Trailer Tuesday: Twilight

To my understanding, the Twilight series of fantasy romance novels by Stephenie Meyer is to women, and especially teenage girls, what Harry Potter is to its fans. We're talking about serious rabid devotion here. So, naturally, Hollywood came sniffing, dug in their claws, and, later this year, they should be raking in the cash with a big screen adaptation of the first book in the series: Twilight.

Here's the film's plot synopsis:

"Twilight" is an action-packed, modern day love story between a vampire and a human. When teenager Bella Swan's (Kristen Stewart) mother remarries, Bella is sent to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington. Then she meets the mysterious Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Intelligent and witty, he sees straight into her soul. Soon, Bella and Edward are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance.

Edward can run faster than a mountain lion, he can stop a moving car with his bare hands - and he hasn't aged since 1918. Like all vampires, he's immortal. But he doesn't have fangs, and he doesn't drink human blood. To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for - a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent. But what will Edward & Bella do when James (Cam Gigandet), Laurent (Edi Gathegi) and Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre), the Cullens' mortal vampire enemies, come to town, looking for her?


Watching the trailer, I'm seriously unconvinced... The film looks pretty damn horrible. The teaser trailer is marginally better, but sheesh, it all looks so damn derivative.

Just to clarify, I'm not that familiar with Twilight. Although the books are absolutely massive in the States - a US-based friend of mine is obsessed with them and recommended I read them - they are largely unknown locally (well, to my knowledge anyway).

I'll admit that I probably have quite a bit of built-in prejudice to this project. My very own novel, in progress for a decade now *cough*, is focused on vampires, so I've done a considerable amount of research and novel reading relating to the immortal blood drinkers.

As a result I have a pretty good idea of options and cinematic potential out there (Role-playing game World of Darkness, with its rich mythology, anyone?). A tweenie romance definitely does not feature on that "want to see" list. As much as I was underwhelmed by the 2 Underworld films, at least the vampires there were adults; not eternal teenagers.

My point is, most vampire films of recent years have... er... sucked big time. And I think Twilight is going to join their mediocre company, which is a pity for the sub-genre.


Twilight is set for release in North America on 21 November (taking Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince's now vacated slot, ho hum). It will debut in South Africa on 2 January at this point.