Okay, so I actually had something else planned to post today, but I just couldn’t wait to post this one. I apologize before hand if this starts turning into a rant. And it probably will.
As a lot of you guys (should) know The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (the movie adapted from the book of the same title by Cassandra Clare) came out on Wednesday last week. Along with the movie, a bunch of critics and reviews came out for it. That is to be expected. What I did not expect was the massive amount of hate and disrespect. Of course, I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I can’t judge, but just the way the critics put the movie down was infuriating. The way they wrote their reviews was like they didn’t even care. That they barely watched the movie. Or that they started watching it with a plan to hate it from the start. That they didn’t even give the movie a chance. One reviewer gave City of Bones “a big, long, loud yawn. It’s tired and dull”. Um, a good portion of the film is action (so I heard). How can that be dull? I don’t understand. Maybe because he is not invested in the series like a million of other people are? Because if what made the movie appear dull is because he didn’t understand what was going on because he didn’t read the book, it’s not entirely the movie’s fault. When it comes to book to movie adaptations, they (the people involved in the making of the movie) have to try to please the fans. After all, it is the fans that are willing to go to more than one showing of the movie. It is the fans that feel so passionate about it. Forget about the critics, if the fans hate the film, THEN we have a problem.
Another review even went as far as saying “critics hate this Twilight rip-off”. That alone made me mad, because in no way is The City Bones a rip-off of Twilight. In fact, critics these days seem to think everything YA is a rip-off of Twilight. But it was the underlying meaning behind it was what pisses me off.
If critics think everything YA is somehow, in one way or another, related to Twilight, that just means they don’t give anything YA a chance. A chance to prove them wrong. Majority of the critics think YA is a genre powered by teenage girls. Someone even commented on an article (I forget which one) that “as long as teenagers/teenage girls like this stuff then we have to deal with this crap.” I’m paraphrasing a little, but you get the idea. What they don’t understand is that even through YA was written for young adults (teenagers), adults still enjoy reading YA books and watching YA movies. IT’S NOT JUST TEENAGERS AND TEENAGE GIRLS. Why won’t they understand that? Why won’t they give YA a chance? Why don’t they believe YA is a valid genre? And why do they keep comparing EVERYTHING to Twilight? Not everything is related to Twilight you know. Just because the book/movie features a teenage girl going through “self discovery” (or discovering she is in love with a vampire that sparkles) and meets a boy along the way and may/may not contain a love triangle DOES NOT make it a Twilight rip-off. The movie version of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green starts filming on today. If critics start comparing it to Twilight, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll think of something…
Maybe I’m only this mad because I am a teenage girl and “I take things personally” (so they say). Maybe I’m only this mad because they don’t agree with me. Maybe I’m only this mad because they like insulting something I love. It could be any one of those reasons. But I know the real reason why I’m this mad, this pissed off is that they don’t want to give YA a chance. That they are so willing to hate it and fill it with hate. That they think the only reason why YA does so well is because of teenage girls. That in their eyes YA will never be considered a valid genre. That YA isn’t appreciated the way it should be.
What do you think?
Do you have any ideas on how to change their minds about YA?
This is linked to the Let’s Discuss! meme hosted by Oh, Chrys and The Fiction Conniption.
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I agree!!! Obviously movie adaptations are going to cater to the fans. The fans are the ones who got the book popular enough to be in the movies and the fans are the ones who are going to watch it! I hate the whole teenage girls thing. It’s so insulting! As a teenage girl it really makes me mad that people make such a generalization!
It’s not like anyone goes to the rated R violent movies and says those are movies for grown men who have nothing better to do with their lives…
This is a great post! And you brought up so many great points!!! Nice job!!!
I totally agree with you! It’s just kind of sad that no “critic” really understands that the movie was made for the fans and not them… As for the teenage girl generalization, that makes me want to hit something everything I see/hear about it. It’s so offensive. Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂 I’m glad you liked it.
I only just read the first book, and I have to agree with you. It’s no Twilight replica, it’s completely different from Twilight. I actually loved it, and I’m not a teenager at all. 🙂
Sarah @ Kitties Like Books Too
Exactly! I’m just so tired of everyone comparing it to Twilight and saying only teenagers would read/watch it. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂