A funny thing happened to me during the premiere for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 earlier this week. Amongst all the shriekin', hootin' and hollerin' of a cinema full of Twi-hards, I actually found myself enjoying the movie.
It's easy to be dismissed as a Twilight hater, but I approached every film in the series with an open mind. They just all happened to suck badly. I realise I'm not the target market, but I generally have very little problem getting on board with youth-targeted crap, and I have plenty of comparable juvenile pop culture obsessions.
The first film, which now seems like an exercise in artful restraint, had its moments, but I struggled to engage with the love story, despite genuinely wanting to. The second movie was bloated and excessive, and I barely made it to the end. The third film livened things up with some half-decent action, but none of it felt like it meant anything.
Then there was last year's Breaking Dawn - Part 1, a shameful exercise in fan-servicing that barely qualified as narrative cinema. Which is why I was so surprised to find myself almost, kind of, sorta liking the new film.
I think it's partly because I finally took on board just how much the franchise means to so many people. The widespread fervour generated by the films validates them on some level.