoidable.
Hugo – Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
See it – Scorsese rarely misfires and he’s usually money when it comes to adaptations.
The Muppets – The Muppets return to the big screen
See it – Jason Segel might not be everyone’s cup of tea as an actor, far from it, but as a writer the guy is money.
A Dangerous Method – (Limited Release) – A look at the relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.
See it – Cronenberg is significantly over-rated as a director, I’ve always thought, but I’m curious to see him work with such good source material and a really good cast.
The Artist (Limited) – (Limited Release) – Read Travis’s review. Seriously.
See it – Travis gave it four stars and his judgment is usually impeccable. It’s also being touted as this year’s potential Best Picture winner, as well.
My Week With Marilyn – (Limited Release) – Marilyn Monroe shacks up with some Englishman while on the set of The Prince and The Showgirl.
Skip It – It’s getting mixed buzz so far and it is beginning to feel more like a typical film with Michelle Williams where she’s brilliant but the film doesn’t really match her performance.
Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings his trademarked irreverence and offensive hilarity to Twitter in 140 characters or less. Follow him @MMCritic_Kubryk.
