Friday
20Nov2009
Movie Review - 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon'
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 3:11AM | The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner  |
Like last year's toy left out in the yard to endure the elements, The Twilight Saga has lost its novelty with the second
entry, New Moon. Fans of
the series probably won't be disappointed, but that's what fans are for. If you're only mildly curious or in any way objective, it's
hard to call this movie a success.
On a certain level (and only one), it's slightly better than Twilight, but that film had a greater sense of
arrival and better storytelling. New Moon is at odds with itself, alternately taking itself way too seriously and interjecting uncomfortable humor where it's not necessary.
The best thing about New Moon is probably its moody cinematography. It shares that, generally speaking, with its predecessor,
but Chris Weitz is a more assured visual director than Catherine Hardwicke, and the film looks like the world it's supposed to
portray. And unfortunately, Weitz doesn't even make the most of his best feature, never trying with any consistency a more Gothic
directorial style that could certainly feel at home here. It's fairly pedestrian outside of its color palette.
The visual effects, which have to be considered under the same umbrella, show the seams of a cheap production, or at least a
production not at all concerned with realistic werewolves. If you're making, I dunno, The Godfather, CGI werewolves probably
aren't a top priority. But if you're making a film that is in part about a guy who transforms into a wolf, it's rather important. It
undercuts, to a degree, the accomplishment of the cinematography.
But the praise for New Moon more or less ends there, and I think you'll admit, it was fairly faint praise. The great Michael Sheen, who should have at least one Oscar nomination based on his work in The Queen and Frost/Nixon, was
apparently handsomely paid for playing the evil, calculating vampire mafioso Aro, and the producers got their money's worth. His
performance is the only standout, and it's all too brief.
Reader Comments (16)
i just died inside.
Wow. I can agree with most of what you say. I love the books. I think there's a huge difference between understanding the books for their meaning and loving them because they're the next big thing and they have some up and coming cute guys in Hollywood playing them. It takes maturity and, unfortunately, most people lack that these days. That being said, if you know nothing about the books and were to watch New Moon, I'm sure it would have been boring and monotonous. My only qualm with both movies thus far is that since the books are based on Bella's thoughts, we only be able to hear more of them throughout the story. Without them, we have no rhyme or reason for anything she's doing and most of it doesn't make sense. I don't think Stewart is a good actress. However, at this late stage in the game, she's irreplaceable, unfortunately. Stewart's gotten a reputation for only playing characters that resemble herself, and that's exactly what she's done. She has no fire or passion or angst. At least - not like Bella would have, and it's slightly disheartening. On the other hand, I have to completely disagree with you with Taylor Lautner. I thought his performance was utterly amazing! He took his role and made it his own and you can tell he had fun doing it. I think he makes a perfect Jacob, and I think he was the best actor in the whole movie in terms of showing what he needed to. Rob Pattinson has really stepped it up - he is really believable. I'd have a hard time playing Edward with Stewart as Bella, so extra kudos to him. As someone who waited months to see the finished product, I was impressed with everything - storyline, CGI, back story. Not an easy feat for most fans. It's very easy to tell you've never read ANY book much less were paid off to see the movie ;)
Its also very easy to spot a fan-girl
I'm gonna have to agree with Dana here. I really like Taylor Lautner; he's just about the best fit for Jacob.
I'm a fan of the first movie, mostly because of the unintentional humor, but that movie just felt more ridiculous in a good way. This one lost what made that movie so fun. The special effects are not horrendous, the dialogue is self-serious & too bad to even be made fun of, & it seems like even the characters are never really enjoying themselves.
I like Kristen Stewart & any day I'll defend her, as I think she's a good actress.
She's not a good Bella, at all. She shows no emotion for a girl who should be in hysterics for most of the movie. Edward is bad more or less, again in a self-serious "this cannot be made fun of because it's so bad" way.
I was disappointed. The fun in the series is gone. For now. I'll still buy this movie when it's released on Blu-Ray & I'll see the next one, because I'm kinda a whore, but yeah this one was disappointing on all levels.
"Its also very easy to spot a fan-girl"
HA, I could not have put it better myself. I think the problem here is that the hype created is so vast and expected that regardless of how the movie is, the fans are going to like it no matter what. Its too demeaning and crushing for a fan of such caliber to those of the twilight series to walk out of a movie and have to tell their friend or facebook status that the movie quite frankly sucked. Having a familiar background in the book helps, yes, but to the average movie watcher who tries to sit down and watch these films we are left guessing the who, what, where, when and why too often. This movie lacks a passion like Nolan's reboot of the Batman series, you dont have to know squat about batman to be able to sit down and enjoy the films. Quite frankly i'm all for vampires, warewolves and teen angst/romance, but its to cheesy here. They could sit Robert Pattinson in a white room and film him for 2 hours, call it new moon and people would still go.
You know, people gave Transformers a lot of crap, and rightfully so, but at least the special effects were good in those movies. The commercials for New Moon show some pretty lame CGI.
"Twilight: New Moon" certainly has credibility but it's not enough for me to like this series of movies. The movie opens with a dream sequence of Bella being a grandmother and Edward Cullen just staring at her. The movie is on Edward Cullen which is Robert Pattinson's character breaking apart from Bella to go live with the Vultutars, which is a group of vampires two played by Dakota Fanning and Micheal Sheen. He grew up around these vampires but does Edward want to become one, not really. He wants to be with Bella. The Vulturtars live in a huge castle somewhere in Italy with big fancy hallways, statues, archways.
Watch Twilight 2 New Moon online.
Like Twilight, it was expected that those who didn't like the theme and or read the books would bag the movie. But like Twilight all the negative movie critic crap that was posted made NO DIFFERENCE... fans loved it , they went to see it at the cinema and Twilight made so much $$$ that it was able to make New Moon...
So suck it up! and deal with it! ... If you don't like New Moon, then have the courtesy to step out of the way and let others enjoy it without you negative posts... which mind you seems to be of people who didn't read the books or have no idea what it is to fall in love at a young age :-P
For those who love the saga... Eclipse in only 12 months away !!!! HA!
I was surprised at how consistent with the book New Moon turned out to be. The movie's production quality was clearly better than Twilight
I've watched the movie for 10 times on http://downloadmoviesfree.net/ I was not so impressed with the movie. I was waiting for more until I realized its almost the end part of the story. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching it.
wait. there was conflict in this book/film? what page was that on?
i'll tell you what i absolutely loathe about this poorly written set of books... the main thrust is without a man (substitute partner) you are nothing. belle is inane, edward is creepy with his stalking and i'd like to think jacob had better sense.
my great joy is i've not seen either film, nor will i. my great dismay is i read the books. i want my three days back!
"i'll tell you what i absolutely loathe about this poorly written set of books... the main thrust is without a man (substitute partner) you are nothing. belle is inane, edward is creepy with his stalking and i'd like to think jacob had better sense."
Oh, clearly a trip into the imaginary world is not your cup of tea. Bella is not "nothing" without a man. She is "nothing" without Edward as he is her true love. She was just dandy & independant without any boyfriend before meeting him. Jacob can't have better sense - as you should know from book 4 - the reason he is drawn to Bella is due to his magical werewolf imprinting thing. Not his choice - he was "drawn" to her beyond his sense. See...leap into the imanginary world - not meant to resemble reality! And Creepy Edward...well hello...he is a vampire! DUH.
I am with you here Colin!
The Twilight Saga is simply not good movie making. These films are not well scripted, with often silly cinematography, poor special effects and lack luster acting. Anyone want to know why? The answer is simple, when one uses 3 diffrent directors a small budget, thus leading to the poor CGI, several no names that have various degrees of acting skills that needs to be completed in just under a years time you get a Pauly Shore movie and the Twilight Saga. It's a shame, I truly enjoied the books. They captured my imagination and even drove me to explore Forks, Washington for myself (search flicker user cadillac_creek to see my pics from that journey) I am just disappointed and disenchanted with the Twilight Saga: Films.
On a side note to those who want "haters" or "non fans of the Twilight movies" to shut up, I must respectfully say that it is a right as an American citizan. We have the right and the protection to the freedom of speech as stated in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Please don't ask anyone to not share their opinion at anytime simply because you disagree with it. You know who you are. ;-)
I totally agree with the review. As a person who has read the books each 3 or 5 times and would pick em up
any time a day, just because I want to. The first movie was utterly dissappointing, I mean hello! did you see Edward running with Bella on her back, it looked like he was hovering over the ground instead of running fast, how fake can it get. And that is just one scene out of a dozen of awfull special effects.
Its not only the special effects but the acting too, they really need to pull that cane out of their asses and enjoy it more (maybe show some more sincere (acting:) emotion?). You know:
Happy :)
Sad :(
Crying :'(
I'm sorry Kirsting/bella biting your lip or screaming like you've just been nudered (even though you're a girl) just doesn't cut it. Yes I've seen the preview of the movie.
What annoys me most is that I just can't believe it, when making a movie it should draw the public in, making them believe that its real, making them believe that they can step into that world by just watching the movie. And the movie twillight just doesn't get my imagination running it doesn't get my blood flowing.
I have yet to see New moon and its more out of curiousity and stubborness to see it myself.
I don't live in the US but that final comment, Brenda, was brilliant:P.
I have to say New Moon the movie was a LOT better than what I was expecting. You see, my expectations for Twilight the movie were sky high and that was because of the high reputation of the book. I was so utterly disappointed with Twilight the movie that when I was wauting to see New Moon, I was a bit more skeptical and just thought to myself: hey you know what? I don't care. The film cannot be as bad as Twilight was. I really wish that Twilight the movie had a massive budget (or at least a decent sized one and some decent actors). I think that in all fairness Kristen Stewart is the worst possible Bella on the planet. And I'm not saying that because I want to be Bella, I don't - I wanted someone who would portray Bella more realistically - like Emily Browning for instance from the Series of Unfortunate Events. On the plus side, I kind of imagined Bella to look a bit like Kristen. Don't get me started on Edward! Robert is a fantastic actor especially given a freako character like Edward. But he doesn't look the part and for this role, looks are kinda crucial :/ Alice, Emmett and Jacob were good choices. Why didn't they use Joanna Krupa for Rosalie? I also think Stephenie's favourite Jasper, Victoria and Laurent would have been better.
Actually, I wish Stephenie Meyer had just written all the play scripts instead of Melissa Rosenberg :O
But overall, yeah, I have to give credit to Chris Weitz for reparing Catherine Hardwicke's damage - compared to Twilight, New Moon was a good film.
If the first instalment of The Twilight Saga was a celebration of teenage sulkiness, then this sequel positively drowns in it.