Don't get me wrong, I'm the last person to expect to be taking a trip to the cinema to attend a midnight screening of Breaking Dawn: Part 1 this fall as many of my friends are. I've only read the first book of the series which I considered nothing special and I've only watched the first film of the series properly (having seen New Moon and effectively dozed off) and it didn't seem to have as much of an affect on me as it did for everyone else. I am of course talking about the TWILIGHT SAGA, a series of books written in the first person and films centered around the annoying teenage protagonist Bella Swan who is reduced to moving to a miserable and small town, Forkes and soon falls in love with the irresistable and broody vampire, Edward Cullen.
For me the nature of the books are completely ridiculous. I could say that approximately 100 out of approx. 400 pages of the first novel is entirely dedicated to Miss. Swan passionately describing how amazingly beautiful Mr. Cullen is but what does it matter what I think? I'm one out of many of millions of teenage girls across the world, the majority of whose brains have been hindered by the FICTIONAL handsome image of Edward Cullen. There are several others critisms I could attack these books with but there is no denying the phenomenal effect these books have had in the recent years.
Apparently these books have existed since 2005 and they have enjoyed growing commercial success since but I'm sure the majority of people across the world (certainly in the UK) wouldn't have been aware of them until the first film was released in the fall of 2008. What I find most fascinating about the Twilight series in general is not the dramatic series of events that Miss. Swan goes through but the inspiration from its success that it has sparked in pop culture since. Thinking about modern cinema for example, you can never expect to be too far from the release of a supernatural teenage action/drama film. A most recent example would be "I am Number Four" a simple fantasy story involving a guy with un-human powers and, you guessed it, trying to juggle an impossible high-school romance at the same time. But it isn't just simple teenage films, Twilight has also rebirthed the horror genre back into prominence again. Hammer, the legendary Biritish horror film production brand released the brilliant re-make "Let me in" last year, another broody vampire flick but a lot smarter than your average vampire flick, trust me. I'm glad that this has happened. Yes, it has encouraged film studios to have the confidence to try to come up with new Harry Potter's but it has also encouraged a new angle on horror films aswell, moving away from torture porn, blood and guts to character driven, moving and hanuting films that have an emotional impact but have the capability to take you on a ride aswell.
But it's not just pop culture, its got youths thinking, particularly me. What is good literature? Could you argue that the Twilight books are guilty pleasures or do you personally belive them to be good reads? Go on Youtube and you can view people passionately battling their hearts out, determined to convince you that these books are complete bollocks or they are the most inspiring books they have ever come across. They research their arguments out and everything, some articulate and present well backed up points proving that they are only educating themselves futhur in terms of what good literature actually is and what good films are.
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