Movie Review - 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon'

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner Directed by Chris Weitz Rated PG-13

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. As for the story, it goes where it needs to with very little artistry or imagination. Bella (a depressed and depressing Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) are separated by a rather silly circumstance, even as plot devices go. When Edward ends their relationship because, as a human, she's a natural target for his kind, Bella gets even more sullen, to the point of self-destruction. Fortunately - for her, not us - there's Jacob, the boy werewolf (Taylor Lautner). Look, Lautner's just a kid, but he's an awful actor. Just terrible. He'd be kicked out of most struggling community theater companies. Granted, he has very little to work with and Kristen Stewart's woodenness opposite him is troublesome, but Lautner is dead weight. The bad CGI werewolf version of Jacob shows more life. Like the first film, things pick up when the film reaches its obvious conclusion. New Moon is better than Twilight in the final, conflict-filled moments. The angst is replaced by some action and finally some consequences, and that works OK. Long way to go to get there, though, and I don't mean the scene's setting in Italy. If this were not Twilight, if this were not built for commercial success because of the books and hysteria that have led to it, New Moon would be utterly forgettable. What a shame, then, that this is Twilight, because I sure would like to erase it from my memory.

Comments

[kinsey]

i just died inside.

[Dana]

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 ;)

[Orinn]

Its also very easy to spot a fan-girl

[Vince]

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.

[Erinn]

"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.

[Rob]

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.

[Jason]

"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.

[Andy De Mattel 2009]

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!