Embarrassing

Rating: 1/10 (27 February 2010)

The first Twilight film was really terrible, and had some moments of unintentional comedy, but this was actually much worse. I spent the entire time just cringing at the poor lines, the acting, the God-awful treatment of mythology, the misogynistic, patriarchal and abusive undertones throughout the film, and the terrible special effects for such a blockbuster series.
A lot of people will dislike so much scorn directed to a film that's just a fun watch - I understand this argument but there's a difference between fun and forgettable and just being complete trash. There are incredibly entertaining movies that aren't Shakespeare but don't actually manage to offend my intelligence and my gender. This isn't one of them. Additionally, popular culture affects our world view more than we can sometimes imagine. Media should be analysed because it's influential.
And it confuses me how this could be so popular. Edward, Bella and Jacob are some of the most unpleasant and unappealing protagonists I've ever encountered in popular fiction. Bella is shallow and yet pretentious, while Edward is controlling and demeaning. These are not people that you would like if one of them wasn't a vampire and the other was snogging them.
One of the worst films I've ever seen, and it's something devoid of both artistic merit and any sort of meaning, message or thought. It really sucks that young women are enjoying this franchise and seeing Edward and Jacob as the ideal love interests.
EDIT: A lot of people giving this film positive reviews are trying to dismiss criticism by saying it's a 'film for the women/girls/ladies'... have any idea how much that furthers stereotypes? I know more than one guy who loves Twilight, and more than one girl who loves *enter generic action movie which people think only men like*. Come on people move behind this shallow 'Boys like this girls like that' already. Popular culture should be analysed, and it sucks if you think just because it's developed for one gender in mind it gets some sort of free pass for being sexist, badly written, poorly acted drivel. It sucks if you think this sort of tripe should be 'for the girls'. Another card being played is the 'Is Romeo and Juliet bad because its unrealistic?' question. Romeo and Juliet, though, is about the tragedy and immaturity of the two young lovers. The relationship fails and ends in such disaster because of the way they rushed and were consumed by lust. And it's one of Shakespeare's most heavily critiqued plays - a lot of people have criticised it. So if the Bard himself is not above disapproval then why should something like this be exempt?