TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON MOVIE REVIEW - The Movie Messenger

New Moon is the second entry of the popular vampire franchise. (As I did with my review of Twilight, this review of New Moon is of the movie and the movie alone, not the book).

The movie continues the story of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her relationship with vampire heathrob Edward Cullen (Robert Pattison). It’s Bella’s senior year, and she feels she is growing old. Because of her desire to become a vampire and live forever with Edward, she fears of aging and dying, ultimately living without him. Edward continues to remind her that the vampire life is not for her, as well as some of Edward’s own family. They even have a vote on who thinks she should become a vampire or not. It doesn’t go too smoothly.

The Cullen family leaves Forks, Washington to avoid not being found out by humans – thus creating a larger boundary between Edward and Bella. For Bella’s safety, Edward breaks up with Bella to keep her away. Confused and distraught, Bella struggles with Edward leaving her and has numerous nightmares and visions of him.

Stepping in his place is Jacob Black, Bella’s childhood friend from Twilight. Bella basically replaces Edward with Jacob, spending more time with him to fill the void she has for Edward. Like Edward did in Twilight, Jacob hasn’t told Bella everything. He has a secret.

New Moon is a step up from Twilight, but I’m not sure if that means much. With a new director, it seems that the pacing wasn’t’ fixed, it still tends to drag on a bit – for almost 2 hours and 30 mins. Really? Bella’s struggle with Edward and Jacob seem to be the basic feelings of a breaking up – and there is also an underlying theme referencing Romeo & Juliet, which I liked. They even make a clear reference to the classic Shakespeare play in the beginning, and this is paralleled in the movie later on, when Edward is about to make a drastic decision concerning his life, but with that – Bella sulks thoroughout the movie. There are seriously just scenes of her depressed in her bedroom which seem to go on forever, with sappy music played over it. Couldn’t there be a better way to show she’s upset?

If you’re not a fan of the books or haven’t seen the trailers, I suppose it would be a spoiler that Jake’s secret is that he’s a werewolf. So Bella is into vampires and werewolves – she can’t meet a nice human boy? Why does she like Edward so much with all the crap he’s put her through, especially endangering her life? These questions are never answered, because I guess they’re not supposed to be asked. Those questions involve logic.

I liked the Volturi, an ancient Italian vampire coven, which to me are the kind of vampires that I’ve grown to love – dark, evil, and only out for their own kind. They make a strong appearance on screen, and give this fluffly movie a nice little dimension – I wanted to know more about these guys, but no, doesn’t happen. Guess they couldn’t fit that in the 2 and half hour running time. Basically what I’m saying here is that New Moon wants to please its fans greatly, but doesn’t really care about pleasing anyone else who choose or are dragged to see it. The movie isn’t afraid to show its stars shirtless for no reason just to please its female audience. Maybe if Bella was crying over Edward in her room shirtless, or the vampires actually did something cool like, I don’t know, suck some blood, I could have been just a bit interested. They never get to bite. Humans are like a bowl of Trix Cereal, and the vampires are the Trix rabbit. Silly vampires, blood is for people.

- Anthony J. Gomez, The Movie Messenger