Today was originally going to be when the new Harry Potter film came out, so of course no other movies wanted to open this weekend. Then Harry got pushed back to next July, and two movies dashed in to take his place: “Twilight” and “Bolt.” Apart from that, it’s a light weekend.
Of course, it’s hard to call it a “light weekend” when at 9:00 tonight there was already a line of girls outside the movie theater waiting for their midnight screenings of “Twilight.” Hundreds of those screenings have sold out all over the country. By the time you read this, the film will have already made several million dollars. Who needs Harry Potter?
The “Twilight” movie (my review is at Cinematical) captures the feel of the book pretty well, at least as far as I recall. (It’s been 2 1/2 years since I read it.) An informal discussion with two other critics after the screening suggested that the less detailed our memory of the book was, the better we liked the movie. Then again, maybe someone could remember every detail of the novel but still accept the fact that the movie is bound to be different in some ways.
All I know is, Stephenie Meyer says on her website that my movie reviews are her favorite. I am very proud of this. I brag about it regularly. I hope I will continue to hold that position even after reviewing a movie based on her book. It didn’t affect my opinion of the movie, of course, nor did it influence what I wrote. I only mention it because I wanted to brag some more.
Then there’s “Bolt,” a Disney cartoon about a dog who plays a superdog on TV and is startled to discover he doesn’t actually have super powers. I think we’ve all been there. The movie is fairly funny and reasonably entertaining. My review is at Film.com.
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Eric D. Snider is her favorite film critic and Muse is her favorite band? I want to be friends with this person.
I was kinda hoping you’d say something snarky about “Twilight”, so that we could see how the vamp club writes angry comments. I bet they’d rival the wrath of “Titanic” fans.
Your movie reviews are my favorite too!
Yeesh. I see people are overreacting to Eric’s mildly positive review as much as they are to the book’s fans wanting a little fluffy escapism.
“Twilight will destroy the feminist movement! Just THINKING about reading it will cause YOUR DAUGHTER to DATE A VAMPIRE! Besides, Meyer is a Mormon, so she’s EVIL and STUPID! AAAAAIEEEE!”
So, their opinion of the teenage girls they know is so very low that they think reading a fluffy escapist romance series is all it’ll take to ruin their live.
If the girls of my generation could survive reading V.C. Andrews (I swear every single girl in Junior High had a copy of “Flowers in the Attic”), then there’s really nothing to worry about.
Gasp! Does this reinforce my suspicion that Twilight is hated mainly because it’s an accessible book series written for young women?
Honestly, Eric’s reviews are some of my favorites as well, I like his tastes and his balance.
Eric,
Have you seen Let the Right One In?
Juxtaposing the two films, especially as LtROI also has a young person romance, of a *cough* kind, might be yield some good things. ~