https://www.patreon.com/posts/twilight-51507407
created by TychoCelchuuu on 21/05/2021 at 04:06 UTC
75 upvotes, 60 top-level comments (showing 25)
Comment by jakeupnorth at 21/05/2021 at 09:03 UTC*
130 upvotes, 1 direct replies
There's this Tarantino and Eli Roth interview I wanna paraphrase:
Eli Roth: ... Like vampires that sparkle. (Dismissively)
Tarantino: Those movies aren't for us, they're for 12 year old girls. The great thing about them is they actually make you feel like a 12 year old girl. They could be some young girl's gateway drug to cinema.
Comment by Mezentine at 21/05/2021 at 19:41 UTC
85 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Listening to Griffin say "But Twilight wasn't like a mainstream thing until the movie came out" and realizing "Oh shit, I'm only a few years younger than him but he **was not in high-school** when Twilight came out, because **every fucking person I knew** had read that book"
Comment by Dreamravenmatt at 21/05/2021 at 17:57 UTC
77 upvotes, 2 direct replies
David Sims: “Edward’s car is so lame.” Me listening to this episode in the exact same car: oh...
Comment by apathymonger at 21/05/2021 at 20:43 UTC*
58 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was not prepared for how wonderfully insane the baseball scene was.
I read Anna Kendrick's book a few years ago, and she seemed fairly positive-if-bemused about her experience:
For those of you thinking, Wait, she was in Twilight?, I sure was! I was the sassy, awkward friend who broke up the relentless succession of intense stare-downs with musings on boys, tanning, and various school gossip. It was a sweet gig. The rest of the actors had to bring heart and honesty to fantasy situations involving life, death, eternal love, and the preservation of one’s immortal soul. All I had to do was make jokes about how everyone was acting weird all the time.
The best part was that I got all the fun with none of the consequences! I got to show up to this mega-franchise for one to three weeks per movie, bear witness to the madness, and act like an idiot. I was once allowed to go on a rant about the zombie apocalypse genre (which was mostly a shout-out to Edgar Wright) and it actually ended up in the film. And I wasn’t saddled with the creepy super-fame. Most of the cast couldn’t walk out the door without being mobbed, but, weirdly, the vapid friend from school didn’t inspire the same zeal in fans. None of the other filmmakers I worked with during those years had ever seen Twilight, but the series kept me in room and board while I did their movies for no money. It was like the world’s most ridiculous day job.
Most of the essay is just on how wet and cold it was, and then a bit on how much fun it was to do the "pile of corpses" dream sequence for Breaking Dawn.
Comment by chasequarius at 21/05/2021 at 04:43 UTC
44 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I’d never seen this movie and...it’s fine! Kind of dull, but not terrible. Edward is a dang-ass freak though.
Comment by Mushroomer at 21/05/2021 at 16:55 UTC*
39 upvotes, 1 direct replies
So I'm actually from St. Helens, where they shot most of this movie (after Forks refused them key tax breaks) - and so this movie is always a fun nostalgia trip of random streets, trails, & parking lots of my childhood. Same town from Halloweentown, as well.
Fun fact - the scene with Edward at the piano was filmed in our high school cafeteria (which was not used as the cafeteria in the movie itself). Which means that just out of frame, there's an enormous mural of a lion that Edward is essentially playing piano to.
Comment by Haunting-Reflection at 22/05/2021 at 02:00 UTC
35 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I truly hate myself for knowing this, but the sibling couples got together AFTER becoming vampires. I’ll see myself out.
Comment by Mezentine at 21/05/2021 at 20:04 UTC
35 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The more explicitly bonkers part of the worldbuilding in this franchise are well documented, but watching this now something about actually seeing it on screen does drive home how insane it is that their solution to "We're stuck as teenagers forever" is "guess we'll just keep attending public high-school for our entire lives"
Comment by [deleted] at 21/05/2021 at 04:42 UTC
31 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by YourMombadil at 21/05/2021 at 20:55 UTC
26 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I’m convinced that Billy Burke was told he was in Ordinary People and then acts the fucking shit out of this whole series. I’m not a fan but every time he’s on screen he’s so legitimately, non-ironically great that it’s somehow hilarious.
Comment by wan70n at 22/05/2021 at 00:38 UTC
25 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Have to agree with Ben that this series would be elevated by the addition of Frankensteins
Comment by RegretPopular9970 at 21/05/2021 at 23:32 UTC
21 upvotes, 0 direct replies
What a fantastic start to this miniseries.
1. Giving proper love and respect to the performances of K-Stew and R-Patts and “Twilight” MVP Billy Burke.
2. Giving it just the right balance of snarking over some of the more dubious artistic choices and giving some of the ones that do awork some proper respect.
3. Not falling into the easy trap of “LOL Twilight dumb”.
4. Ben’s reaction to vampire baseball.
5. Their descriptions of Peter Facinelli (“he looks like he carries a human head in his briefcase”, “he looks like his name should be Dr. Acula”).
6. The completely unsurprising revelation that David had a crush on Elizabeth Reaser (which, same, David, same).
And the revelation that we’re gonna get a “Don’t Be A Menace” bonus ep is the cherry on this sparkly sundae.
Comment by beepbeepstreet at 21/05/2021 at 14:13 UTC
21 upvotes, 1 direct replies
honestly my only real knock on the acting in this one is that Pattinson doesn't quite have the accent figured out yet, otherwise him and Kristen Stewart are infinitely more interesting than the roles are on paper. Like I'm trying to picture some of her peers in the role and it's a condescending overacted nightmare, she makes the awkwardness naturalistic (which gets sorta drowned out in the sequels as they get bigger/blander).
Comment by [deleted] at 21/05/2021 at 14:23 UTC
19 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The midnight premiere of this movie is the most fun I’ve ever had at a movie theater. Just preteen me with all of my friends and the entire theater full of girls I knew shrieking along at all the most dramatic moments. I’m glad Twilight is having a meme-y resurgence because the books/movies are so fucking funny to look back upon as an adult. I do think that for all its faults, Twilight really nails what it feels like to be a teenage girl.
Comment by radiantbaby123 at 21/05/2021 at 08:39 UTC
19 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I think of lot of the “bad acting” hits that Stewart and Pattinson took can be blamed on the contacts. Not only are his weird colours but hers really flatten out her eyes, they do kind of work in some ways but both of them really have to act through them (see Jackson Rathbone for someone completely unable to do so).
Comment by b0xcard at 21/05/2021 at 20:27 UTC*
16 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was in high school right when *Twilight* blew up. And it was a formative time for me, because it's when I adopted the philosophy that I wouldn't dunk on anything I didn't experience. So, whatever criticisms I have of *Twilight*, they are from reading the books and watching the movies. Even then, I mainly found them boring, although I got semi-ironically into the Edward vs. Jacob debate (at the time, I was Jacob person; now, I'm more of an Edward person), and I love and am fascinated by the film soundtracks. I haven't yet rewatched the movies for this miniseries, but some notes on this commentary:
-Griffin touches on how these books are heavy on descriptive language. This is true, and it's absolutely part of their success. If you ask fans of *Twilight* why they like these books, they'll often describe them as sensual in the most literal sense. They are about feeling on a physical level.
-Another reason that this franchise blew up as much as it did is because it is safe rebellion. These stories are for teenagers who are aware of their sexuality but still not totally comfortable with it. It is erotica for unerotic people--again, these are sensual, rather than explicitly leaning into sex, until the fourth book, which gets pretty graphic.
-The guys describe Au Hasard Bulbasaur's performance in *Twilight* as "animalistic," where he describes his performance of Edward Cullen as "constipated and a little stone"--though that may more aptly apply to the sequels.
-Kristen Stewart is fine in these movies, but she doesn't totally embody Bella. In terms of personality, Bella is a fairly normal young woman who tends to be a little more assertive than awkward. Physically, she is described as having auburn hair, and basically not already looking like a vampire.
-The boys would not regret doing an episode on *Red Riding Hood*, Catherine Hardwicke's follow-up to *Twilight*--which is mentioned in this episode. It is truly the most demented product of the post-*Twilight* YA boom.
Great ep, as always.
Comment by [deleted] at 21/05/2021 at 04:26 UTC*
76 upvotes, 5 direct replies
I don't like this movie all that much.
I however feel obligated to say this. I regret my own behavior when this movie came out when I was in high school and during the Twilight hype. I thought I was so cool and edgy by shitting all over the dumb vampire books that were written with women and girls as the primary audience. It was an easy target. I cringe thinking back to who I was 12-13 years ago. I was a little shit and I wish someone called me out on it.
I guess I am sorry for being a sexist gatekeeping asshole back then.
Let people like and enjoy things.
Comment by jjnunn118 at 21/05/2021 at 05:09 UTC
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was also on the gate keeping edgy “Twilight sucks” train in high school, but since then Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart have become my two favorite actors. Went into this with an open mind tonight and uh... it’s bad! But in a kinda charming way!
My one real critique is that if Bella really fell down 2 flights of stairs and through a window at the Phoenix Marriott like they’re using as the cover story... wouldn’t there be a few witnesses or evidence? Did they just throw Bella through a window to sell the story?
Comment by matthewathome at 21/05/2021 at 15:28 UTC
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I think when these all came out, I was way past the age where it even crossed my radar as something to feel annoyed or potentially gatekeepery about. So I'm not sure I have any strong feelings either way about these movies!
That said — this movie does a really terrible job of establishing why you wouldn't want to be a vampire. They've removed the one clear downside of the whole thing — allergic to sunlight — leaving just this general idea of it being hard to resist eating people, which they don't really portray as being that difficult.
Comment by STD-fense at 21/05/2021 at 20:09 UTC
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Pattinson's performance in these movies makes me positive he can be a good Batman because of how inherently weird he is despite being a very handsome man. Landing in the middle of that Venn diagram is crucial for being a good Bruce Wayne (as seen with Keaton and Bale)
Comment by gnomecleric at 22/05/2021 at 17:01 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
i kept getting distracted during the box office game because of how much "Decode" still fucking slaps
also the boys should absolutely do High School Musical soon, another franchise that was very important to me when i was 11 and, like Twilight, has an iconic baseball scene
Comment by j11430 at 21/05/2021 at 12:41 UTC
11 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I can confirm that the bit Josh Reuben does in the *The Abyss* episode is that he keeps singing the first line of Stand by R.E.M.
I know this because I find it SO INSANELY ANNOYING. Good ep otherwise tho
Comment by lonepinemall85 at 21/05/2021 at 13:35 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Maybe this was because I was such a Potter book nerd when they came out, but I had the opposite experience of Griffin where it seemed like the Twilight books were EVERYWHERE when they came out and a movie franchise seemed inevitable in direct response to Potter. And I think some of the dumb anti-Twilight gatekeeping also came from Potter fans (including me, oops, sry) and anti-Potter fans who were like, we just had ONE teen series, do we really need another??? And then came the tidal wave of YA.
Comment by RichardLastName at 21/05/2021 at 17:52 UTC
12 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I watched these all for the first time last week and have been confounded by the weird, seemingly careless plotting. (Spoiler for New Moon) the Cullens have to move away from Forks because locals are getting suspicious about the family not aging...then a few months later they move back (to the same house. Did they sell it or just abandon it? Did dad reopen his medical practice?) and it's never an issue again with the townspeople.
I just hope Chris Weitz has clear, definitive answers to my very serious concerns.
Comment by cameronobrian at 21/05/2021 at 23:11 UTC
11 upvotes, 2 direct replies
It was so cool hearing Griffin and David both mention the movie Sweet Land while talking about Elizabeth Reaser. That was the first movie I ever worked on (and a major reason I eventually moved to Minnesota), and it feels great that the two friends know it exists and have presumably seen it. Making that movie was such a great experience and Ali Selim, Elizabeth Reaser, Tim Guinee, John Heard, and (especially) Alan Cumming could not have been nicer.