Review: The Twilight Saga - New Moon DVD
 

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The second installment of the Twilight Saga, New Moon, starts with Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) despairing over the fact that she is ageing. This is enforced by the fact that she turns 18 years old, and is arguably older that her boyfriend, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Bella’s horrific revelation that she will continue to age as a human urges her to become a never-ageing vampire, just like her beau. Edward stands firmly against Bella’s transformation, despite his future-envisioning sister, Alice, confirming that Bella would become a blood-sucking creature herself.

Bella’s 18th birthday is celebrated at the Cullens’ residence, but festivities turn awry as she gets a bloody paper-cut after opening a present. The vampirish Cullens react as any blood-thirsty monsters would, and none so than the youngest of the lot, Jasper. After the scuffle and disastrous party, Edward comes to a conclusion: to protect Bella, he has to leave her.

Bella’s left broken, though given the fact that Stewart stutters and fumbles her lines even whilst playing happy, it’s hard to tell that her character is utterly distraught. Her encounters with Edward are the definition of awkward – Stewart and Pattinson sound as if they’re reciting the lines off their script rather than having a fluid and natural conversation. Given that the two play a pair of star-struck lovers, their adoration feels forced and unbelievable. Even calling their relationship one based on love and romance is reaching – it is more obsession and desperate need to be with one another than anything else. They rely on each other to breathe, practically, and survive. Bella’s dependency on Edward, and subsequently Jacob as her best friend, is disturbing. It’s as though she thinks she has no reason for living or being a person without one of the young men in her life – she simply can not exist without a supposed strong and domineering man in her life. What’s most baffling here is that those that aren’t mythical creatures – Bella’s classmates, for instance – regard her as beautiful, strong, brilliant, and mysterious. She is none of those things, and what’s horrifying is that young girls might see her as a role model, when she is anything but. Her relationships with all the men in her life are unhealthy.

The story itself is slow-paced and drags throughout, and very few characters stand out. The most exciting scenes take place at the very end of the two-hour-plus movie, when Edward, after mishearing that Bella had died, chooses to have himself killed by the Volturi, a sect of vampire government. Chilling and captivating performances by Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Cameron Bright starkly contrast against Stewart and Pattinson’s pained and perpetually-constipated expressions and mannerisms as Bella and Edward, respectively.

New Moon introduces the shape-shifting wolves, who are warmer in personality, more sympathetic, and easier to relate to than the vampires. Beyond Pattinson’s and Stewart’s grimace-inducing declarations of love and loss, the characters in New Moon leave you wanting more... as long as the story runs in a faster pace and focuses less on Bella’s dreadfully never-ending mental anguishing. There comes a point that Bella moans and hates life so much that it’s difficult to care anymore.

The second of the 2-disc New Moon DVD set features an hour-long documentary on the making of the movie, which follows director Chris Weitz’s journey from pre-production ideas to the post-production process of forming the final cut. Surprisingly, Stewart and Pattinson really do seem to love filming the feature, and are animated and jovial when they shoot scenes, yet none of this is conveyed on screen. It’s disheartening to see that the actors enjoy bringing their characters to life, but nearly impossible to see it through their characters. The creative process, as with any movie, is fascinating – moreso than the movie itself.

If you don’t like the movie, at least you’ll be able to enjoy the process of making it.

OHMYGOD! :rotfl:

I LOVE this review.

I am so glad that I'm not the only one who thinks that. I think Meyer created a very dangerous character in Bella Swan with her obsession with Edward Cullen. Nothing about their relationship is healthy and its nothing that the age group that this book was written for should want to have in their lives. They both disregard that advice from their elders, they put themselves and their loved ones in constant danger. None of the relationships Bella has with a man or a boy is healthy. Not Edward, Jacob, her father, her step father, Emmett, none of them.

I try not to compare books to one another, but when I read books with such thought out and well developed characters I can't help but cringe at Meyer's characters. The most thought out and developed character is Carlisle Cullen. And this isn't his story.

I think she got caught up in the romanticism of this story without thinking through the characters and really the story. I mean when its adults I can't really say anything because its adults, but Bella is a 17 year old girl and a lot of girls are putting themselves in the very dangerous shoes of Bella Swan.

And New Moon puts all of that on the big screen in a dragging slow 2 hour pace that frankly left me wanting my money back.

Took the words right out of my mouth. As a Psychology major this series absolutely disgusts me because it's promoting the idea that a girl doesn't need anything besides a man to make her happy and that all she should do is get married and have children. Meyer's sending the wrong message to kids out there with this series and the movies reflects every single wrong message the books has contained in it.

If you actually want to enjoy this horrible piece of film I suggest buying the Rifftrax to it because they make fun of everything in the movie. Rifftrax make everything amazing, which this movie is not. Great review btw.

Excellent review, even if it was more about the book than the film. You've really pointed out some of the terrible problems with the twilight series. I can understand why its so popular, but when you look at it closely, theres so much wrong with it. Ive only watched part of New Moon but even so I wanted to pull my hair out.

One thing I didn't like is the musical score, which i thought was too much and was invasive on the dialogue and I was relieved to hear it stop at one point. The music is good on its own but didn't work in the film for me. Seeing what Alexandre Desplat's future project is, this is worrying.

Well the movie was just two hours of bad acting on Stewart's part. I've said it time and time again, that girl can't act. I mean in the span of 5 mins on screen Fanning out acted her and she had barely 5 lines and Stewart had a whole movie. She only has one emotion and thats utter bewilderment. She just looks like she has no idea whats going on half of the time.

A bright light of the movie was Lautner. In the first film he wasn't given the green light to be an actor. He played the part Meyer's wanted the character to play in the first place. Just a vehicle to get Bella to the truth about Edward. But in this film we actually get to see him be an actor. Even if he wasted some of his best moments sharing the screen with the one note Stewart.

I would have to say, in the movie when she got the paper cut, it looked like she just dumped a whole load of ketchup on her hand. Seriously, when you look at it closely, it looks like huge clumps. Usually when people get paper cuts, it doesnt turn into clumps of blood. The movie went by a little too fast for my perspective. Something that did keep me amused was Alice though, dont really know why though. ^_^

I personally love this film! I saw it is theaters and then bought the ultimate fan addition DVD. I know there are some of you that hate it and you are entitled to you r opinions. but i loved it.

I like the color of their eyes MUCH better in this one. I love the interaction with Jacob... the phasing was PHENOMENAL!!

I am not the sit and mope type, so naturally Bella pouting in misery rather than doing something active with her life made me feel sure that I was going to despise the movie as much as I did the book. I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case. I thought they did a great job graphically with the wolves, and I thought the awkward moments that presented themselves so frequently in the first movie were no longer there. I was also pleased to find that despite most of the book being Bella depressed over Edward leaving I never felt like I was watching a Soap Opera, and thought they did a great job of balancing her depressed mood with the introduction of new characters and her relationship with Jacob. Also I loved the scene with the Volturi and was pleased with everyone whom they cast to play them.