What's the fastest way to rile up a whole community of fan girls? Depict their favorite vampire heartthrob in a less-than-flattering light.
The cover of the new issue of Entertainment Weekly features the leads of the upcoming "Twilight" movie, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, in full-on glam mode, and it's generating plenty of negative reaction from devoted readers of Stephenie Meyer’s ultra-successful young adult franchise who are less than thrilled with the shot.
The English actor plays Edward, a 90-something vamp who struggles to control his thirst for human blood. Stewart stars as Bella Swan, the quirky, independent-minded high school student who captures his heart. Catherine Hardwicke is directing the film, which is due out Dec. 12.
Though the online community has gone wild for almost anything having to do with the film, the new image is being criticized for a whole host of reasons -- but mostly for its depiction of Pattinson, whose unbuttoned shirt/chest-hair look doesn't exactly jibe with the descriptions of Edward that appear in the books.
Over at MTV.com, which features updates on the film every Tuesday as part of its "Twilight Tuesdays" series, comments such as the following were typical: "Edward looks like a ZOMBIE," a poster identified as "Horrified" said. "The stylists and photographer obviously had no idea who the characters are. Horrible! I thought the photo was a fake at first. And wow, he looks like a hairy, powdered donut."
"Blake" agreed. "This cover is horrible. I mean Bella is supposed to be timid and ‘girl next door,’ and this photo does not convey any of that. And as for Edward, his lips are too red, and he is too white. I think that this is a crappy cover for such an amazing series, and it does not do the actors or the movie justice.”
In the "Twilight" forums on Amazon.com, "Alice" posted: "I agree. I mean, come on. If Steve Carell can wax his chest, why cant Rob?!?"
Not every response has been quite so vitriolic, of course. On Fanpop.com, kittykatkate wrote: "Honestly, it's a good picture, but it kinda reminds me of the covers of those romance novels you see at a grocery store or something."
The next book in the series, "Breaking Dawn," is set for release Aug. 2.
-- Gina McIntyre [LA Times Blog]
Critical article but I have to admit its true. Twilight is a good read but I really don't like this cover. Robert Pattinson is a great Edward Cullen in all the videos and specials I've seen so far (from MTV's feature Twilight Tuesdays), Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan too but this cover just doesn't look great nor does it portray Twilight well.The hair. Holy crap it looks like hay. You have to agree--it's a shitty mess! The shirt is not a good piece to wear for Robert. They should've just buttoned it up. No machoness from Robert there. Pattinson looks dull and where the hell is Kristen Stewart even looking at? She looks sweet but here, I'm just getting blah!, yah know? The apple didn't really help tie the photo together. What does EW pay the makeup artist and photographer for? To make them look something close to perfect (hint: Photoshop is a good medium dorks.). It looks incredibly sallow. I was expecting something above average from EW, especially since I subscribed recently. DRAT!What do you think?
