The Twilight Saga: New Moon (PG-13)Release Date: November 20th
Director: Chris Weitz
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Michael Sheen, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Dakota Fanning
Rating: 2 ½ out of 5 stars
Vampires, werewolves, and one overly emotional teenage girl caught between the two worlds—a movie that could not have possibly turned out any better for die hard “Twilight” fans. For the movie lovers out there who have not yet been sucked into the black hole of emo-vampire fanaticism that is “Twilight,” you’ll find that it is not quite as good as the raging fan girls make it seem.
“New Moon” continues the relationship between Edward (Robert Pattinson), the 109-year-old vampire, and Bella (Kristen Stewart) where “Twilight” left off right up until Bella’s 18th birthday. Bella gets a paper cut opening a present, which then leads to danger involving some suddenly thirsty vampires. Edward then decides, stupidly I might add, to abandon her for her own protection, overlooking the idea that there are other vampires out there looking to kill her. The movie then drags on for what seems like forever, as Bella mopes around and stares out her window at nothing. Fortunately, the movie picks up again when Bella’s buffed up friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) comes into the picture, as he pulls Bella out of her depression. The two develop chemistry together the more time they spend with each other. It should be noted that the chemistry seen on screen between Bella and Jacob is about ten times more convincing than that between her and Edward this time around. Everything seems fine until Jacob disappears with a secret. The secret being that Jacob is…wait for it…a werewolf! Didn’t see that coming, right? Of course you did, even if you haven’t read the books the movie trailers already completely gave it away. Poor Bella, first she falls in love with a vampire and now her best friend is a werewolf—and vampires and werewolves do not get along so well, whatever will she do? If you’ve read the books you already know whom she chooses. One of the last scenes of the movie is probably one of the best. The reason being that we finally get to watch some people who can act. Bella and Edward meet the Volturi, the “law enforcers” of the vampire world. Michael Sheen plays Aro, the leader of the Volturi. You also get to see Dakota Fanning’s new look with crimson eyes and a devious smile when she says, “This may hurt just a little,” as she attempts to torture Bella with her mind. The rest of the movie involves Bella’s attempt to convince Edward and his family to change her into a vampire too, so she won’t end up an 80-year-old grandmother dating a forever-17-year-old vampire.
“New Moon” is definitely a step-up from the first “Twilight” movie, however. I would imagine it might have something to do with the lack of the movie’s first director, Catherine Hardwicke, whose failed attempt at interpreting the first book turned out to be a movie full of bad acting, horrible make-up and plot, and cheesy special effects. The fact that she did not return to direct “New Moon” was probably the best thing that could have happened to this pop culture phenomenon, and instead, Chris Weitz stepped on board giving higher hopes to those of us who were not satisfied with “Twilight” one year ago. Weitz managed to pull off some entertaining scenes with the werewolves using special effects that were convincing enough. He even managed to get somewhat of a decent performance out of Stewart this time, whose acting skills usually involve nothing more than blank stares, and a total, emotionless, monotone voice. The plot was not bad, although it dragged in some unimportant parts and then it rushed through some more significant parts of the movie. Most importantly in the eyes of “Twilight” fanatics, the movie stayed very true to the book. These are the positives to “New Moon.” The negatives, however, include cheesy dialogue that was, at times, unintentionally laughable, and hilariously terrible entrance scenes that include Edward walking towards Bella in slow motion. Also a rather important scene involving the vampire villain, Victoria, was ruined and drowned out by the sound of pop music playing while werewolves chased her through the forest in slow motion. The scene was mistakenly rushed through when it shouldn’t have been, seeing as how she will have an important role in the third movie.
Although “New Moon” does not appeal to everyone, it did not fail to deliver to “Twilight” fans and teenage girls that like to scream over the eye candy. “New Moon” was better and much more entertaining than the first so if you’ve already seen “Twilight” a year ago and liked it, you will definitely like this one more. Not to mention, the ending was a perfect cliffhanger for those who haven’t read the books and maybe even for those who have. If you haven’t seen the first movie or read any of the books and you usually spend your time watching movies that have some depth to the plot, you probably won’t want to waste your money on this one. Don’t let the teenage hype fool you into thinking you’re going to be watching an award-worthy movie because it’s not quite at that level, and probably never will be.
Trailer below:
