ST: A Peculiar Review of Twilight
Most of you might know the article that came out in today’s Life! ( 10 January 2008 ) and most of us were upset by it. For those who didn’t get the chance to read it, here it is:
Click on the article to zoom in. We know that most of you have something to say about this article so let it all out! And please refrain yourself from using any profanities or vulgarities. If we find anything impolite, we will delete your comment.
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Me and Bessy were discussing the possible reasons of why the critic was quite harsh. I, myself, felt that I HAD to write to the critic to ask him of why he would write such a review. But then again, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.
The critic obviously prefers the
‘old-fashioned’‘cliche’ vampires.Does that can’t take arlic, sleep in coffin at night, die in the presence of sunlight etc.
He should be open to new ideas since Vampires are mythical creatures and no one knows how they really are.
Stephenie Meyer has created her OWN version of Vampires, and I’m all right with it since it was an unconventional approach on vampires and it is interesting.
We came up with another theory was that they wanted to publish a review that was different and it does not have a content of positive remarks that would make most fan girls swoon whenever Mr Edward Cullen is mentioned.
Bessy, I know it’s hard for you to read the critic, but anything else you would like to add? I’m sure you do.
January 11, 2009 at 12:31 am
My first reaction on reading it was to shake my head and feel somewhat sorry for Jeremy…he definitely does not GET IT (like many others) and has probably also not read the book(s).
Actually thought of writing to him but decided not to waste my time…he doesn’t sound like he will be ‘converted’ anytime soon, so deeply entrenched is his need to keep to his ‘traditional’ ideas of vampires and the like. Wonder if he knows about the werewolves in New Moon??
Anyway, his article will not diminish the fervour of the TwiHards one bit and if anything, may just make more people curious about Twilight and decide to read the books!
January 11, 2009 at 12:37 am
As soon as I saw the earlier post’s comments, I quickly head down to go grab my own copy. And boy, he’s mean. Isn’t it obvious that he can’t pick any details to critic therefore criticising the obvious reasons why Twilight is a unique vampire story, because it’s a modern “vampire” with Stephenie’s own mythologies.
How could he even dare to critic that? Going around the bus, nit-picking on insignificant details about the book/movie. It is a fictional story after all, what the hell is his problem?
Yes, I’m damn pissed about it. URGH!! >:(
It’s the 21st century anyway, vampires too need to vamp up their own style. Guess someone’s mental capacity’s still stuck in the oldies. How passe.
Or I have another theory: probably he’s bitter about the fact that Edward looks way hotter that him, and have someone to love him unconditionally.
January 11, 2009 at 6:11 am
@ Aishah: LOL, yeah, one more thing to add in is: I DIDN’T EVEN READ THE ARTICLE. MUAHAHA. All I had to do was the read the sub-headline and I could tell his argument from his stand is not going to be even worth my time so I didn’t read it at all. Even now that Nash has posted the image, I still haven’t read it yet.
Saying Twilight is an insult to the likes of Anne Rice’s mythical creatures are like saying, um, Harry Potter is an insult to David Copperfield. Eh. I know that’s a bad analogy. Okay, how about, David Copperfield being an insult to Houdini? I know that’s completely unrelated but you should be able to get what I mean.
OH OH, it’s like saying High School Musical is an insult to………………… I’m bad at analogies.
Different worlds… THAT’S IT! SEE, STEPHENIE MEYER HAS DONE WHAT MOST PEOPLE CAN’T DO: Create an entirely different world. It’s like telling us vampires won’t get burnt to ashes when in the sun, just that they sparkle. She took what is the original characteristics and twisted them such that it made it look like vampires were really living among us and all those old vampire stuff were just myths.
Aishah, actually I wasn’t even pissed. I was having the six-million-reasons-yet-couldn’t-be-bothered emotion. Let me explain to you guys how that is. Six million reasons meaning I could just think of so many reasons to argue against his stand but I couldn’t be bothered, so Aishah and I were basically discussing.
I didn’t even touch on every point that I could use to justify Twilight when talking to Aishah about this. But I sounded quite worked up because it’s Twilight, after all. If you give me another topic, I maybe could have spun out another six million reasons to debate on, but I may not be as passionate about it.
So, anyway, all I know is that if ST actually wanted to do something different for once, they could have like picked a better journalist who knew what he was writing. By doing this, they definitely will incur the wrath of the more angsty fans, but for people like me, all I know is that Mr. Au’s article makes no sense.
*beams*
January 11, 2009 at 9:34 am
I bet he didn’t read stephenie’ series…All his review in the paper totally Sux…!!Just like him…Sorry to say this…
January 11, 2009 at 9:49 am
I find that the person is really ignorant i think there is possible reasons that Stephenie Meyer did not describe the vampires in the story to have fangs and sleep in coffin,my opinion is in this way children who listen to stories of vampires as bedtime story will not be scared and do not dare to sleep alone…
Jeremy should have put the “author” instead of “woman” in the first paragraph…it is so rude la…
January 11, 2009 at 10:58 am
I’m thinking it’s a case of male ego. You know how some males can’t stand some ppl or even fictional characters to be better than them. So…
I read his articles before. He writes sarcastic remarks about almost everything.
Well, if he doesn’t want to be “insulted” anymore, don’t go watch New Moon or the sequels.
He’s entitle to have his own opinions, therefore why should he be dragged to the cinema to watch a movie he dislikes?
Unless you know what a “real” vampire should look like, then write a piece like this… If not, stop going around telling what is right and wrong…
*It’s just twilight that makes me so worked up. I’ve enjoyed some of his articles in the past*
January 11, 2009 at 11:22 am
Ermm, he’s not a vampire to begin with, how does he know the truth in sleeping in coffins and burning in sunlight? Has he met a vampire before. He might as well mention about garlics and crosses and stakes. Sheesh!
January 11, 2009 at 11:54 am
The thing that I don’t understand about humans is that they are nvr pleased.
Give cliche storylines and they say “Oh, COPYCAT!BRING IN SOMETHING DIFFERENT!”
Give a different twist to it and they say “C’MON! Don’t change the facts!”
What the…
Well I actually “asked” the guys (and yes, they do gossip among each other abt how they don’t understand gals loving Twilight so much) abt why are they being very “cruel” and “hard critics.” The less ego ones will say that it’s like a “jealousy” thing or something that if gals go goo goo ga ga over, they will automatically switch off.
I mean…although i feel like screaming at them, at times i feel that even we as gals, have our own “against” the guys’ preferences.
like some gals dont get soccer (eventhough we know it’s the world’s no. 1 sport) or some dont get sci-fi movies, etc etc.
But c’mon, for Twilight, it’s a diff twist and “aww” love story that ppl (majority gals) indulge in.
Even Ryan Seacrest is appreaciating it now! He admitted that he wants to be like Edward coz that’s what gals want in men, i mean, in reality, his character.
So to me, everyone is free to comment and critic, and even if this is the cheapo way for the critic to gain much recognition for his ironically, uncliche review, then so be it.
Qsn is, has he been in love?and if so, how does he tackle “romance”?
hmmmmm……………………………………..
January 11, 2009 at 12:11 pm
It’s alright, actually.
Everyone has their own opinion. The only difference about this whole situation is that his opinion was ‘voiced’ out in public and nation-wide. Everyone is reading his article by now. (LOL)
His criticisms is ‘mild’ compared to the critic sessions I had when I was studying for my Degree in an Art University 2 years bck. The criticisms were really harsh. Damn! Oppss..hehe
Back to twilight, fans,…we all know in our hearts that we love Twilight.
The movie made us happy, relaxed and not forgetting, it made us read books. How many books was that? 4 series werent it? (grin) and another upcoming one!
Opinions are subjective. Opinions belong to anyone.
As long as you enjoy TWILIGHT, it makes you smile…THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT.
I also have another little something which might brighten your day.
Have you watched BIG STAN?
You can google ‘BIG STAN’ to know more about the movie.Its a Rob Schneider film.
Its funny and hillarious.
BUT most importantly,guess who is in the movie?
Its JACKSON RATHBORNE (aka JASPER) as Robbie The Hippie. In this movie, he was jailed for selling marijuana and he was always pushed around to ‘gay’ with the other male prisoners.
You guys should watch!
Jackson is really talented. OMG! his expressions in this film is priceless.
Check out his hairstyle in this movie!
Link for video clip:
Link for movie:
Link: http://www.watch-movies.net/movies/big_stan/
If you all have time to spare, watch the whole movie. Jackson Rathborne is worth watching.
Hope it brightens up your day
Credits to my bro (Din) for the information.
Thanks BRo!!!
smile smile…
hav a good day fans!
January 11, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I cannot be entirely positive but I think I was seated next to this guy on Thursday in lido 4.He looked so much like him. I posted it in the movie discussion thread of how I was observing the audience and how great it was watching their reactions to the film. He was the ‘man’. I know I didn’t mention it before but the thing I remembered about this guy was at the ending – during the prom scene – when Edward was kissing Bella – he abruptly stood up, grabbed his back pack, looking very disappointed like this
, and walked out. I only noticed him for a second then thought ‘Wassup?’ Then I just continued watching till the credits rolled. So when I read this article his picture reminded me of that guy. MODs.. if this is impolite you’re welcome to delete my post. Like I said, I can’t be really be sre but it the guy I saw that day looks lot like him. 
I think I can appreciate his point of view cos everyone is entitled to one. And its funny how he called Edward as Ed.
HAHA I think all the hype got to his expectations of the movie and he is totally unaware of the books’ existence. Even if he was aware – Come on! Its a just a story! Storytellers tell STORIES and they don’t have to follow the rules… or else the literary world would be such a boring place.
January 11, 2009 at 12:19 pm
The critic’s just talking crap. Pay no attention to him, fellow twilighters.
I was SO MAD when I read that article that I was seriously considering writing in and complaining about his nonsense!
He’s stereotypical–and he seriously change that bad habit for 2009! What’s up with the ‘vampires SHOULD BE sleeping in coffins’ and ‘everyone knows vampires HAVE TO sleep’ and ‘they’re SUPPOSED to’. Simply atrocious!
There’s no ‘should be’, ‘would be’, ‘have to’, ‘must be’ or ‘supposed to’ in FICTION.
He as a newspaper-writer should LEARN that, or should have learned that.
TWILIGHT ROCKS AND IF HE DOESN’T LIKE IT, TOO BAD FOR HIM!
January 11, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I fully agree with you, Bessy.
And the one thing going through my mind throughout the article was – HIS NAME IS EDWARD!
January 11, 2009 at 12:36 pm
@ Oreo: I love Jackson in ‘Big Stan’! I’ve watched the movie a couple of times already and it’s totally worth it!
The character that Jackson portrays in the movie is quite helpless and they are a couple of funny scenes too. Totally different from the Jasper that he does in Twilight! But the Jackson scene I LOVE the most is at the ending. OH MY GAWD. His hair is short & spiky and he looks HAWT!! (Come to think of it, his hair reminds me of Alice’s!) LOL.
January 11, 2009 at 2:43 pm
It’s so ridiculous. Is there a rule or whatever says that every vampires must sleep in coffin and burn under the sunlight?! Can’t stephenie meyer had her own kind of vampire?! I think he just don’t understand what romance means. Edward don’t have the strength to stay away from Bella because he love her so much even though he will bring harm to her. Would you leave someone you love so much?
I LOVE TWILIGHT! ALOT!
January 11, 2009 at 4:05 pm
LOLOLOLOL!! JACKSON LOOK FREAKING CUTEEEEEEEEEEEE IN BIG STAN!!!
Hahaha, hippie hair, so adorable….!! *squeals* Thanks for the eye candy
January 11, 2009 at 5:39 pm
He has a one sided view on vampires. Aw, thats pathetic? Don’t mix those legendary vampires with My Little Pony? Gosh. There is no one “fixed” view on vampires, mind you! Stephenie Meyer created this romantic vampires who are different from others because she wanted vampires to have another look, and thats what all of us loved! Bah, he fails. :/
January 11, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Gosh, he’s harsh. He probably doesn’t understand Twilight, Twilight Vampires or the Twilight world because he’s so close minded. There are no rules for the literary world. Or else, Harry Potter wouldn’t exist. If there were rules, there would be no wizards, witches, or hot vampires and werewolves. When I read the article, I was really angry.
I LOVE TWILIGHT!!
January 11, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Gosh… i seriously don’t know what the critic’s PROBLEM is.. i mean Stephenie created a new version of vampires which no one will think of also they are fictional charactes (T.T) but its still part of imagination… maybe the reason why he critized Twilight was because of his lack of imagination and old-fashion-ness. pardon my harshness but his is WAY worse. its like he is oblivious to the fact that majority of us would just start a riot over the article.. not that im going to start anything.. but he is TOO harsh about it… and why did he drag a Pomeranian into this?? it just makes me more peeved that he dragged my fav dog breed into this.. although werewolves would be much better…
-Twilight Rocks 4eva!
January 11, 2009 at 7:59 pm
@ Oreo: Everyone has their own opinion… His criticisms is ‘mild’ compared to the critic sessions I had when I was studying for my Degree in an Art University 2 years bck. The criticisms were really harsh.
To be honest, using your statement that people are entitled to their own POV as a basis, I must say that I’ve seen very severe reviews of the books before.
But being a Twilight fan, I accept all logical points of view. I must admit that Twilight is quite a joke, at times, but if one is able to reasonably list out the reasons why Twilight is an epic failure, I’ll gladly listen. After all, I have found some faults with the story itself before.
But srsly, criticizing Twilight with the argument behind it being that it does not do justice to your conventional vampire, that is so completely lame. I can’t even find a better adjective than “lame”, so you can see now why I didn’t bother even trying to at least skim through his pile of words.
@ Amanda: I was seriously considering writing in and complaining about his nonsense!
Just to warn you first okay, do you know that ST probably published this so that they could extract a bit of our reactions? So that fans like us could write in to voice our opinions? So take a chill pill, and just ignore him. Like you said, he wrote “crap”, so don’t bother.
He’s stereotypical
I won’t say he’s stereotypical, rather, I’d just say that he refused to understand the Twilight world. He wants to pretend this new legion of vampires never existed and wants to stick to the old traditional way and, very obviously, he feels that Stephenie Meyer merely used vampires as a ploy to earn money.
I can tell that he feels that SMeyer isn’t worthy of all this hype, as is her story. Why, I have no idea. I just think that the right word to describe him isn’t “stereotypical”, but instead “stubborn” and maybe even “jealous”?
His article also says a lot about him being someone who downplays creativity and often deems “new” as “stupid”. I’m just saying, I’m not insisting I’m right about how I have judged him to be, but I’m just saying.
@ everyone: Just calm down. If you’ve read the article, let it pass. For all you know he might be waiting for the first hate mail to worm its way through the Internet and to his inbox, so just leave him alone. But I don’t think all Singaporean fans are seeing this so I’m willing to bet my first paycheck that he has already received negative feedback.
I won’t be surprised if he actually writes a follow-up to this first article.
January 11, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Yeah I agree with Bessy. I’m of course angry at the article but I’m gonna ignore it.
that guy doesn’t deserve our time. He shouldn’t compare Twilight to other vamp novels cos there are a lot more vamp novels than just Anna Rice.
January 11, 2009 at 11:16 pm
What in the world is wrong with what’s-his-name the universe’s greatest imbecile? Considering he is indeed a gigantic one(universe’s greatest), then, of course there’s a whole world wrong with him, but let’s put aside the fact that he is clearly not in the right mind aside, and focus on his absolutely idiocy. Case in point, his dead, square shaped brain that doesn’t allow flexibilities, to such an extent I wonder why he wasn’t born square, or maybe he was, nothing a little plastic surgery can’t change. That was mean. But he can’t deny that he was being horribly mean to dearest Twilight as well, thus I sincerely believe that he ought to have each and every single disgusting terrifying flaw of himself, that he’s currently so blind to, pointed out to him. It’s a fantasy, for pete’s sake!
Sure, Twilight may seem absurd and ridiculous to some, on rare occasions (okay maybe not too rare), and all of us, even the most loyal of Twihards, know that Twilight didn’t actually happen in this version of reality we’re living in (you know that, don’t you?) and that’s really the whole point of it! Who’s to say that this is wrong and that is right, or vampire’s aren’t this, vampire’s are that, everything mentioned about how ‘stupid’ Twilight is, is basically based on assumptions, and face it no one’s seen a vampire, except maybe a vampire him/herself. And in the case of not having a reflection, then another vampire perhaps.
Giant-imbecile here just proved his ignorance nation wide, and though I’m pretty sure Twilighters fume and hiss at this ridiculous, absurd, utterly stupid review, deep down somewhere, everyone’s going to pity him, for displaying his simply brainless ideals for the whole country to see. And frankly, I have half a mind of putting up somethin in the forum, but I just decided he wasn’t worth it. After all, it’s his lost. Now every Twihard or not, can snicker behind his back saying what a bird-brained moron he is.
January 12, 2009 at 11:20 am
It’s impossible to refrain from profanities when talking about this f**king article. I wrote in my response, but I don’t think they’ll publish it. Lol. I was so f**king pissed off. Hello, we’re talking about vampires!! There is NO rule on how they’re supposed to behave, effin birdbrain. I was hoping Twilighters will hound his ass for this, because I most certainly did. I sent my response to his email too. URGH, he didn’t read the damn books, what is he even trying to do, write an ill-informed commentary to pass off as a movie critique?!? Get a f**king life, Jeremy.
January 12, 2009 at 4:30 pm
@ Raven: I was hoping Twilighters will hound his ass for this
Don’t. Let me assure you. I’m not sure if ST is like the others out there, but I’ve been following this whole hype for quite sometime now.
I’ve witnessed for myself the vicious cycle: The media pounces at any opportunity to report on explosive reaction by the fans, and guess what? Sometimes, when the cause of it is their own ridiculous reports, they turn the tables on us and say that it’s us who have been overreacting, and the ignorant public (aka the non-Twilight fans) actually believe these false conclusions and that’s how I’ve known how some people came to dislike the books.
It’s very illogical, I know, but not everyone does research and people usually believe what the media is telling them, so I’d rather we all remain calm in the face of pathetic articles like these. Let’s not give them anymore chances to laugh at us and call us “immature”. If we don’t even give the slightest hint of emotion to such ludicrous things, they don’t have reason to criticize anything else.
And what did I mean by that? Well, basically, like I’ve mentioned, people do sometimes hate the saga because of the erratic fanbase and yes, we have been often labelled negative adjectives just because of some outstanding behaviour from some foolish fans. So sometimes, these people resort to pinpointing the books to get some form of reaction out of us.
Of course, I’m not saying you can’t be angry at such… lame things, but just let it pass. You should be reading more useful things that are talking about New Moon movie news, heehee. Ignore stuff like these.
January 12, 2009 at 4:53 pm
When I saw the article, I was like, “Here we go again…” ST has, more or less, a slightly (?!) bias view against Twilight. This may be a very huge generalisation, but I feel that it’s rather true. E.g. When the film critic reviewed Twilight, the focus was on RP’s wooden acting, which simply highlights that she (I think) had no clue of Edward’s feelings/character/whatever and obviously didn’t read and/or like the book in the first place.
Therefore, when I saw the title of the article, I resigned myself to another Twi-bashing (LOL). Not disappointed in anyway. So when I was serenely reading the first column, I noted that his argument was based on the facts that he didn’t like New Age vampires like Edward etc and preferred more traditional Anne Rice vampires. At first, I was willing to read on and let it go. But then, I read that he was “dragged kicking and screaming into the theater” – this may not be accurate; I’m typing this from memory – and that he had not read the books at all.
Therefore, he is biased. Therefore, he is (excuse me) a rather imbecile. Delete this if you may. Therefore, he is not entirely fit to comment on the movie if he had a prior bias and/or had no prior in-book info on Twilight. Therefore, I decided that I would not grace him by reading or even glossing over the rest at all. Therefore, I am still serenely typing this.
I think that it is no use to write in to complain, because that’d be adding fuel to fire. I bet if someone did write in, he’d probably stamp out another Twi-bashing, criticising us and, I dunno, RP’s invisible mole – That’s not vampirish! – or Taylor’s beautiful long hair (a wig though) – Did he use Herbal Essences?!
Who cares if he does, actually? He didn’t read the book, he is terribly bias, QED he and the article should be ignored and forgotten. Cheers.
January 12, 2009 at 5:46 pm
True true, I hate people who generalised things.
If vampires should “look” like this or that, then what about aliens? Should aliens have webbed feet or 3 eyes or…? So who is right and wrong?
I’ll still say the same thing over and over again, if one don’t like something, don’t do(read) it but at the same time, don’t whine and spoilt people’s appetites with unjustified comments.
The worst thing one can do is NOT read the books or has any background info and still think he/her has the right to write comments which are usually unconstructive criticism.
I felt really indignant upon reading the movie reviews. However, I can’t help but to agree to a certain extent of the movie review.
I agree with the reasoning of not writing in to comment of his “report”. I wanted to write in too, but stopped myself. What good will it do? Maybe, it’ll even do harm than ever. His job is to write sarcasm and criticism, I think he’ll laugh when he got our letters. And will have a good time writing a follow-up on this. Maybe calling us fans narrow-minded and all.
Guess we can just protest about it here.
January 12, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Sigh, one can only imagine the follow-up article:
Twilighters Lash Back!
A recently written article by Jeremy Au, which deemed Twilight, a vampire-romance novel turned-movie written by Stephenie Meyer, an insult to the vampires that were orginally repelled by garlic, burnt by sunlight, and slept in coffins, has sparked a frenzy among Twilight fans in Singapore.
Fans from TwilightSingapore, a popular and regularly updated website for Singaporean Twilight fans, have flocked to a particular thread to voice their unhappniess.
Several fans have referred to his article as “crap”, while others, such as a devoted ‘Twilighter’, Bessy, have a different mindset. She wrote, “I could just think of so many reasons to argue against his stand but I couldn’t be bothered. they could have like picked a better journalist who knew what he was writing. By doing this, they definitely will incur the wrath of the more angsty fans, but for people like me, all I know is that Mr. Au’s article makes no sense.”
While most of the fans were fuming at his review of Twilight, a fan, Tasha (HAHA OMG I COULDN’T RESIST) was more bothered by the way he had addressed the male lead, Edward Cullen. She wrote, “the one thing going through my mind throughout the article was – HIS NAME IS EDWARD!” Apparantly, Mr Au has written his name as ‘Ed’ throughout the article.
Let us hope that Mr Au has tons of garlic – for these fans have united as one, to defend what they love most – Twilight!
—
HAHAHA, I couldn’t resist writing a crack article.
Especially the last paragraph. (YOU GUYS – REMEMBER THAT IT’S A JOKE OKAY!) No harm done!
Took me an hour to write this. -__- really pity thise journalists, man.
January 13, 2009 at 9:27 pm
@ darcy: Dude, ROCK ON MAAAAAAAAAAN. \m/ I love you so much.
@ SK: Shit, it feels so weird hearing you babble like a grown up. Rofl.
@ Tasha: LOL. OMG. WHY DID YOU GO OFFLINE!?!??!??!1 OR ELSE I WOULD HAVE ROFL-ED IN OUR CONVERSATION WINDOW, SRSLY. I’m in the newspapers for the third time eh? LOL. Tasha’s Ranting Corner.
January 13, 2009 at 9:54 pm
@ Bessy: HAHAHA, glad I amuse you xD
Msn keeps DC-ing me! So I got fed up. HAHAHA. Yeah, I’m sure you guys’ll be in the papers more often!
January 13, 2009 at 9:59 pm
ome, darcy. right on. Oh and btw guys, I wrote in a response to jeremy’s article. I THINK they might be publishing it on the Mailbag pg in this sat’s life! section…
January 14, 2009 at 8:16 pm
OMG! I’m only 17, Bessy. Lol
January 14, 2009 at 8:31 pm
There is No room for new age vampire softies. PERIOD.
SUNLIGHT – NO VAMPIRES..
Twilight = Pussies.
January 23, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Okay, dracul. Keep living in that world of yours then, and leave us alone.
January 23, 2009 at 12:21 pm