Movie Review: New Moon Lacks Twilight's Magic

I have never been so excited about a movie sequel as I was for New Moon. I made sure I had midnight tickets to see it the day it came out. But as I sat watching New Moon, I felt New Moon lacked the magic and romance of the first Twilight movie.

I can see where many Twilight fans will love the New Moon movie because of the bigger production budget, the action scenes, and of course Jacob's new buff body. But where's the magic? Where's the romance? Where's the chemistry?

Catherine Hardwicke, the Director of Twilight, knew how to film a romantic love story. How else would we have all fallen in love with a family of vampires? Edward was every teen's romantic fantasy.

Chris Weitz, the Director of New Moon, knows all about fast action, brightly lit scenes, and showing off buff bodies. This is the kind of movie you can bring your boyfriend to and he won't sit there complaining the whole time.

The biggest disappointment in the New Moon movie was the new look of the Cullens. Edward actually looked . . . gasp . . . awful. He was so handsome in Twilight. In New Moon he looked sick and weak like he was recovering from the flu.

I felt that all of the Cullens looked less attractive in New Moon. They were fitted with ugly golden-colored contacts to give them that supposed vampire look. But for me that look was less than alluring. Even Esme, who was a beautiful, sweet mom in Twilight, looked eerily frightening in New Moon. How could these vampires possibly blend into society with such a bizarre look?

And why did all of the Cullens have such bad hair styles? Jasper's hair was the most laughable. I'm not sure what kind of look they were going for, but it didn't work. Edward's hair lacked his usual style that made you want to run your fingers through his hair. Esme and Rosalie had some questionable hairstyles too. Even Alice had some bad hair moments as she wore her old lady scarf in the Italy scenes.

The wardrobe of the Cullens also suffers in New Moon. I thought they had such cute styles in Twilight, but in New Moon, Alice, who normally wears the cutest outfits, looked like she was wearing a maternity shirt.

One of the magical aspects of the Twilight movie was the music score. It was hauntingly beautiful. New Moon doesn't pick up any of my favorite Carter Burwell tunes. It could have been a wonderful tie in from the first Twilight movie to hear Bella's Lullaby. Instead, New Moon's score consists of loud, orchestral music that often overtakes the scene.

One of the toughest things to portray in a movie is chemistry. You can't just stick two people in a scene and expect sparks to fly. Catherine Hardwicke knew how to create emotional chemistry, Chris Weitz does not. He thought if he kept Jacob's shirt off that would automatically create chemistry between Jacob and Bella, but he missed the boat on that one. When Jacob is shirtless in Bella's bedroom, and Bella goes to hug him, Bella acts like she's hugging her grandfather. What female wouldn't have had some type of physical response to hugging a bare chested guy standing in the middle of her bedroom? Supposedly Bella doesn't even notice that she's touching such a hot, buff body. What a missed opportunity!

Ironically, there was an unexpected moment of chemistry in New Moon. When Bella was getting stitched up by Dr. Carlisle Cullen, I couldn't help but notice what an intimate moment that was. I had a strange desire to see Bella and Carlisle together after watching that scene, and that's so wrong! Why didn't I feel that between Bella and Jacob, or even Bella and Edward?

When Edward is standing in Italy showing off his bare chest, I couldn't help but wonder why Robert Pattinson didn't try a little harder to buff up for the role. Come on Robert, you're supposed to be a strong vampire, try working out for once! At least New Moon did a much better job at making him sparkle in the sunlight.

Speaking of working out, kudos to Taylor Lautner for doing an extreme makeover on his body. Surprisingly, the only time I heard other audience members react was when Taylor took his shirt off after Bella's motorcycle accident. It is definitely a must-see moment!

I had heard great things about the wolf scenes. But I never was fully convinced they looked real. Sometimes they made the computer generated wolves look huge, and other times they looked like my neighborhood dogs playing in the backyard.

There were a couple times when Jacob's dialog surprised me. I've always been a Jacob fan, but sometimes in the movie he seemed too harsh. When Bella, Mike and Jacob are at the movie theater, Jacob totally lays into Mike. I was thinking, "What the heck? Why is Jacob acting like a jerk?" It seemed out of character for him. I suppose they wanted to establish that Jacob was changing into a bad-tempered werewolf, but to me it just seemed too out of character for Jacob.

I must say that Kristen Stewart, who played Bella Swan, did an excellent job capturing the tortured soul look. She really looked like a part of her soul was missing after Edward left. I loved the scene where the camera circles Bella as she sits and looks out the window. The song, Possibility, by Lykke Li, along with Stewart's facial expression added an emotional depth to this great scene.

The Volturi fight scenes were quite entertaining. I had to stifle a laugh when they all got into a modern looking elevator. I mean, come on, they're in an ancient Volturi fortress and they get into an elevator? It just didn't fit.

Michael Sheen, as Aro, was simply mesmerizing. He brought some much needed energy to the scene since Robert Pattinson's acting was pretty lifeless.

Overall, if you are a fan of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, you should see New Moon. If you loved the first Twilight movie, it may take you a while to get used to the new look. But if you didn't like the gray-toned, dreamy Twilight, you will probably love New Moon with its brighter colors, fast action, and, of course, Jacob's new totally hot buff body.