Andrew McMurtryREVIEW: The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
January 10th 2010 10:31
The new Twilight movie just snuck up didn’t it. I had no idea it was going to come out. Of course I’d have to have been living under a rock on Mars underwater for that to be true. With intense and constant media attention since, well the first film, “New Moon” had such great hype and such great expectation. Oh well, I guess you can’t pick them all. “New Moon” is disappointing after such a great opening to the franchise with “Twilight”. Not to say it is horribly poor, it just hasn’t reached the standard the first one reached. New directors bring new ideas. “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy probably showed best the benefits of having the same director for all the movies. Catherine Hardwicke did a great job with the first movie, despite some very teeny dialogue, and created a really good film. Unfortunately Chris Weitz made this film look very amateur in comparison and more like the early Harry Potter films, although he did probably the second hardest book (after the fourth one) to adapt.
“New Moon” looks at the weird relationship between Bella and Jacob, much like the first one looked at the relationship between Bella and Edward. After an incident on Bella’s birthday involving a paper cut (not a good situation in a house of vampires) reminds Edward of Bella’s fragility, he leaves, fearing he could not protect her. After a period of grieving, Bella goes and seeks out the recently buff Jacob Black so as not to get sent to live with her mother in the hope that Edward will return. Her relationship with Jacob begins as a reason to take risks, which lets her see a vision of Edward telling her to be careful. Soon after he becomes distant and doesn’t respond to her calls or visits, except with anger. It’s not long before she discovers his wolfy secret. After cliff diving because she’s alone, the Cullen family think she killed herself, and Edward goes to an Italian vampire family kill himself because he can’t live in a world that Bella is not in. Then it’s a rush to stop him before he goes through with his plan.
In terms of actors, there are really only the three main ones, Bella (Kristen Stewart), Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner). Of course, Billy Burke (Chief Charlie Swann), Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen), Peter Facinelli (Dr. Carlisle Cullen), Elizabeth Reaser (Esme Cullen), Nikki Reed (Rosalie Hale), Kellan Lutz (Emmett Cullen) and Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Hale) all reprise their roles while also being joined by actors such as Michael Sheen (Aro) and Dakota Fanning (Jane). It’s a great cast and Michael Sheen was good and how I pictured Aro to be but he wasn’t given enough time to shine. But of the main actors, Taylor Lautner is the most natural in his role as the warm loveable wolf boy Jacob. While it isn’t natural to take your shirt off at every chance, his warmth and confidence shine through the character. Placed next to Kristen Stewart’s Bella’s shy awkwardness, it makes him a welcome change of pace to complicate the love story. Bella also stayed basically consistent from the first film. She plays the awkward, shy, slightly depressed, teen character and does it well. And Edward, while a main character, doesn’t play enough of a part for me to see a change.
I seriously hope they make the fourth film into two films. This one suffered from being too rushed yet too long at the same time. While the last film was well paced and added the antagonistic part of the story at the end to complete the story. This one is a bit open and infrequently paced. It could’ve been great had it not been rushed. It keeps very true to the book, which is not necessarily a good thing. I was hoping they would bring back Catherine Hardwicke to direct but in the producers, or whoever makes the decisions, in a masterstroke of genius, they got rid of the person who just might have been able to keep some authenticity in the series. They should bring her back for the third one, but unfortunately David Slade is directing, not that I’ve seen any of his movies.
In terms of scripting, this film is very high school in dialogue, but I suppose that speaks to the target audience. The script isn’t as good as the first one and I had issues with the first one in that department. It keeps to the perceived intellect of the audience. It aims for the lowest common denominator but it works. It is supposed to be a film of enjoyment, to bask in the simplicity of it and enjoy watching it, riding the highs and lows of the script without thinking too hard about what is being said. It is such a simple script because the actions speak louder than words. One good thing is that it has a great soundtrack which is well placed throughout the movie. It isn’t really overbearing and mostly just background music in cars or on in rooms already.
While this review may have seemed like a comparison between the book and the movie, it is relevant. The books vivid imagery isn’t portrayed here like in the first film. Whereas the first film did the book justice by straying directly from the book, this one stayed too close to the book but really skimmed over the chances to build tension. Instead it focused too much on Bella and Jacob’s relationship when anyone going to see the film will know it will never happen. Readers of the saga and anyone who saw the first film will know Bella and Edward are meant to be together as a twist on Romeo and Juliet. The best thing about the first movie was that it could be a stand alone movie. It didn’t have to be based on a book, which obviously it was. “New Moon” was a blatantly obvious as a book adaptation. The ending was not well established and it felt rushed while exorbitant amounts of time were spent on Bella’s pouting. I’d give it 2.5 out of 5.
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