Review of the Movie: New Moon

I saw the movie, New Moon, at the giant screen at IMAX Theater in Branson, MO in late November 2009.

I have read the first two books in the Twilight series including this one. The book, New Moon, was decidedly dull. It took all my will power to slog through it to the last page. To the writer's credit, the story and the quality of the writing improve a lot toward the end.

Maybe some events are more exciting when they are seen on the movie screen than when they are monotonously described in a book. I don't know. But, the movie-makers did a nice job of taking some of the dullness out of it, which must have been a real challenge.

The heroine, Bella, is shockingly dumped by her vampire boyfriend Edward right after her birthday. She becomes deeply depressed and the only thing that cheers her is hanging out with Jacob, the boy from the Indian tribe. If you were paying attention in the first movie, you may recall that this particular tribe has an association with wolves and is hostile to "the cold ones," - the vampires. Shades of "Underworld," anyone?

Soon we see the obvious, Jacob is a werewolf. These are extremely - really, ridiculously - large wolves. The quality of the effects leaves a little be desired, but you will get somewhat used to how silly the werewolves look after you see them in the first few scenes.

Bella takes a number of risks with her life in an attempt to bring herself near death. When she is doing something risky she is able to see and hear Edward as if in a vision.

During one of these risky events, she is seen at a distance by the clairvoyant vampire Alice, who is convinced that she has plunged off a cliff to her death. She shares this vision with Edward, who is determined to seek his own death among the evil Italian vampires, the Volturi. If you observe the foreshadowing in the movie, you will see numerous references to "Romeo and Juliet."

At the last minute, Alice finds Bella. There are a few great quips about "putting out the dog," and some other fun dialogue between her and Jacob. Then we see the best part of the movie (and the book). Alice and Bella must save Edward from certain death at the hands of the Volturi. He must see Bella. He must know she is alive. And, then he will wish to go on living... as much as a vampire lives, anyway.

This movies really was not anywhere near as good as the first one. It is almost obligatory, however, if you enjoyed the first one.

I have a number of complaints about the film, really. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but I think the movies could be better in some ways.

Most of the actors are not really attractive people. The most outstanding exception is the actress who plays Alice (Ashley Greene). She auditioned for the part of Bella, but was rejected for the part - no doubt because the character, Bella, in the book is described as being very plain and not very pretty. I remember when I was watching the movie that I was not only relieved to see the character Alice, but also to see such a beautiful face on the screen.

Bella (Kristen Stewart) is plain. The character is plain. Maybe the author thought the "average girl" could better relate to such a character. And, there seems to be an effort in the movie to make the actress look even more plain than she really is. I think that's a shame. If a prettier girl had been cast in this role, I think readers would have forgiven the filmmakers and movie goers would have been more pleased.

Okay. I know that Edward (Robert Pattinson) is a vampire. They are probably all smelly and decaying. Think about it. They tend to be very messy eaters. And, how much cologne do you have to wear to cover up the smell of rotten flesh? That said. The actor who plays Edward really looks like he could use a good combing and a scrubbing down. He looks a little better when he's on the screen than he does in the promo material I've seen for the movies wherein he's all casual.

Jacob (Taylor Lautner) is not a bad looking young man. I am concerned that he is lifting weight at his tender age. He is 16 or 17-years old. It really is a little early for anyone to lift a substantial amount of weight. There is no way he has achieved that amount of muscular development at his age entirely naturally. He has clearly had some chemical enhancement of some kind. He does look great shirtless and the first such scene elicited a lot of gasps from the audience in the movie theater. He is impressive. Although, an even better looking actor nearly got his part. I think it's a shame because his look is a little offbeat. Fortunately, we have his brother wolves to take up the slack - visually speaking.

I like to see great costumes in vampire movies. The Twilight/New Moon crowd are not fashion plates, including the vampires. Personally, I like to see vampires with style. We really don't see a lot of that until the last fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie when the scene switches to Italy.

Overall, I am really glad that I went to see this movie. It was fun to see so many people really excited about it. If you liked the first movie, you should definitely see this one at some point so that you can have a sense of continuity when the third one comes out. I am really looking forward to that and I am really hoping that they do a better job with it. Although, frankly, the book for this movie was very, very dull. Given what they had to work with, I think the director and his team did a fine job.