Why are the "Twilight" movies so popular? Is it the next great franchise or a temporary fad?

Frankly, I don't really get the appeal of the films. (For the record, I have not read the book, and have only seen the first movie, ''Twilight Movie|Twilight''. ) I'll grant you that I am not the series' core audience.

If I REALLY REALLY liked it, that would mean something is very wrong. But still, it's hard to think of a recent dramatic film that was less compelling. Nothing much happens in the films, none of the relationships are particularly relateable or resonant, and I never once believed that Bella and Edward genuinely cared about each other.

The film seemed to think that if two people exchange statements of devotion enough times, an audience will be sold on the idea they are in love, but it didn't work for me. I just found the whole experience sort of (forgive me) bloodless. Why should I care about these two good-looking but distant youngsters and their monochrome, pale blue world?

youtube.com/watch?v=eUba0WtH-SY.

There was an absolutely fantastic article by Caitlin Flanagan in the Atlantic last year that explains, with a depth of perception I rarely find in any essay about anything, why Twilight is so popular. It's not a short answer, but it's an answer so profound you'll never find a better one anywhere: theatlantic.com/doc/200812/twilight-vamp... Some of the best quotes: "Twilight centers on a boy who loves a girl so much that he refuses to defile her, and on a girl who loves him so dearly that she is desperate for him to do just that, even if the wages of the act are expulsion from her family and from everything she has ever known. We haven’t seen that tale in a girls’ book in a very long time.

And it’s selling through the roof. " "Not since Maxim de Winter’s shocking revelation—“You thought I loved Rebecca? … I hated her”—has a sweet young heroine received such startling and enrapturing news. As he gradually explains, Edward has been avoiding and scorning Bella not because he loathes her but because he is so carnally attracted to her that he cannot trust himself to be around her for even a moment.

The mere scent of her hair is powerful enough that he is in a constant struggle to avoid taking—and thereby destroying—her. This is a vampire novel, so it is a novel about sex, but no writer, from Bram Stoker on, has captured so precisely what sex and longing really mean to a young girl. " "There is no question about the exact nature of the physical act that looms over them.

Either they will do it or they won’t, and afterward everything will change for Bella, although not for Edward. Nor is the act one that might result in an equal giving and receiving of pleasure. If Edward fails—even once—in his great exercise in restraint, he will do what the boys in the old pregnancy-scare books did to their girlfriends: he will ruin her.

More exactly, he will destroy her, ripping her away from the world of the living and bringing her into the realm of the undead. If a novel of today were to sound these chords so explicitly but in a nonsupernatural context, it would be seen (rightly) as a book about “abstinence,” and it would be handed out with the tracts and bumper stickers at the kind of evangelical churches that advocate the practice as a reasonable solution to the age-old problem of horny young people. " "Bella’s fervent hope—one that will not be realized until the final novel—is that Edward will ravage her, and that they will be joined forever; the harrowing pain that is said to be the victim’s lot at the time of consummation means nothing to her.

She loves him and wants to make a gift to him of her physical body—an act fraught with ambiguous dangers (the Twilight series so resonates with girls because it perfectly encapsulates the giddiness and the rapture—and the menace—that inherently accompany romance and sex for them). The ways in which his refusal and her insistence are accommodated are at the heart not only of this novel but of the entire series, and that inspires the rapture young girls feel for the books. This is not your seventh-grade human-development teacher passing around a dental dam and thereby making you want to send a plume of fifth-period taco salad and Gatorade into her outstretched palm.

This is sex and romance fully—ecstatically, dangerously—engaged with each other. At last, at last.

You have to read the books to get it! Its really that simple. The movies doesn't make sense unless you read the books!

Then you get what they are thinking. I watched Twilight first, and said, Ok, Im interested. So I read the books, then watched the movie again, and it made so much more sense!

I saw New Moon the day it came out (930am showing on Friday). The theater was full, but not like it would be for the evening showings. Went to AMC ($5 before noon!).

The front 5 rows were basically empty. It was me and my friend, and 3 other small groups of 2-4 people. The rest of the theater was full, but not overly.

I am 23 years old, and love this series. I love that its not all about sex! Its so different from True Blood.

In True Blood there is sex, and lots of it. Here in the Twilight series they don't. The final book, Breaking Dawn, they are on their honeymoon, but you don't get all the details!

Its really great for young people who want to dive into a good book. I must say, these books are really great to escape from the mundane day to day of life. I enjoy it thoroughly.

My husband doesn't get it. But I love it!

I'm a fan of the book but not of the movie. The movie ruined the book big time. The acting is terrible, for the first movie released last year, everything looks rushed.

I haven't seen New Moon yet and I have no plans on watching it soon, after 3-4 weeks maybe? I'm sure the cinemas are packed now and I don't want to squeeze in and put myself into a difficult situation for a movie I don't really like. Twilight is so popular now because of media.

They're so much advertising it. Almost everyday a news about the cast or anything about the movie is being published. Also, the storyline of the whole saga attracts the teens.

Teens are the most avid fans. They have the tendency to be obsessed with something compared to adults who cares more about reality. Okay to answer your question, yes Twilight Saga is a great franchise NOW but as from what I see it right now, it will be forgettable.10 years from now, I bet these kids who like Twilight would probably forget the story.It's a romantic mushy story with werewolves and vampires along... it's more like teen stuff kind of flick, not the type who someone would like to remember for as long as he/she lives.

When a person passed through his/her teen stage, everything becomes different. Right now, I'm in the stage of forgetting it little by little because of the movie... so what more for the young teens out there who probably seen/read it earlier than I did?Okay... here's a trailer of New Moon. Just by watching it, you'll see how terrible the acting is.

It's all about the book. The people who are so die-hard in love with the movie series first fell in love with the Twilight books. In the books, Edward Cullen is the ultimate romantic hero who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Mr. Darcy any day of the week.

The book is thrilling, tense, and bubbling over with romantic suspense and wonder. The movies are just pale imitations of the books. But those who have (maybe secretly since they're practically 30 years old) dreamed of Edward love to see him brought to "life" along with all of the Cullens, Bella, and the rest of the characters.To people who just see the movies: Not fair.

You are judging an entire series based on a few corny movies starring over-hyped actors like Robert Pattinson. (Who knew vampires liked to flat iron their hair?) The book series really has more depth and more wonder to it. Of course, if you've ever LOVED a book, and been disappointed by the movies, then you know what I mean.

THAT is why people love these movies. Not because they're the next classics. Not because they're brilliant pieces of film.

But because they're the animation of a story that has made a lot of our hearts go *THUMP*.(View some of the differences between book and movie below) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pInQd5lTP-E And NO, this is not the next great franchise.It is a fad. But the books I think will last much longer as classic guilty pleasures for many decades to come. The movies?

Will be in garage sales within 10 years.

I admit that I am a 37 year-old Twilight fan . I do believe that in order to really get it, you need to read the books. My teen daughter was a huge fan and wanted all the books, so I got them for her.

That led to me reading them. Most teenage girls and women who enjoy reading about romance and forbidden love will probably like these books. The first Twilight movie was not great.It was a low budget movie that became popular because of the love people had for the book.

The second movie, New Moon, is 20 times better than Twilight. It had a different director and a bigger budget. There was more action, better lighting, and in my opinion, better acting even from the actors that were in Twilight.

Kristen Stewart was more believable as Bella in New Moon, and Taylor Lautner was amazing as Jacob. The effects were very good. I was a little worried about how they would accomplish Jacob changing to a werewolf, but it was great.

Twilight mania is like Harry Potter mania on steroids...LOL. It starts with the teen fans enjoying it, and then their parents want to watch and see what all the fuss is about and it spreads. I also believe that a lot of "Twilight Moms" have used this as a way to have something in common with their teenage daughters.

The teenage years can sometimes be rough as children become more independent and start pulling away from their parents. Twilight has been a way to help keep a bond going with our teenage daughters that might not have been there otherwise. I don't think the craziness will be going away anytime soon.

There are still 2 more movies that will be coming out, so fans won't let it die down. Eclipse is scheduled to be released in June 2010, and the filming of Breaking Dawn should be starting soon. Until all the movies in the series are released, I don't see the Twilight mania ending.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.