If anyone that reads this blog knows (and I hope there are readers), they will know that I am both a Potterhead and a TwiHard. But I am more of a Potterhead than a TwiHard even though I sometimes flip allegiances pretty quickly depending on where the momentum is swinging at the moment.
So right now I am a strong TwiHard as The Twilight Saga: New Moon just opened and I saw it tonight.
How does it stack up against Twilight? I actually think New Moon is a better movie than Twilight.
There was something about New Moon that felt very cinematic with its wide scenery shots to the special effects down to Alexandre Desplat's very movie-like score.
I credit that to director Chris Weitz who knows a thing or two about directing a fantasy picture. (He directed The Golden Compass -while a great film to look at, I didn't get the film).
Not dissing Catherine Hardwicke or anything with what she did with Twilight but they are two different directors. Twilight felt more intimate while New Moon felt grand.
Twilight of course sets up the love story between vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and human teen Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart). New Moon we get to see their romance in full swing (at least in the first few minutes of the movie) but we also get their breakup after an unfortunate incident at Bella's 18th birthday party involving a paper cut.
So Edward and co. leave and Bella is heartbroken. I did love what screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg did with the passage of time between the break-up and when Bella starts to come out of her "coma."
I have to say that Rosenberg was pretty faithful to the book but she did move some scenes up and cut out some scenes but I was okay with it. When I watched the movie nothing screamed out at me saying "Why did you do it that way?" or "Why did you cut that out" unlike in Twilight where I didn't like some of the choices.
Anyways, Bella is slowly coaxed back to life by childhood friend turned best friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) who wants to be more than friends with Bella. Of course Jacob turns out to be part of a vampire-killing werewolf pack, which makes for an interesting love triangle for the third and fourth movies.
Bella realizes that she can see Edward if she puts herself in danger and throughout the movie we see her doing just that.
I thought that Rosenberg also did a great job of keeping Edward still in the movie even though he is just a voice in Bella's head in the book. I liked the visions better. The special effects for the werewolves were good and the stuff in Volterra were great and Michael Sheen as Aro and Dakota Fanning as Jane were quite menancing as the Volturi.
I want to pause for a second for a moment of silence for Rachelle Lafevere's Victoria. May her portrayal of Victoria RIP. While Lafevere had no lines in the film, I did enjoy her rocking some major action stuff. Let's hope Bryce Dallas Howard makes for a good Victoria.
The acting was definitely better than the first one but Stewart still cannot yell or look like she is having a nightmare to save her life -it was still laughable to me. Also laughable is the amount of screaming that went on everytime Lautner shows his abs. Yes, I will admit his body definitely looks buff and great but for the love of God he is 17 and jail bait for some of the ladies in attendance that were screaming. I prefer seeing Pattinson shirtless as he was in the Volturi scenes.
Another groaner and a scene I thought was really cheesy was where Edward and Bella were running in the forest (it happens near the end of the film) -they looked like they were doing a Banana Republic ad or something until I realized the context so when I watch that scene again when I get the DVD then I can better appreciate it.
Another thing of note was that I felt the songs in New Moon wasn't as good as the songs in Twilight. I thought the songs used for the latter movie serviced the film well while I don't think it really added anything to New Moon other than just to have it.
However, one thing stayed the same between films and that is the undeniable hot chemistry that Pattinson and Stewart have. I love Edward and Bella as I think they are one of my favourite literary couples behind Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre. So glad that they didn't lose their chemistry between films.
Overall, job well done everyone on New Moon. I really did enjoy it and I am looking forward to seeing what David Slade does with Eclipse. I am really looking forward to Eclipse as one of the things I didn't like about the novel New Moon was we didn't get to enjoy Edward and Bella as a couple. Eclipse we will definitely get more of that and I really do hope they film Breaking Dawn (the last in the Twilight series). It would be a shame to only film three but I guess we will have to wait and see how much money films 2 and 3 bring in.
By the way, was there a preview clip for Eclipse after New Moon's credits? I stayed till the end and they showed the title card for Eclipse and we thought they were going to show something but then the film got cut off before we could find out. Anyone care to shed some light on this?
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