DominicHamon.com

Life is like a grapefruit

Crying foul

I recently watched the Twilight movies and, having not read the books, and with no intention to do so, actually enjoyed them.

There, now that’s out-of-the-way, we can get on with the rest of this post. See, after I watched them, I wrote up a really long article defending the movies and arguing that the criticisms that are usually leveled at the franchise are, at best, easily dismissed and, at worst, unwarranted. But then I realised that I don’t need to pick apart the criticisms piecemeal and I can write something much more general. So here goes, I hope you’re ready:

Do not dismiss or criticise anything unless you have experienced it for yourself.

I know, right? Ground-breaking stuff. But, and this is really important, the Twilight movies are subjected to exactly this behaviour. I’m just as guilty as others of running along with the herd instead of waiting to form my own opinion. As for the films, I’m not going to claim that they’re high art, or even particularly good, but they are a fun watch and do have some redeeming features¹.

If you’ve seen these films and you feel they’re worth the extreme fire they’ve come under from some critics, then please continue to bash away. But if you haven’t and you’re merely parroting the sentiments of others, then please stop. Not for the sake of Twilight — I’m sure that franchise is going to do ok without your support — but for the sake of all creative endeavours that might be criticised unfairly.

The depiction of the teenage psyche is right on the money and took me back to when I was in school; when every relationship I had was the most important thing in the world, and three months felt like a lifetime. ↩︎

Posted on 2011/01/11 by dominic in personal | Tagged movies, rant, twilight | Leave a comment

DominicHamon.com

Life is like a grapefruit

Crying foul

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