FollowTwilight’s sequel The New Moon proved to not only be THE pop culture phenomenon of the year, but the biggest opening weekend of the year, grossing 72.7 million on it’s opening day alone (beating out Dark Knight), and raking in 140 million for the weekend so far (it’s Sunday as I write this).
Todd (our movie review guy), David (our director of content development) and I went to see the movie together on Saturday while attending the YS National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta (yes… we cut the convention to see a movie!) … and as you can see from this pic… we were not ashamed to boldly represent!
So what did I think?
It’s soooooo hard to approach this film unbiased. Twilight fans are so emotionally invested in the characters of the saga that they are borderline obsessive. Combine that with what we already knew going into the film about the “self-destructive” messages present in the story… it’s hard to know how objective I can be. But here goes!
Bella really needs to get a life!
Wow… it’s really hard to watch this girl. Yes, I know that girls feel emotions. Yes, I know that it’s difficult when someone breaks up with you. But Bella’s emotions are on steroids. The film offers several scenes where we see Bella anguishing over her loss… my wife didn’t make that much noise having my children!
Her self-destructive behavior was probably even more-so than we predicted in our Youth Culture Window article we wrote about the film last week. I’m surprised she didn’t just pull up her sleeves and start cutting away.
Here’s some of her lines I jotted down during the film:
“You’re my only reason to stay alive.”
“My pain was my only reminder that he was real.”
“I’m not a car that you can fix up. I’m never gonna run right.”
When Bella took off with a stranger on the back of a motorcycle (with no helmet), her friend said, “You’re insane! Suicidal!’ Bella simply replied. “That was such a rush.”
Her self-destructive behavior gets worse as the film continues.
At the end Edward wants to commit suicide too. He says, “I couldn’t live in a world where you don’t exist.”
Yes, we saw similar attitudes from Romeo and Juliet. But New Moon preaches it in a language that young girls understand fluently. I encourage you to watch the film and see this for yourself.
Add to that the fact that Bella gets in a love triangle between Jacob and Edward, allowing herself to be so emotionally tied to each, that it’s unfair to both guys. The film doesn’t seem to present any problem with this kind of two-timing behavior. It’s hard to imagine what young people are learning about love and relationships from films like this.
In addition, Bella and Edward discuss the possibility of losing their soul when becoming a vampire. Bella quickly dismisses the reality, finally resolving that it’s a sacrifice she’s willing to take. Again… no big deal… according to the film makers.
Hmmmmmm.
Bottom Line: Bella is a terrible role model. As entertaining as the film was at times… Bella was a turd in the custard.
Parents, I don’t recommend you letting your tweens or teens watch this without you. I’ll be so bold to say, SKIP IT. The film is completely clean and deemed “okay” by many. Don’t let the lack of sex or language fool you. The negative imitatable behavior from this film is at an all time high.
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from the point of view of someone who really enjoyed the books, i thought New Moon (the movie adaptation) was entertaining, true to the story too
Your pic is hilarious. I rented twilight 2 weeks ago so I could show some clips and talk intelligently about it. Of course one of my boy’s dad(s) came up and started talking to me. after ten minutes of “seriously!! it’s not for me. it’s for church, i swear!” He walked away totally unconvinced. We’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. nothing good can happen at 2 in the morning hanging out in your room with a vampire in your underwear.
btw 3 dudes watching New Moon… at least use a buffer seat.