Review of New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion

I just finished reading The Twilight Saga: New Moon - The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Mark Cotta Vaz and would highly recommend it to other Twilight fans. It is a wonderful source of photos, interviews and inside information into the making of the movie New Moon.

Even if you skip the text, you will still get your money's worth just looking at the beautiful photos included in New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion. I found myself flipping through the pages looking at the photos every time I opened the book.

Many of the questions I had from watching the movie New Moon were answered in New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion. For instance, I wondered why the New Moon movie's overall look was so different than the look of the movie Twilight. The book explains that the new Director, Chris Weitz, decided to replace the bluish tint of Twilight with a warmer look to show that Bella had moved from the coldness of Edward to the warmth of Jacob.

I wondered why some of the shots, such as Charlie's house, the High School, and the Cullen house looked slightly different than they did in the movie Twilight. It turns out New Moon was filmed mostly in Vancouver instead of Portland. They built a re-creation of Charlie's house, used a green screen to re-create the outside of the high school and used the interior of a different house to replace the Cullen house.

I loved reading about how Taylor Lautner transformed his body for the part of Jacob in New Moon. Initially the film makers had been concerned because while filming Twilight, Taylor had a "slight build" and they needed someone buff to pull off the werewolf transformation story in New Moon. New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion tells how Lautner started working out the day after they finished filming Twilight. He worked out an hour in the morning and an hour and a half at night. Taylor Lautner succeeded in putting on thirty pounds and was awarded the part of Jacob in New Moon.

I found New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion written by Mark Cotta Vaz, to be even better than his Twilight version of the book. In the New Moon book, Vaz had more interesting filler material to use because he could talk about the success of Twilight.

The author also included quotes from Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner which added to the enjoyment of reading the book. I laughed when I read about Robert Pattinson's experience with "a plague of mosquitoes" while filming the breakup scene.

Vaz did admit, however, that the quotes from Pattinson, Stewart and Lautner came from the production's electronic press kits, not from personal interviews with him. I found that disappointing since I expected the book to contain exclusive interviews not found anywhere else.

One thing that concerned me was Mark Cotta Vaz's description of Bella's birthday party. He wrote, "For Bella, it is more than a birthday party, it's a joyous acceptance into this brave new world, a beautiful chapter in her unfolding love story." I'm not sure what he was talking about since Bella didn't even want to go to her birthday party. The birthday party was an unwanted reminder that Bella would forever be older than Edward. It makes me wonder if Vaz even read Stephenie Meyer's New Moon book or saw the movie?

Overall, I give New Moon: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion a thumbs up. It's a great way for Twilighters to get a Twilight fix in-between reading the books and seeing the movies.