Friday, April 23rd, 2010
14

The "Twilight Saga: Eclipse” Trailer Charitably Rates A 3rd Grade Reading Level

TWI-WHAT?After a stock shot from a helicopter-mounted camera zooming over green woods towards a lake nestled in the mountains, the characters of the Twilight saga once again come stumbling forth to present drama and turn into wolves and, apparently, get engaged to vampires. The script, chopped up for the trailer, is a mix of dramatic statement and narrative exposition. To understand it in written form, you would need to have completed the third grade, according to readability tests.

Here are the words, in order, from the trailer.

"Jacob. What are you doing."

"I'm here to warn you."

"Just leave now."

"She has the right to know."

"What."

"We've been tracking the situation in Seattle for a while. Unexplained disappearances. Killings."

"Someone's creating an army."

"An army of vampires?"

"They're coming here."

"This means an ugly fight, with lives lost."

"We're in."

"As long as we get to kill some vampires."

"It's time."

"Yes it is."

Average number of characters per word: 4.32.
Average number of syllables per word : 1.38.
Average number of words per sentence: 4.

On the Gunning-Fogg index, which evaluates the number of years of education needed for comprehesion, it scores a 3.95, just slightly higher than the text of "Rock-a-bye Baby." Four other different tests give it a reading level appropriate for grades 0, 2, 2 and 6.

Also Jacob is only briefly shirtless once. IT'S TIME! YES IT IS!

14 Comments / Post A Comment

Bettytron (#575)

This is probably true of most movie trailers, no? And most advertising in general?

Not that I'm sticking up for Twilight! God no.

Trevor Jackson (#1,792)

Hilarious. Flesch-Kincaid, the quick rule of thumb in educational publishing (thanks, Microsoft), puts the grade level at 1.7.

Eight-year-olds, dude.

KenWheaton (#401)

Note to self: Anyone wearing fake contacts, stab 'em in the hear with a wooden stake.

Just in time for Capture the Flag season! Veggie vamps and lycans on one side of the river, ginger vamps on the other. For the glory of Camp Forks.

Crantastical (#4,127)

According to the following source, Bunnicula: a Rabbit tale of Mystery, was at a Grade 4.9 level:

http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/viewWorkDetail.do?workId=160&

Oh, the limits of our Let Them Read Crap dreams!

One of my colleagues tutors juvenile prisoners near Topeka somewheres, and those boys are all severely into the Twilight books.

petejayhawk (#1,249)

Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center?

No, Shawnee County. I think.

petejayhawk (#1,249)

Oh, Topeka, that would make sense. Topeka's in Shawnee County.

petejayhawk (#1,249)

I assume the 6th grade result came from the "American Public Schools Reading Level, Uh, Testing Thing."

HiredGoons (#603)

I'm assuming that 'gasp when Taylor Lautner turns around is because she catches a glimpse of his abs.

HiredGoons (#603)

Also: is there a term for that epic, ascending choral "ah! ah! ah-ah!" trailer-battle music?

I mean, aside from 'derivative.'

joshc (#442)

I am just impressed that their Seattle Vampire Factory cityscape didn't include the Space Needle.

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