Hot Take: Twilight Movie Franchise

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WGHS students and staff give their hot take on the popular 2000’s Twilight Saga movies.
​by Cheyenne Seagraves

WGHS students and staff give their hot take on the popular 2000’s Twilight Saga movies. ​English teacher Mrs. Whitehurst says she likes the one where they get married (Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1) because she actually thought their wedding was really beautiful "...and when Bella was walking down the aisle, it was so sweet."

She thinks the movies are so interesting to people, “Bella’s just a normal girl and then she’s got this cool, mysterious family who comes into town and like she feels all alone and then she meets them and they’re amazing and everybody thinks they’re cool, but they like her out of everybody in the town. I just feel like it’s a cool story.”

Mrs. Whitehurst was a freshman in college when the movies came out. She also had read the books and went to see the movies when she was in her late teens, or early twenties because everybody else was going to see them. 

Even though she didn’t really like Kristen Stewart, she still wanted to see the movies. “Those were like her first major roles and she was really young, and I feel like she’s grown a lot as an actress. I also felt like Robert Pattinson didn’t do great, I liked all of the other Cullens, I thought they did a great job... Bella was so awkward [in the movies], but when you read the books she’s awkward, so I was like okay it makes sense. I don’t know, I liked ‘em. I thought they were kinda cheesy, but the books are cheesy too, so they were fine. I feel like they get better.”

Mrs. Whitehurst’s favorite character is Rosalie. She didn’t like her at first because she was so mean to Bella, but then she explained that she was really mad at Edward for bringing her into that way of life, but also because of what humans did to her when she was a human. 

She further states, “I feel like she has the most development, she changes and you understand why she is the way that she is. I love Alice. Jasper seems really weird at first, but then he’s actually hilarious. Bella’s dad is amazing!”

Mrs. Whitehurst finishes by saying, “I want to be team Jacob, but I would pick Edward if it were me. I like academic types, my husband has a PhD in History, I’m a nerd, so I know I would pick Edward.” 

Ane’J Beers (Junior) “My favorite movie is New Moon because the cinematography is just really pretty, and the plot’s really good.” 

She continues her statement by saying, “...it kind of switches it up from the other movies, where we’re seeing a lot of Edward, instead, [in] this movie, you see a lot of Jacob and we get a lot of history [about his] tribes.” 

She thinks the sci-fi perspective of these movies are what makes people want to watch. She says, “...it’s not really normal to have a vampire and a werewolf love triangle,  and it’s just kind of interesting to see like, oh like, what’s gonna happen to Bella, is she gonna turn into a vampire, is she not?” She finishes, “...you’re always kind of on your feet trying to figure out what’s going on.”

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​She then goes to say, “I think that my favorite character is Alice probably, or Rose, ‘cause Rose just has a really sad backstory and you know, everybody thinks that she’s just like this really mean and controlling person, but she’s really not, she’s just had this really rough backstory…” 

She says that [in] the books you learn about Alice’s backstory, [it’s] just really interesting. Once you know her backstory, you understand her character. She thinks her character in the movies is a big part of why she loves the movies so much.”

Ane’J ends by saying she’s team Edward, and there’s no reason why you should be team Jacob whatsoever. Edward is literally made for her. Once you watch the movies, you find out who she picked and she has her perfect, little ending that she never could’ve had with Jacob. Edward’s made for her.

These movies have been very popular since the first one came out in 2008, and the last one in 2012. These movies were originally a series of books by Stephenie Meyer that were also extremely popular. All five movies are streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Tubi has all of them except New Moon, as well as Apple TV. 

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