Every time we post anything new about a Twilight movie-- every, single, time-- we get comments that all sound pretty much like this: "Twilight sucks!!!!!!" To be fair, you get comments like that for pretty much any big franchise with both fans and detractors, but the hate surrounding Twilight feels especially focused here on the Internet, where movie sites like this one especially seem to be dominated by the kind of male viewers who worship Star Wars but cringe at the mere mention of Bella and Edward. It becomes a self-perpetuating cycle: we write about Twilight, you click on it to yell about how much you hate it, then we write about the next thing because it got so much attention.
But you know what? The Twilight hate has gotten boring-- not because Twilight is so great, or because the movies have gotten so much better, but because it's been the same damn whining and howling since the very first movie. From the kids at Comic Con who run through the halls chanting "Twilight ruined Comic Con!" to the commenters to even the critics who trudge into screenings of Breaking Dawn like POW prisoners on a march, the overall vitriol for the Twilight franchise has become as one-note and boring as Taylor Lautner's acting.
Because, if you look past the flat-footed dialogue and the slow-paced plot, the Twilight movies are interesting, as unfiltered windows into the desires of teenage girls, on how to market spectacle to female audiences, even in how the franchise's directors choose to shoot the male actors for maximum audience enjoyment. It's the first true international film franchise aimed specifically toward women, and though the movies aren't especially good, they're no worse than the likes of Iron Man 2, Transformers 2, The Expendables… pick your dumb macho action movie here. The long shots of Edward gazing into Bella's eyes are bait for the female audience, in the same way interchangeable action sequences in superhero movies are bait for the men. But so many people feel comfortable completely writing off Twilight for its many flaws, to the point that they don't even bother to consider what could be interesting, or even try to understand the franchise's massive appeal for millions and millions of people worldwide.
I'm not here to pit Twilight against other big movies, or pit boy fans versus girl fans, or even argue that you need to like it; I'm just saying that, at this point in the franchise, we know you probably don't like it. Seriously, you can stop howling about it. Movie history is filled with huge hits that are absurd and pandering to their respective audiences; just because Twilight is the one you're alive for doesn't make it the worst. After Breaking Dawn opens this Friday there will be just one more left, and when the franchise is finally over, maybe the vitriol can die down enough to talk about these movies for what they are, not what flocks of fans and haters want them to represent.
