TWILIGHT SCENES THAT FLOPPED
TWILIGHT ADAPTATION cons and flops
A few of the main reasons why certain Twilight scenes flopped and failed us:
- What happened to mean-girl, Lauren?
- Casting choices and/or cringy acting
- The color Blue…
- Bellas love for literature was not portrayed
- Why were these scenes not in the film?
LAUREN
It drives me crazy that Lauren isn’t included in the film!
It also drives me crazy that there is a whole bully in the books and she basically has no effect on Bella or the other characters (besides Jessica). Why does Bella never react? Or stand up for herself? Why does Bella completely ignore the entire situation? Bella has this great way of avoiding trauma and ignoring all bad vibes, but Lauren was ANNOYING. I find it very unrelatable that Bella was unbothered.
Lauren also would have been a great addition to the film.
I would have enjoyed seeing how Laurens bullying tactics bounced right off of Bella. It really would have emphasized Bellas magnetism for all of the worst things. It also would have supported the foreshadowing of vampire Bellas mental shield.
Lauren was left out of the film because Jessica was a decent replacement for the fake-friend role.
I don’t even know who would have been casted as Lauren…. Perhaps Jennifer Lawence? But it would have been weird to see her in Twilight and then see her in The Hunger Games at the same time.
CRINGY ACTING and scenes
Im going to be honest, Kristen Stewarts acting was not great, but I don’t blame her, I blame the directions she was given.
We know that she isn’t a bad actress because of her roles in “Zathura” (2005), “Into the Wild” (2007) “Snow White” (2012), and “Fierce People” (2005) – which were all good. In fact, “Into the Wild” is what landed her the role in Twilight (but ill talk more about that later).
Steward obviously has a specific acting style and facial expressions that belong solely to her. She plays her roles well. So, why was she so awkward and cringy in the film? Well, she was probably very confused with the role.
She had to be:
- a teenage girl who is young but mature
- introverted but friendly
- shy but had a lot of friends
- a generally boring girl who oddly has a very exciting and dangerous life
- deeply in love with a mythical creature who is overly controlling, too intense, and wants to kill her.
Bella is a complex character and Steward was 16 years old trying to act like a person who does not exist in real life. Still needed to be relatable. Stephanie Meyer could not have written a more complicated main character.
Also, it was cold. And wet. And cold. They did the filming for this moving in the COLDEST AND WETEST place in America. Naturally everyone was cranky and uncomfortable the entire time. Maybe creating a comfortable work environment would produce better material. Maybe. I don’t know, just guessing.
BAD DIRECTION
Stewart was also given bad directions. The films director, Hardwicke, wanted Stewart to be Bella because of her amazing work in the film “Into the Wild”. Specifically, Hardwiche really liked how Steward was able to portray “such longing” and lust for the male love interest…. By the way, Steward was like 15 years old during those lusting scenes. And we wonder why so many girls are sexualized at a young age…
The scene in the Twilight film when Bella was on her bed, in her underwear, making out with Edward is almost an exact replica of an “Into the Wild” scene. In case you were wondering, that scene was NOT IN THE BOOK! Come on, Hardwiche, where is the originality, and why are you making sweet/innocent Bella into a lust driven teenager? THAT ISNT WHAT WE WANTED TO SEE!
Bad direction seems to be the common factor for movies scenes that flopped.
RED FLAGS
If you want to see more red flags and here more about Hardwiches bad decision making, go check out her interview with Yahoo Entertainment in 2018. Its cringy. I am obsessed with how the interviewer, Kevin Polowy, is just as weirded at by the whole situation as I am.
Why ‘Twilight’ director Catherine Hardwicke cast Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson – YouTube
BLUE
Why? I don’t understand. Why was the ENTIRE movie filmed in blue? Some scenes, sure, it would have been fine, but not the entire movie. We don’t need that much aesthetic shoved down our throats. Sometimes subtly is better.
Maybe i’m being a little dramatic. I actually really loved the coloring in the scene where Bella and Edward ditched school and wondered into the woods. We finally get uber-dramatic moment of Bella telling him that he is a vampire and he confirms it.
The location, the color schemes, the panning camera- it was all so dramatically filmed. It made a beautiful moment on the big screen.
LACK OF SCENE SELECTIONS
THE BASICS
- NERD ALERT: The films didn’t show how Bella loved to read. It made her significantly less relatable. A big part of why I related to Bellas character is because I am an introvert who loves to read.
- SUPERPOWERS. The films don’t explain the powers that each of the vampires have, or what strong trait they brought from their human life. We never got an explanation for Esmes maternal instincts or Jaspers mood-control. This is important information for anyone who didn’t read the books.
- WARDROBE. Why is Bella wearing a long-sleeve blue shirt and brown cardigan/vest in the Arizona desert during the first scene? Its Arizona, its HOT!
CHARACTERS
- EDWARD WAS BORING. The films failed Edward. In the novels, he was actually fairly interesting and complex. He did nice things for Bella all the time. He also did some toxic things, but the Twilight film made him seem more toxic and controlling than the book did.
- WAITRESS. The waitress at the dinner date in Porland. In the novel, the waitress is supposed to be this absolutely beautiful, leggy, college-aged young women who hard core flirts with Edward. In the film, the waitress is a goth girl that has one slightly flirty moment and then disappears. That scene, if filmed according to the novel, could have actually been funny and given more insight to how Edward only has eyes for Bella.
- EMMETT. We also never got his backstory in any of the films.
- JACOB. He is supposed to have twin sisters. In the films, he is an only child. It’s not a big difference, but I would have liked if the films stuck to the amazing story that Stephanie Meyer wrote. This is especially important because one of Jacobs sisters imprints with one of the pack members in a later book.
MY FAVORITE CHARACTER
We didn’t get to see anything about Alices backstory.
Her story is directly tied to James and all the drama. her story is the most tragic and interesting. She was thrown into the psyche ward when she was a human because she could see the future. Her dark cell and shock-therapy caused her to forget all about her human life.
James knew her because her blood smelled even better than Bellas. She was rescued by a friendly vampire similar to Carlisle. She even has family that is still alive! Im pretty sure she is the only Cullen member who still has living relatives.
ALICES STORY
If you want to see Alice’s backstory, Stephanie Meyer teamed up with a few groups of aspiring/independent female filmmakers. They created their own short stories about the past lives of a few of our favorite Twilight characters. Its a must-see!
DID TWILIGHT FAIL US?
This series isn’t just about Bella and Edward, we wanted the films to include the stories of ALL the Cullens.
I might make an entire blog post about all of the scenes that I wish were in the films, because I can easily continue this list.
Are you #teamjacob or #teamedward? Let me know on Instagram @books4movies
Check out the next Twilight blog post. I’ll get a little more analytical, and possibly more critical, about the writing, filming, and adapting to film techniques.