New Moon Expectations

The Twilight Saga following is bigger now than ever. More and more people continue to jump on the Twilight bandwagon. There is no doubt; it is a pop culture sensation. The books, the soundtracks, the games, the movies, the t-shirts, and memorabilia have been huge hits with people of all ages.

Droves of fans lined up and hit theater web sites over a month in advance to purchase their New Moon tickets in advance. Many theaters, such as the one in El Dorado, Arkansas, opted to show Twilight at 9:00 p.m. Twilighters with tickets to both showings got priority seating for New Moon. Even the fans with priority seating lined up hours in advance to get the best seats.

The book, New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer flooded its readers with a variety of very strong emotions. Readers laughed, cried, cried hysterically, gasped, felt dizzy, angry, and relieved beyond belief. In the weeks leading up to the release of New Moon fans reread the book series and made lists of the top 10 most anticipated scenes. Expectations for the movie script, actors, and new producer Chris Wetiz were set especially high.

Audiences broke in to applause when the previews finally ended and the thick yellow moon slowly transformed into the title, New Moon. This was the moment that Twilighters across the globe had been waiting for. Now, the big question is, did the movie live up to its high expectations? Variety.com reported that New Moon earned an estimated $206.1 million during its first eight days of release.

Comparing the book to the movie is a hard thing to do. Twilight the movie was awesome but it was in no way as good as the book. New Moon the movie was incredible but again, it was in no way as good as the book. Comparing the movie and the book is like comparing apples and oranges, it cannot be done. As a sequel to Twilight, the movie, New Moon, the movie, was a work of sheer brilliance and expertise.

Actors Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Ashley Greene, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Jackson Rathbone, and Dakota Fanning definitely delivered. Every person cast in this movie filled their roles perfectly. Bryce Dallas Howard's performance as Victoria was perfect. Her character finally matched that of the book.

The birthday scene in the movie did not live up to the expectations of fans. The biggest let down was that most of the scene had already been revealed during the trailers. Twilighters were expecting a bit more from this scene than what they had already been shown.

Following the birthday scene, according to the book, Edward stayed with Bella and they opened her birthday presents. Also, her "birthday kiss" took place in her bedroom. In the movie, the kiss took place outside and Edward did not stay the night. The kiss, while it was passionate, did not live up to the expectations set from the book.

Edward comes to school the day after Bella's birthday in the book but does not in the movie. While this part was different from the book, it did not affect the overall mood of the movie.

The breakup scene, a personal favorite of both Robert Pattinon and Kristen Stewart, was one of the most highly anticipated scenes in New Moon. This scene did not live up to the expectations of fans; it is a general consensus that Stewart's acting was somewhat lacking in that scene. It could have just been her portraying the "numbness" that Bella felt, not sure.

Where was the scene when Bella's mom came to Forks to take her back with her to Jacksonville, Florida?

Bella's writing Alice e-mails, which came back as undeliverable, was not part of the book. However, it effectively conveyed the things going through Bella's mind. For the movie, this was great.

In the book, Bella hears Edward's voice. In the movie, she sees a ghost-like vision of Edward speaking to her. Couldn't they have just put the real Edward there instead of making him translucent?

Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. Why was there not more Jacob? Bella's time with Jacob in the movie seemed to be cut short from that of the book. This did not please members of Team Jacob but the steam coming off of his shoulders in the rain helped make up for that.

The flights to and from Italy, to my disappointment, were not included in the movie. These scenes could have been shown to show more of the emotions that Bella was feeling before and after she saved Edward.

Overall, the movie was a huge success and it left Twilighters begging for more. Fans across the globe are already on the countdown to the release of Eclipse.