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.