Jul
5
True Blood versue Twilight
July 5, 2009 | 4 Comments
So the other night in the interest of my fans I made my husband run out and rent Twilight for me. I receive quite a few e-mails regarding the books and the movie as to what my opinion is as to either. Although as a general rule I do not read fictional books, but since I am making the effort to watch True Blood, it seems only fair that I give the movie version of Twilight a try.
In brief I liked Twilight.
The author of Twilight, Stephenie Meyer, did something that I, as both a reader and a vampirologist, can deeply appreciate—her vampires were her own, original. Point in case: Twilight Vampires glow when exposed to the direct rays of the sun rather than exploding into flames. Corny? Yes, very much so. I knew that Edward was going to glow at some point in the movie because everyone has made it a point of telling me about that scene. In truth, and it could have been the DVD we rented, I didn’t see the glowing as a big deal, in fact, it hardly showed up on our TV at all. It was so faint that I suspect that if Ed and family were caught out in the sun that they could easily say “genetic skin disorder” and it come off as believable. That, or that he used body glitter. Either way, from a fictional point of view there are a great many vampires that are very capable of walking around in direct sunlight, or they are some of the more dangerous ones at that. In my humble opinion, I see her glowing vampires as a nod back to the stale old easy out that other authors employ.
And for all I know glowing vampires were added in for the sake of the movie. Prior to the release of Twilight I had never been asked a single question about glowing vampires. Either that or it didn’t bother anyone until the movie came out.
I suppose what I liked most about Twilight is that it is a love story first and foremost, it just so happens that one of the parties is a vampire. In truth, Edward being a vampire is not even all that important to the storyline. I liked the angst both Bella and Ed were suffering through and it spoke to me even though I am a 40 year old married woman, a far cry from Twilight’s target audience. That may have everything to do with the movie’s casting and direction, because as I have stated before I have not read the books and can only judge what I have experienced, the movie.
Now onto True Blood. Again, I have not read the books and I will only be discussing the HBO series. The vampires here are just like all the other vampires that already exist in fiction. Even the little things that make them different are not new or original concepts. Heck, they are not even tired old concepts applied or used differently. This means one thing: True Blood has to rely on its story line. In truth, I find it to be less than exciting, fairly predictable and woefully insipid. There is nothing that any of the characters are experiencing that I can relate to, no characters that I feel an attachment to, or see developing anytime in the near future. All the originality that I have to look forward toward, if you can call it that, is that the author of True Blood, Charlaine Harris, has made Elvis Presley a vampire and a minor character in her books. Because he was so fat and old when he was turned he is a bit soft in the head. So, keeping my fingers crossed (not) maybe we’ll have the King in Bon Ton.
Comments
4 Comments so far
My response is a bit backward but bare with me. Elvis Presley is not really named in the books. The character goes by the name of Bubba and if anyone even begins to say El… he becomes unhinged. He is not damaged because of his weight or age but rather because when he was turned he was just a little past the “expiration” date with the result that he feeds on the blood of animals, not humans and he is a little slow of understanding but faithful in whatever duty is required of him and he still has that beautiful voice. Southern vampire clans vie for the privilege of sheltering him and according to the storyline that is the reason for those strange sightings.
FYI the name of the town is Bon Temps and the only reason I point this out is that the names has a bit of significance as the English translation is “good times”..a Little irony as there aren’t a lot of good times in Bon Temps.
OK, so you don’t care much for the characters in True Blood. Maybe I do because I enjoyed the books and I can hardly wait till the sparks fly between Sookie,Eric and Bill. I also love Sam because who doesn’t like a loyal Collie at their side.
Twilight. Well you should get your television screen adjusted because man-oh-man did he sparkle. The absurdity of his angst as he tells her not to look upon him as she will see his true nature in all of its ugliness and then she and we see him looking like a grown up Tinker Bell …oooh so ugly to see him glowing with a rainbow of colors in the sun. Yes, the terrible secret of the top-of-the-food-chain vampire. Original no doubt but don’t vampire myths portray the vampires as sort of demonic and without the use of some sort of disguise or glamor are ugly as the walking corpses that they are?
Fran,
As I have stated, I have not read the books, so telling me how wonderful they were to you is not building your case any, but here goes…
The person who told me that Elvis was in the books admitted that the author never comes out and says its Elvis but the whole thing is written in such a way that you just know it is. There is a theory called Occham’s Razor. Very simply put it states that the most obvious answer is usually the correct one when trying to explain the unexplainable. For instance: it’s nighttime and you are in your home, you hear the sound of hooves racing past your door. What is making the sound? By applying Occam’s Razor the most logical and simplest answers would be that a herd of horses are passing by. Ergo, my friend assumed it was Elvis.
Thank you for correcting the name of the town for me, I now know it is Bon Temps. Having never seen the word in print I had, assumed the town’s name was as everyone in the HBO series pronounced it (“bon ton”). Now I know better.
As to your last point—It is hard to compare fictional vampires (those being created by authors for their books) to the historical and mythological vampires. The fictional vampire has to be a good looking guy or girl because most fictional vampire stories revolve around the fact that the vampire is a love interest. It makes the author’s job easy when they allow their fictional vampire to be the epitome of hotness. You are correct; a normal human being would take one look at a historical or mythological vampire and find nothing sexually attractive about it at all.
Has anyone ever asked the author of Twilight as to why she chooses to make her vampire glow in direct sunlight? There has to be a reason as to why she chooses the road less traveled.
QtR – T
i love the chemistry between Kirsten Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Twlight will always be one of the best vampire-love story movies.
No one will beat the king which is Elvis Presley.’,~