Why People Hate It: Edward Cullen's a pathetic excuse for a vampire (what kind of vampire glitters, anyway?), the story line is laughable, and Kristen Stewart can't act. That's pretty much it. Why People Should Hate It: If Twilight was nothing more than a bad vampire movie, that would be one thing. Lord knows we've seen more than our fair share of those, yet the rest of the brooding immortals aren't on the list. While no vampire story is complete with some slightly problematic sexual undertones, Twilight presents a dangerously abusive relationship and attempts to pass it off as the height of romance. In order to make the characters even remotely likeable, the film makes us complicit in the type of moral hand-waving that allows real-life incidents of emotional abuse to carry on for so long. Edward isn't controlling, he's protective. He's not a stalker, he's in love. And how can we, in any good conscience, accept a female heroine that has so little control over herself that as soon as her boyfriend breaks up with her, she literally throws herself off a cliff? You'd like to think that we owe the little girls of the world more than that, especially the ones who are sitting around reading Twilight and fantasizing about an Edward of their very own.
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.
