Anybody excited about Twilight coming out?

[bjornolf]

My wife is a huge fan of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I read the books, since she was willing to read LoTR and Harry Potter for me (she ended up a huge HP fan, not so much LoTR). I ended up liking them fine, though I still prefer Harry Dresden for that kind of stuff. Anyway, anybody else here a fan planning to see the movie? My wife would love a review before she decides to see it, since she's positive the movie will suck compared to the books. Does anybody know if this is just covering the first part, and they're hoping for good numbers to make this a series, or if they're just compressing it all into one? Thanks.

Also, are there any other good modern-set supernatural or fantasy series out there that anybody knows of? I'm getting into the genre, between Harry Potter, Twilight, and Harry Dresden. Any good suggestions? For the Jim Butcher fans out there, he's doing a book centering on Thomas, Harry's vampiric half-brother, called "Backup".

[billybreen]

My wife just read the first book in 3 days. The second arrives via Amazon today. She's enjoying it so far, and I assume she'll want to see the movie when it comes out.

[Cavlaw]

I can't get into the vampire meme. While Bram Stoker's classic tale was excellent, so much of it since is just trash.

[TillyGalore]

If this is the book Bostondevil read, don't read it. She was not happy, http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showpost.php?p=216312&postcount=5694

[billybreen]

I can't get into the vampire meme. While Bram Stoker's classic tale was excellent, so much of it since is just trash.

Joss Whedon and I want to have some words with you.

[Cavlaw]

Joss Whedon and I want to have some words with you.
I appreciated Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. He's even showing he can handle a little more diversity in his casting with his new Dollhouse series (which I confess I'm not watching). It would be no tragedy, however, if every copy of Buffy and Angel were lost.

[billybreen]

I appreciated Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. He's even showing he can handle a little more diversity in his casting with his new Dollhouse series (which I confess I'm not watching). It would be no tragedy, however, if every copy of Buffy and Angel were lost.

You wound me so.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I am 100% unexcited. I'm a vampire fan, but the marketing has turned me off. I'd feel like I was watching a movie sponsored by Tiger Beat.

[sue71, esq]

I'd feel like I was watching a movie sponsored by Tiger Beat.


ROFL. Awesome.

[killerleft]

My wife read all 4 books in two weeks. She has loaned them out to friends. She has the poster. She has the soundtrack. She has 5 or 6 friends going to the movie opening night . She's read Twilight 5 times, the others more than once.

I read the first one and found it enjoyable. But I think I'll skip the others to protest her obsession with the whole franchise. I'm glad I have no obsessions:rolleyes: Go Duke!

[DukeUsul]

Neil Gaiman (http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/) has a few "modern" set fantasy novels. I've quite enjoyed them. American Gods and Neverwhere are two that I've read. They are modern set and are somewhere on the border of sci-fi/fantasy/suspense.

Gaiman also co-wrote the screenplay for the recent Beowulf movie and also wrote the novel Stardust, on which the movie was based.

ETA: Oh and my wife read all four of the twilight books and is quite looking forward to the films. I won't read them. I paid my dues reading some of her books when I read the Outlander books (which actually were quite good).

[billybreen]

Neil Gaiman (http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/) has a few "modern" set fantasy novels. I've quite enjoyed them. American Gods and Neverwhere are two that I've read. They are modern set and are somewhere on the border of sci-fi/fantasy/suspense.

Loved both of those. Gaiman is great.

[Bostondevil]

If this is the book Bostondevil read, don't read it. She was not happy, http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showpost.php?p=216312&postcount=5694

Thanks Tilly, you've saved me from ranting again. Since there are fans here, I'll try to nicely state my opinions.

To be honest, I only hated the last book though. I found the first one a quick read with a somewhat gripping story written by a less than great author. It's definitely aimed at a young adult audience. I'm sorry fans, but I did find the whole story, well, immature is the word, especially our heroine's view of the world. The whole series though, including the book is downright repetitive at times. It screams SCREAMS for an edit. Each book in the series could have cut out at least 100 pages, at least.

[dukegirlinsc]

I'm currently reading Twilight, about halfway done, and I'll probably see the movie. I wouldn't say I'm "excited", but I'm enjoying the book so far.

Also love True Blood, which is on HBO.

[bjornolf]

My wife and I felt the same way about the immaturity of the heroine's view of the world. However, we wrote it off to the fact that she's a 17 year old girl who's NEVER had a boyfriend, OR friends at all really, as she's spent most of her life taking care of her nutty mom. So, once we filtered it through that, we realized that it was maybe not quite as far off as we originally thought. I'm not sure why you thought the fourth one was so terrible. Yes, the whole series could use an edit, but I've noticed that would apply to a LOT of books these days. Publishers don't seem to bother to do that part of their job anymore. They probably put her under serious pressure to get the last couple out, with the movie pending and the short attention span of her desired audience. I thought it was kind of fun to see things from Jacob's perspective a little, too. My wife's interested to see if we'll have another series centering on Renesmee and Jacob's relationship. Meyer's also got a more adult book coming out called "the host" about aliens that posess people. The wife can't wait for that one.

Oh, and thanks for the recommendation of Gaiman. I've ordered a couple from my library now. ;)

[Bostondevil]

I'm not sure why you thought the fourth one was so terrible . . . another series centering on Renesmee and Jacob's relationship.


SPOILERS!!!! Stop reading as I will discuss a couple of fourth book plot points.


Got it in one. What an irresponsible cop out of a story development. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck. Grosses me out and makes me mad and makes me regret every minute I spent with any of these books, that and the absolute perfection of our heroine. In that respect it reminds me of 'War and Peace' which really ought to be called 'Everybody Loves Natasha'. (I came up with that one before the similarly titled sitcom.) As I said before, it's very much aimed a young adult audience, which is fine, the immaturity makes sense, but as an actual adult reading it, it can induce some 'oh honey' groans. There's the 'Dead Poet's Society' aspect to this as well. I hated that movie for it's irresponsibility too, glorifying teenaged suicide and presenting it as our lead character's only option. That's essentially what Bella does too, yes, she gets to be an immortal vampire but what she really does is kill herself to spend eternity with her own true love. HATE!!!! I don't even give 'Romeo and Juliet' a pass when it comes to glorifying suicide, so, the 'Twilight' books aren't alone, although I don't hate R&J but I don't think you should have 9th graders reading it, give them 'Julius Ceasar' instead. And it sets a bad precedent. Are you still deeply in love with the person you fell for when you were 17? Irresponsible to hold that up as something to strive for in an extremely popular series of novels. Well, I've had my rant.

[DukieInKansas]

SPOILERS!!!! Stop reading as I will discuss a couple of fourth book plot points.


Got it in one. What an irresponsible cop out of a story development. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck. Grosses me out and makes me mad and makes me regret every minute I spent with any of these books, that and the absolute perfection of our heroine. In that respect it reminds me of 'War and Peace' which really ought to be called 'Everybody Loves Natasha'. (I came up with that one before the similarly titled sitcom.) As I said before, it's very much aimed a young adult audience, which is fine, the immaturity makes sense, but as an actual adult reading it, it can induce some 'oh honey' groans. There's the 'Dead Poet's Society' aspect to this as well. I hated that movie for it's irresponsibility too, glorifying teenaged suicide and presenting it as our lead character's only option. That's essentially what Bella does too, yes, she gets to be an immortal vampire but what she really does is kill herself to spend eternity with her own true love. HATE!!!! I don't even give 'Romeo and Juliet' a pass when it comes to glorifying suicide, so, the 'Twilight' books aren't alone, although I don't hate R&J but I don't think you should have 9th graders reading it, give them 'Julius Ceasar' instead. And it sets a bad precedent. Are you still deeply in love with the person you fell for when you were 17? Irresponsible to hold that up as something to strive for in an extremely popular series of novels. Well, I've had my rant.

But how do you really feel? ;)

[Bostondevil]

But how do you really feel? ;)

Ha!

One last comment, I hold a series aimed at young adults to a higher standard on certain kinds of plot points precisely because they are young and presumably impressionable.

[Turk]

I loved the Potter books and it's almost time to re-read the LotR books again. I've heard good buzz about the Lemony Snicket books but have not read any. What's the DBR consensus?

[bjornolf]

SPOILERS!!!! Stop reading as I will discuss a couple of fourth book plot points.


Got it in one. What an irresponsible cop out of a story development. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck. Grosses me out and makes me mad and makes me regret every minute I spent with any of these books, that and the absolute perfection of our heroine. In that respect it reminds me of 'War and Peace' which really ought to be called 'Everybody Loves Natasha'. (I came up with that one before the similarly titled sitcom.) As I said before, it's very much aimed a young adult audience, which is fine, the immaturity makes sense, but as an actual adult reading it, it can induce some 'oh honey' groans. There's the 'Dead Poet's Society' aspect to this as well. I hated that movie for it's irresponsibility too, glorifying teenaged suicide and presenting it as our lead character's only option. That's essentially what Bella does too, yes, she gets to be an immortal vampire but what she really does is kill herself to spend eternity with her own true love. HATE!!!! I don't even give 'Romeo and Juliet' a pass when it comes to glorifying suicide, so, the 'Twilight' books aren't alone, although I don't hate R&J but I don't think you should have 9th graders reading it, give them 'Julius Ceasar' instead. And it sets a bad precedent. Are you still deeply in love with the person you fell for when you were 17? Irresponsible to hold that up as something to strive for in an extremely popular series of novels. Well, I've had my rant.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!






















I agree on a certain level. She made a rather immature decision at first because, as a 17 year old, she was afraid to be forever stuck as "older" than her man. She feared that he would no longer find her desirable if she were older than he. That's not so surprising in an immature teenager, who again, even at 17, had never dated. Vampires are so beautiful and charming that I'm sure a big chunk of her feeling was raging hormones, sexual frustration, and good old lust. Add to that having feelings for him AND the whole star-crossed lover thing (not to bring R&J TOO much into this), and I can see how she'd react the way she did, going overboard.

However, as she matured a little over the series and started to see the pitfalls, dangers, pain, and difficulties of her "change", she started to reconsider, at least the timing. She had agreed to go to college for at least a semester first, when she found out about her pregnancy.

She did NOT commit suicide to be turned. You are 100% wrong about that. She died in childbirth, basically. Wanting to keep a baby despite danger to oneself is not suicide, nor is it that hard to understand, especially when she was thinking that wouldn't be possible for her, and that it was DEFINITELY her last chance to ever have one. Forever. Especially with what Rosalie had told her. Heck, even Carlisle and Edward thought she'd survive there at the end. If Carlisle had been there for the birth and she hadn't reflex-reacted to the falling cup, she might very well have survived. So, while she was bent on the suicide thing at the beginning, she DID reconsider, kept pushing back the schedule (or at least didn't fight TOO hard when others did), and eventually circumstances took the choice away from her. She did NOT end up committing suicide, and in some ways, I thought it was kind of cool the way she started out by wanting it and then changing her mind. It showed that we can go back, right up until the deed is done. I actually liked that, and didn't find it as glorifying suicide in the way of DPS or R&J at all.

And yes, several of the plot points and tie-ups had me cringing with their overly neat conclusions, but hey, that's what the intended audience likes. They don't want complex, painful, unsatisfying conclusions. They get that from the books they're forced to read in school. And while I was hoping, as the vampire/fantasy fan that I am, for the big climactic battle at the end, the painfully obvious and excrutiatingly happy ending (only the rat/tattler getting it in the end) is also something a teenage girl would prefer. They would see THAT as justice. Very few of them want a graphic description of a bunch of werewolves and vampires eviscerating each other in an ocean of blood and viscera and fire.

Anyway, I agree that is was a little contrived. It was also more than a little shallow at times, and a little fey. But hey, this was supposed to be a little darker fairy tale for today's teenage girls, Cinderella gone a little goth, so should that really surprise us all that much? I thought it was entertaining, and I actually did end up liking the ending myself. So, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. But then, I liked Harry Potter too, so what can I say? Just call me a teenage girl, I guess. ;) Actually, having three kids, one a tiny baby girl, myself, I actually got a little choked up when Edward and Bella said goodbye to their baby and put her on Jacob's back and told him to run. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have admitted that, but oh well. :o

[bjornolf]

I loved the Potter books and it's almost time to re-read the LotR books again. I've heard good buzz about the Lemony Snicket books but have not read any. What's the DBR consensus?

Lemony Snicket is kind of fun just for its total morbidity factore. I mean, ANYTHING that can go wrong to these kids does. They're a walking billboard for Murphy's Law. Everybody who means ANYTHING to these kids ends up dying, basically. In gruesome, horrible ways. This is the Twilight series for the disturbed little goth kids that hate fairy tales and pull for the bad guys in them.

[Bostondevil]

I loved Harry Potter. Concede on the suicide point. Don't have daughters. Would subtly steer them away from these books if I did. It's not a happy ending. Agree to disagree. Still hated it. Realize I might be alone in that. Hated 'West Side Story' too.

'I think almost everything needs an edit' says the playwright who specializes in 10 minute plays.

When I go to 10 minute play festivals, I find most of them too long.

I've never had one of my own plays produced that I didn't edit it after the first production.