Well, gol-ly. I just got back from watching Twilight: Part 4 at the theater.
I am no fan of the series, but my friend Erin and I have now seen all the movies. We didn't like the first three, which the fans mostly loved, but we like the fourth, which the fans mostly hated.
It was probably the gore.
Now, I'm your typical vegetarian, pacifist, northeastern NPR listener, and I don't like violence. Usually. But when it comes to unbearable characters who deserve to be punished by some sort of convoluted supernatural bullshit for their lack of development over three installments, well...that's a different story.
(I'll start by saying I think that the Twilight series is not a good example for the young women to whom it caters. According to its creators: You're not complete until you find a man. Sex is only okay after marriage, and even then women shouldn't desire it. Abortion is always morally impermissible, even if carrying the child to term would result in the mother's death. It's okay for a grown man to fall in love with a baby, as long as he has a premonition showing him how hot she'll be in a few decades. Oh, and cannibalism is totally fine, with a prescription.)
The reason most girls like the Twilight series is the famous love triangle, between a pale, dead Englishman, an American Indian werewolf, and an obnoxious female narrator who is always unhappy about everything. We pretty much giggled through all of the romantic scenes in the first three movies, while critiquing the poor acting and ridiculous plotline.
But this movie offered us fewer WTF?! laughs and more cringe-inducing violence. Piles of bleeding corpses, emaciated masochists going under the knife without anesthesia, bones snapping, human body fluids being drunk out of a sippy cup. The misogynistic undertones didn't even bother me as much this time, probably because I had given up on Bella ever growing a (metaphorical) pair about half way through the first film. To her credit, she did finally take control of her body by refusing to get a life-saving abortion, even though the men in her life wanted her to. (Though I have my suspicions that Stephanie Meyers was trying to send a pro-life message rather than a girl-power one.)
The film was equal parts disturbing, hilariously ridiculous, and heavy-handed. Two thumbs up!
