Okay I suppose if you do a film adaptation of a book, you pretty much have to do the rest of the series. Well it would've been odd to just stop without doing the last book, unless the franchise had done extremely bad at the box office. Can you imagine Harry Potter saying "Voldemort's back!", and then nothing?
Bella (Kristen Stewart) has just turned eighteen and doesn't want to celebrate it because it means she's getting older while Edward (Robert Pattinson) is still an old man trapped in a seventeen year old's body. Dear lord Bella you're only eighteen, you're not fifty. Anyway, after repelling an attack from a frenzied Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), Edward decides the best way to protect Bella is to leave her. This paves the way for Jacob (Taylor Lautner) to make his move, though he has his own problems when he starts becoming a werewolf.
Firstly, do you remember how in the
'Twilight' review I said that Kristen Stewart wasn't as bad as everyone said she was? Here, she's as bad as everyone says she is. Kind of, I'll explain in a moment. For the most part though, she was awful, she said every line in the same monotone voice. I would have thought that being with Edward would have perked her up a little, but no, she's still as miserable and bland as ever. The main example being when Edward tells her he's leaving. He just leaves her, he breaks her heart, he abandoned her in the middle of the woods, and she just falls asleep?! Without a sob or a tear, nothing?! Is that how it's done in the novel? She just falls asleep?
Now, the 'kind of' part. Stewart does give somewhat of a better performance when she interacts with Lautner. The thing is, I think Stewart has much better chemistry with Lautner then she does with Pattinson. Jacob is caring, he's attentive, he actually knocks before climbing through her window into her bedroom, and Bella returns some sort of feeling, she cares deeply about him, but for some reason she still prefers the guy with the personality of cardboard and who threw her against a wall.
Yeah! Edward threw her against a wall! As mentioned Bella gets a paper cut which causes Jasper to go into a frenzy and try to kill her. Which is weird seeing as how Jasper was there when Bella was cut up and bleeding a lot during the fight with James in the first film and didn't seem to notice, yet a small paper cut causes him to snap. What's more bizarre is that this comes the Hell out of nowhere. Oh yeah, we're told in the first film that Jasper was new to be a vampire and was still controlling his urges, but that was one line halfway through the first film. It's never brought up again until he snaps. From what I can tell online it is more obvious that Jasper is trying not to rip Bella's head off, so why couldn't the films portray that better here? But anyway, Edward's first instinct? Threw her behind him (Edward) into a wall and onto a table. It wasn't even a spur of the moment thing, the film shows us that Edward was expecting it. I like how when James discovers she's human Edward just steps in front of her, then when it's his own (adoptive) family, threw Bella against the wall. I'm sure it won't injure her further.....it does.
But still, she sticks with Edward than the guy who is quite possibly the worse guy in history; he tells her to stay away while constantly approaching her, he stalks her, he breaks into her bedroom and watches her sleep, he threw her against a wall *to protect her*, he pretty much stops her socialising with her human friends whenever he's around (Oh yeah, I forgot they existed), Hell he tries to keep her away from his family (granted he introduced her to them in the first place), he manipulates her (Normally through her father), and I don't know whether he's projecting himself into her mind (Don't know when he got THAT power), or if it's just a hallucination, but if it IS him, he broke his word on you not seeing him again, but if it's YOUR mental image Bella, it says a lot that the hallucination is telling you to NOT HAVE FUN. Then again I suppose it's because Bella is not only the depressive girl from the last film, but she has now become a complete moron for jumping off a cliff
just to see Edward. Yeah, this is film that glamorises the tombstoning craze. Oh, and then in order to "protect her" he leaves her UNPROTECTED. Oh yeah, Alice (Ashley Greene) can predict when Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre) decides to attack, but it's not going to be much use WHEN YOU'RE IN BRAZIL. It's not like any of the remaining antagonists from 'Twilight' will come back.
Oh look, the nice bad guy came back!
And yet, Bella still stick with him, despite the fact that Jacob DOES protect her, he saves her life, he helps her through the pain Edward caused abandoning her, she actually has fun with him, she interacts with him and his people better, she has better chemistry, he doesn't have a blank personality, who can actually emote, who doesn't tell you something because of his...beliefs (should I say), despite showing that he really wants to, and the mythos behind his lycanthropy is actually more or less correct. Jesus no wonder Jacob doesn't like Edward, and you can certainly see that, you can see the pain Jacob goes through seeing a girl he loves so dearly only go for someone else. I can relate to that.
Oh my God. I'm on Team Jacob.
Um, the effects! Yes, the effects, this film actually improves on the last. It still uses the poor super speed effects, but not every five minutes like 'Twilight' did. But the thing I was most impressed with were the wolves. Yes they looked a little too CGIish, but overall I actually liked how the wolves moved, and I did love how you can see emotion in their faces. The transformation scenes...meh. I suppose they're okay but my favourite wolf transformation is still from the Tooth and Claw episode of 'Doctor Who'. I'm still wondering why the shirt is destroyed during the transformation scenes and not any other part of clothing. Maybe he gets the same brand the Hulk uses.
The acting, it's still pretty bad overall. Pattinson is still bland, Stewart is worse than she was in the first one, Lautner, I admit I did like his performance, but it could have been better at the same time. Then there's the supporting cast who are all bland as ever. However, Michael Sheen. Oh my God, he was great. Sheen, who plays Aro, the leader of the most powerful vampire family on the planet, blew away the performances of everyone else in the room, including Dakota Fanning, who plays Jane, a vampire with the power to inflict pain.
The characters themselves though, are still largely forgettable. Oh yeah, Bella's school friends, I forgot they existed. The Cullens, save Alice, are still bland as wood. The Quileute tribe are actually more interesting than the Cullen's, with their history, their culture. I think you've already got the gist on my feelings on Edward though. And as for the antagonists, Laurent (Edi Gathegi) was still his usual charming self, while Victoria didn't actually get much screen time at all. Hell I don't think she even had a line of dialogue, she was just there to remind the audience she was there.
Now, you were probably shocked to hear me say that I thought that there was a decent film trying to break out from the blandness of 'Twilight', so, you'll probably be even more surprised when I say that the story for 'New Moon' is actually better than 'Twilight's, even if it is a complete rehash of 'Twilight's story. No, seriously, just replace Edward with Jacob and you'll see it's the damn same plot. But because I feel Jacob has a lot better chemistry than Edward with Bella, that's why I actually prefer 'New Moon' to 'Twilight'.
Yes, you read that right, I think 'New Moon' is
better than 'Twilight'. Is it a good movie?...Eh. If you've decided that you're not a fan of the Twilight franchise, it probably won't change your mind. If you are a fan, then congratulations, you've found a sequel that's better than the first. Then again the first one didn't give much to go on. Stewart is worse, the Cullen's are still bland, but Greene, Lautner, and Sheen do shine through, especially Sheen. The effects are better, the story is better, that's pretty much it. 'New Moon' is superior to 'Twilight'.
But since 'Eclipse' will shift back to Edward being with Bella, I'm not looking forward to the next one.
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