The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Chris Weitz, 2009) - 3 StarsFortunately for my own pride, I first discovered Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books long in advance to the blockbuster movie’s release, so I maintain that Robert Ruddy Pattinson has nothing to do with my love of this vampiric Romeo and Juliet yarn. In fact, to be quite honest, I thought the first movie was pretty bland; an outing in dull scripting and grating soft focus.
As such, I approached the second movie, New Moon, with some trepidation. Despite my fondness of the book, and something of a fetish for werewolves, I did not put too much expectation into the hands of Mr. Chris Weitz.
But of course, what I forgot was that this chapter of the saga has very little to do with the wetter-than-a-duck’s-backside Edward Cullen, and much more to do with the nubile wolf boy Jacob Black, played quite eloquently (especially for someone who spends most of the film with his shirt off) by the disturbingly young Taylor Lautner. No seventeen year old should be that buff. Fact.
With the focus now on Jacob, we no longer have to put up with the godawful acting of Pattinson, and are presented with a much more believable romance story. Unfortunately, Kristen Stewart, reprising her role as maudlin teen heroine Bella Swan does little to warm the audience, and one does find it somewhat hard to understand why such a miserable young whelp finds herself surrounded by beautiful, if supernaturally flawed, young gentlemen.
Little casting niggles aside; this movie certainly delivered what the first failed to. There are some really quite exciting fight scenes, and the werewolf CGI is surprisingly good, especially for someone who has been waiting on tender hooks for an effects team to outdo John Landis’ lycanthropic masterpiece American Werewolf in London. Much credit must also be given to the writing team, who have managed to turn about two hundred pages of moping for the lost Edward into some well-paced story, intertwined with snippets of fun wolf versus vampire action.
There are a few little problems with the pacing of the movie though, and at times the editing does become clunky and clumsy - within seconds (and with no explanation of how they got there) Bella and the deliciously elfin Alice Cullen (the rather titillating Ashley Greene) are suddenly in Italy, making us feel like they’ve just popped out for ice-cream. It’s a small thing, but it did start bugging me by Act 4. There is a small breath of relief in the final act though, with Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, The Queen) giving a wickedly camp little cameo as evil vampire priest Aro.
In all, New Moon delivers exactly what the audience are expecting; it’s no masterpiece, but it’s good fun. A vast improvement on the first film certainly, and will most definitely have a throng of teenage girls torn between love interests.
Team Jacob all the way.
As such, I approached the second movie, New Moon, with some trepidation. Despite my fondness of the book, and something of a fetish for werewolves, I did not put too much expectation into the hands of Mr. Chris Weitz.
But of course, what I forgot was that this chapter of the saga has very little to do with the wetter-than-a-duck’s-backside Edward Cullen, and much more to do with the nubile wolf boy Jacob Black, played quite eloquently (especially for someone who spends most of the film with his shirt off) by the disturbingly young Taylor Lautner. No seventeen year old should be that buff. Fact.
With the focus now on Jacob, we no longer have to put up with the godawful acting of Pattinson, and are presented with a much more believable romance story. Unfortunately, Kristen Stewart, reprising her role as maudlin teen heroine Bella Swan does little to warm the audience, and one does find it somewhat hard to understand why such a miserable young whelp finds herself surrounded by beautiful, if supernaturally flawed, young gentlemen.
Little casting niggles aside; this movie certainly delivered what the first failed to. There are some really quite exciting fight scenes, and the werewolf CGI is surprisingly good, especially for someone who has been waiting on tender hooks for an effects team to outdo John Landis’ lycanthropic masterpiece American Werewolf in London. Much credit must also be given to the writing team, who have managed to turn about two hundred pages of moping for the lost Edward into some well-paced story, intertwined with snippets of fun wolf versus vampire action.
There are a few little problems with the pacing of the movie though, and at times the editing does become clunky and clumsy - within seconds (and with no explanation of how they got there) Bella and the deliciously elfin Alice Cullen (the rather titillating Ashley Greene) are suddenly in Italy, making us feel like they’ve just popped out for ice-cream. It’s a small thing, but it did start bugging me by Act 4. There is a small breath of relief in the final act though, with Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, The Queen) giving a wickedly camp little cameo as evil vampire priest Aro.
In all, New Moon delivers exactly what the audience are expecting; it’s no masterpiece, but it’s good fun. A vast improvement on the first film certainly, and will most definitely have a throng of teenage girls torn between love interests.
Team Jacob all the way.
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