Big budget vampire movies tend to have a low-strike rate for quality. Van Helsing and Underworld come to mind as being considered particularly bad. It's never really mattered to me though. I'll watch the worst of the worst and probably enjoy it. There is no other genre that I have such a high- tolerance for. I know I'm not the only one. Both of the aforementioned films were not complete flops. Underworld even spawned an appalling sequel.
In December, the High School Musical of vampire movies will be released. "Twilight."
There are 4 books in the Twilight series so far. Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I've read the first two. They aren't exactly high literature, but they do move along. Sometimes however, you can see major plot developments a whole novel before they actually happen.
Casting movies that are based on novels can be fraught with danger. If you get it wrong, even the most popular characters can be rendered flat, whiny or just goddamn annoying.
Twilight has 2 main characters. Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart, is human. She falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson. Kristen Stewart is an actress who has been in "Into the Wild" and "Panic Room" while Robert Pattinson is a British actor who played Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".
The supporting cast has a couple of really good casting decisions too, including Rachelle LeFevre as Victoria, a bad vampire. She played Jerry Espenson's hooker girlfriend in the last season of Boston Legal. The supporting parts of Emmett and Alice are well cast as well, with 2 unknowns playing those roles.
So far, so good. Unfortunately, 2 casting decisions stand out as being particularly awful.
The main bad guy is played by Cam Gigandet from "Never back down". He makes a good bad guy but he looks completely ridiculous in the wig he is forced to wear for this. Hopefully the special effects will make him look menacing, not like an extra from Blackadder crossed with the lead singer of Kings of Leon.
The worst casting decision has the potential to ruin the 2nd movie (and there is very likely to be one), and possibly the rest of the series.
Jacob Black is written as a foil to Edward Cullen. Every novel and movie needs a love triangle and Jacob completes the love triangle in the Twilight series. Jacob Black is a Native American who lives on a reservation with his father. He needs to be tall, 6ft or more. Good looking enough to at least be a chance when compared to Edward Cullen by screaming teenage girls. Oh yeah, and he needs to look at least a little like a Native American.
So who do they hire for this very important part? This guy:
His name is Taylor Lautner and you might know him from "Shark Boy and LavaGirl in 3-D" No? Cheaper by the Dozen 2? No?
So can he carry a film that doesn't suck? After all, when they make the sequel to Twilight, "New Moon" he will be the lead male for most of the film acting alongside Kirsten Stewart. I hope for the sake of this new series of vampire movies that he is good. After all, there are many of us which would like a vampire movie made every year.
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