Why is Robert Pattinson so loved and lusted after? With his new movie Remember Me being released soon, I have been seeing his face everywhere. Although the publicity for this movie is not as abundant and aggressive as that for his previous film, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, I still feel as though Robert Pattinson is being forced upon me at every turn.
Posters for Remember Me have covered the city where I live and the trailer has been playing before every PG-13 film since November. With this recent onslaught of Robert Pattinson media pollution, I have thought to myself, “Why has he become a leading man/sex symbol?” This description used to be reserved for only the most classically handsome. Now it is being bestowed upon a Brit who by Hollywood standards is unwashed and flabby.
I have not yet seen Remember Me, as it has not yet been widely released. The trailers seem to show most of the movie anyway, so I feel fairly comfortable making my judgments now. This film is about a rich, confused college student—played by Pattinson—who has good intentions but ends up getting into trouble. He’s a deep, poetic rebel. This immediately reminds me of my junior high crush, Dylan Mckay. As a resident of Beverley Hills (90210), Dylan came from a rich, privileged background but felt betrayed and abandoned by his family. To show his discontent with life, he drank heavily, rode dangerous motorcycles and pushed away those who loved him. And in doing all of this, he stole my heart.
Pattinson has portrayed several characters who, like Dylan, are dark rebellious young men. They need the help of some unsuspecting girl to fix them and make their lives whole again. In the Twilight movies, that girl is Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart). In Remember Me, that girl is the character played by Emilie de Ravin. And in junior high, that girl was me. With all of this, I have realized that Hollywood knows how to make girls fall in love with an actor: they make him an honest, misunderstood rebel.
I remember hearing complaints before the release of the first Twilight film of how upset fans of the books were with the choose of actors to play the leading role. Fans did not seem to find Pattinson attractive enough, until they saw him in this role. As the vampire, Edward Cullen, he does what he knows he shouldn’t do. He tortures himself. However, he does all of this because he is following his heart. The ladies apparently ate this up. I should know. I fell victim to it back in the day. But, believe me, I am trying so hard not to fall for it this time.
I will no longer accept a less than perfectly stunning leading man. I will no longer accept the sideburns and motorcycles in place of good acting and Adonis-like physiques. When James Dean was a rebel, at least he did it while displaying his stellar craft and pouty lips. These days, any hack can become a leading man movie star as long as the characters they portray play by their own rules and can potentially harm their leading ladies. I can only hope that this laziness on the part of Hollywood to find a talented and physically attractive leading man is only a rebellious phase. In the meantime I will shield my eyes from the Remember Me propaganda and write off my young love for Dylan McKay as an expression of naïveté.
…But then again, I wouldn’t kick either of them out of bed.
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