There’s A First Time For Everything

I’ve never been the type of person that was big on debating. I have my views and opinions and that’s exactly what they are…. mine. I have the utmost respect for people and their opinions and frankly am even glad that some people have them at all. As a therapist in training, I have been taught to be a listener and to HELP people understand their own feelings, views, and opinions a little better. I have never tried to sway someone away from what they believe nor have I held someone’s opinion (if it’s different from mine) against them or let it change the way I feel about them or see them. With that in mind… I am going to address the conflict around this whole New Moon frenzy.

I honestly feel bad for Stephanie Meyers, author of the Twilight series. She has a dream about a 17 year old human girl, a damned vampire and their romance… and decides it would make for an interesting teen story. Who would have thought it would have launched her career and led her to write a 4 book series! I’m also sure she never would have dreamed that people of all ages, male and female, would become such huge fans of her story. She has had to endure all kinds of negative criticism. How dare she send the message to young girls that only boys can make them happy and feel good about themselves? Um… I don’t know about the rest of the females out there, but it doesn’t take a Mormon author to give girls that message… their over zealous feelings are doing the job just fine. Anyone can attest to feeling down and depressed in high school when their feelings were hurt by someone they trusted. Someone tells you they don’t want to be around you anymore and they are just supposed to go on with life happier than ever?! I guess anyone who creates something has to take the bad in with the good.

When I read for pleasure, it’s always about fantasy or science fiction. It’s my way of de-stressing from real life situations and letting my mind go to a place where anything is possible… unlike reality. I picked up the book a little skeptical BECAUSE it was written with the 14 year old girl in mind and was rather surprised how it was even appealing to someone of my mind set and age. Since then, my twin sister has read the books, my 51 year old mother, and my 31 year old sister-in-law. All of them became enthralled at the possibilities that Stephanie Meyer had made available to them about a forbidden romance mixed with the unstable emotions of a 17 year old girl. And no one can deny that we are all about the forbidden romances. Romeo and Juliet and Lancelot and Guinevere are the top couples that come to mind.  No one can deny that us females have unstable emotions and emo-ness when we were teenagers. I know I did. I can also admit that my judgment was cloudy when it came to my first romances… just because I was inexperienced and didn’t know any better. So why is fictitious Bella any different from any normal 17 year old girl who’s never loved before? Do we as a society demand that fiction novel authors write about what girls SHOULD be and how they SHOULD feel versus who they ARE and how they REALLY feel? Maybe that’s what captivated me about the story was that Meyers was dead on about how female teenagers really are and about the obstacles they face when it comes to who they like and “fall in love with” I know my first boyfriend was someone my parents would have NEVER chosen for me and one they never really approved of. But because I was that emotional teenager who thought she knew what she wanted… I dated him anyway. I know that it doesn’t compare to falling in love with a vampire… but this was a world that Meyers created… where vampires and werewolves really existed and that whole saying “you can’t help who you love” still holds true. While my mother was reading the books she would often come to me and complain about the way Bella was. “I just want to slap her sometimes” is something she would say often to me and I would reply with, “Yeah, but does that make you want to put the book down?” and she would always say “No, but she’s being too HUMAN about everything.” My mother couldn’t have said it better than me… being too human is kind of the point.

I didn’t want to get into a critique about the books, although I think the negative comments about this series “teaching girls that it’s ok to pine for boys.. and that you shouldn’t fight for yourself, you should let a man do it for you” is a little harsh, but people are entitled to their opinions, I merely don’t share it. But of all the stuff to be negative about… its about the fact that Bella is human.. and has humane feelings that most normal girls do.  Once again, why is that so negative?

But this is about the recent movie “New Moon”. I think that it is any author’s dream to be published… and for their work to be turned into a movie. It means their work is appreciated and entertaining enough for someone to want to work at making it come alive. Now I agree that not all books are capable of making a great movie. I for one watched the first Harry Potter movies before actually reading the series. I will admit… some of the movies were kind of crappy and poorly made. Did I let that be my ultimate opinion about the books? Not at all… I read them and loved them. The movies…not so much. Especially this last movie they released… butchered the story. Does that mean I won’t go see the rest of the movies? No way! I will admit the first Twilight movie was complete crap. I am a twilight fan… but I do not own the first movie on DVD. So of course I had my doubts about the newest one. By all means… it is not the best thing ever. I will never rank it up there with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings… or any other great movie. But Chris Weitz did an excellent job of turning a DREAM into something we could see instead of just read. Being able to turn words on a page into a movie isn’t exactly easy. When it comes to our minds, the possibilities are endless… but you can’t fool the eyes. When reading New Moon, I could totally understand the angst and emotion Bella felt when Edward just up and left her. Made her believe that she was just a phase in his life and that she didn’t really matter to him. Just by reading the words… I FELT for Bella. Seeing it on screen, she came off as kind of pathetic. Total proof that just because a book is awesome,doesn’t mean the movie will be able to equally compare.

With all that said… the only reason I liked (not LOVED) New Moon was because some of it brought me back to when I was reading the book for the first time. Taylor Lautner did an EXCELLENT job as Jacob and the actors who portrayed the Volturi… wow. I really thought the 2 best things about the movie would end up being the most poorly done parts of the film and I ended up being wrong. Going into this movie I had several expectations that I wanted to see based on the book… and the acting between Bella and Edward wasn’t on my list. It was about the werewolves and the Volturi. I wanted to see the werewolves in action and the Volturi be menacing and creepy. I wanted to see Jane and her gift of giving pain by just fooling the mind into thinking it’s feeling pain. I wanted to see the vampires fight with their mystical abilities and strength. I wanted to see THOSE things come alive on screen, things we don’t see and or can even comprehend because it’s not of our world. Bella and Edward’s feelings towards one another and the conflicts they came across in this book… I GOT all of that just by reading about it. I didn’t need to SEE it in order for this movie to be awesome. But I have to admit that their onscreen chemistry was non-existent. The acting was bad and way over the top. And if they don’t get a handle on that for the last movies… then they are seriously in trouble. Because we were all fortunate that this was the book where the Bella/Edward scenes were very few.

I thought the special effects were awesome… reading about the werewolves phasing and SEEING it really made the words in the book come alive and that’s extremely hard to do. My brother went and saw this movie and he is definitely not a twilight fan… thought the movie was well made… the shots, transitions, and special effects were awesome, compared to the first movie. And he is intrigued by the whole werewolf part of the movie, claims he wants to know more, which I advised him would hopefully be addressed in the 3rd movie since it is in the book. So you don’t have to be a twilight fan to admit that the movie was well made and that the people involved in making it did a bang up job of trying to make a really hard story come alive. I will be the first to admit that there is about a dozen or so things in the movie I wasn’t a fan of, but that didn’t shape my entire opinion of the movie as a whole. That’s just not fair. You can’t please everyone. Does this mean I will be the first one in line to buy the movie when it comes out on DVD? Probably not… I don’t even own the first one. The books will always rein supreme over the movies in my opinion, just as I’m sure any Harry Potter fans will say the same thing and once again I emphasize,does that mean they won’t be going to see the last 2 movies of the series? I will be going to see the last movie and hopefully the last 2 of Breaking Dawn, just because Stephanie Meyer deserves it. She wrote an intriguing story and deserves all the fame that has come her way because of her talent for writing. How many authors can say they wrote a story with a specific age group in mind, but yet ended up captivating people of all ages? Not many and I think that is proof that Meyers has talent.

That’s my opinion and it doesn’t mean I will hate anyone who thinks differently. If anything, having different opinions is a reason to talk to people. My brother and I have had some awesome conversations debating our different opinions on the series. Doesn’t mean I love him any less for thinking the series is a joke… he is a guy and a philosopher at heart. It’s just fun to hear what other people think and share what you think as well! Sharing your opinion doesn’t mean that you’re looking for someone to debate with you in order to change your opinion… it’s exactly what it is… sharing!

I normally don’t put myself out here like this with my opinions. I usually just stay quiet when it comes to the internet but I felt I needed to come out of my shell on this and what perfect way to start with what the internet is buzzing about this week.

So please feel free to share your opinions both good and bad!