This is tenuous reasoning to be sure, and a lot of terrible things could be endorsed under the same qualification, but when you remove all the commercialisation, there remains a bunch of people who really love Twilight. And it's the kind of love I relate to.
I apply my love to much cooler things of course, but it's the same kind of love - whether it's for the films of Brian De Palma and Paul Verhoeven or Twilight.
Breaking Dawn - Part 2 also succeeds to some degree by simple virtue of it being the culmination of a long-running story. The film does a good job of embracing its climactic nature, and I'd be lying if I denied feeling something at the very end when a final montage incorporates pretty much every actor from all five movies.
Also: Kristen Stewart looks kinda cool as a vampire. The colouring suits her.
The impact of the insane success of the Twilight films on the marketplace has been felt for several years now already, and with The Hunger Games proving the sustained appeal of young adult book adaptations, we'll no doubt be seeing plenty more of them for a long time to come.
The franchise also marked the emergence of a new demographic with considerable spending power previously under served by the blockbuster market: young girls, as detailed in this article.
I'm not going to go back and watch the earlier films or anything, but I feel at a comfortable place overall with the Twilight franchise now, having been previously somewhat perplexed by my inability to embrace, enjoy, or even tolerate it.
Lots of credit has to go to director Bill Condon, who despite also being at the helm of series nadir Breaking Dawn - Part 1, manages to imbue the finalé with an earned sense of romance and a wistful tone, creepy CGI baby or not. Also: lots of people get their heads ripped off. That's never a bad thing.
For the record, my favourite vampire movies are: Joel Schmacher's '80s classic The Lost Boys; Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow's stylish 1987 vampire neo-noir cult favourite Near Dark; the recent Swedish art-house hit Let The Right One In (and its worthy American remake Let Me In); Guillermo del Toro's first feature Cronos and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, which has aged pretty well.
Love Twilight? Hate Twilight? Will you be seeing the new film? If not, could you be swayed? Favourite vampire movies? Comment below!