Saturday, May 30, 2009

Twighlight v Buffy - the verdict is in

I've been planning for a while that when Jamie is indisposed for a few hours that I will go and hire Twilight - the teen vampire film du jour for those of you living under a rock - and that opportunity presented itself this week. I haven't read the massively selling book or any of the sequels, but being a sucker for pop-culture vampire related movies/ TV series, I am dead keen. I just can't bear to be SEEN to be reading the books or spend money on them, so I'm waiting for the library up the road to open so that I can queue up with all the other 16 year olds wanting to read them... but I digress.
So, Twilight the movie - being the BIG Buffy fan that I am, I felt almost a sense of betrayal in going over to the Twilight side, but it was something that needed to be done. I also felt I didn't "get" the Robert Pattison thing - it's something I now feel I understand. I liked that pretty much everyone in the movie was really pale, including Bella, the main female (human) character. So that's bound to become cool with the young folk. However, I just felt that the substance wasn't really there. I mean come on, they are 17 and have known each other for five minters and they are all "I'll love you until I die". Plus, the movie and presumably book strays from some of the central vampire premises - i.e. sunlight kills vampires. Turns out not in Twighlight, it actually makes them sparkle like they are covered in "diamonds" - conveniently pretty, but I don't buy it.
For me, Twilight wasn't even a patch on Buffy (which I just Googled and it turns out it ran on TV between 1997 and 2003 - pretty much when I was at uni). Buffy has so much more than Twilight - hilarious pop culture references, lots of good one liners, the realisation that everything in it is totally ridiculous, likable characters (no-one in Twilight was really very likable, however, I'd totally want to hang out with Buffy and the gang any day. The gang in Twilight were all boring), and it remained excellent for the whole six years (it did kind of go off on the last series). The local video store in Perth used to have the whole Buffy collection, and I'd just keep hiring it in succession - one day the guy was all "did you know this is the third time you are hiring this?" - shut up and give me the DVD kid.
On another Buffy note - does everyone know that Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is pregnant in real life? To her hubby Freddie Prinze Junior.
I have resisted buying the box set for a long time, but I really think it's time. Twilight could have pulled me away, but it only pushed me closer. Buffy for ever!!

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