The Twilight Saga: New Moon – A Twihard’s Review
Golden Compass director, Chris Weitz, takes to the directors chair for the second film in the hugely popular Twilight franchise – The Twilight Saga: New Moon. When Weitz took up the mantle as the latest Twilight director, he vowed that he would stay true to the novel and deliver a film for the fans – and he has certainly done us hardcore twilighters proud.
It’s fair to say that I am a self confessed twihard, I’ve read (and loved) all the books and I loved the Twilight film – but this trumps them all by far!
The Twilight Saga: New Moon, adapted from Stephenie Meyer’s novel which sold over 5.3 million copies, stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner and without a doubt it has to have been THE most anticipated movie of 2009…believe me it’s was well worth the wait!
The movie begins true to the story we all know and love with a quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:
These violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume.
On Bella Swan’s 18th birthday, her vampire boyfriend and sex symbol to teen girls everywhere, Edward Cullen, throws her a birthday party along with the rest of the Cullen clan. However while unwrapping a gift, Bella cuts herself, drawing blood. At the sight of human blood Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), the newest “Vegetarian” to join the Cullen clan, becomes overwhelmed with blood lust and attacks Bella.
Following her birthday ordeal, Edward decides to end his relationship with Bella, thinking that she will be safer if they weren’t together he leaves her and the Cullens move away from Forks, leaving Bella alone, depressed and empty
Seasons pass, and Bella still feels she has ‘had a hole punched through her chest’, it is when she goes to see a movie with human classmate Jessica that she first experiences the adrenaline rush that triggers a hallucination of Edward, and from there she decides to endanger herself on a regular basis just so that she can see him.
Bella finally takes comfort in her best friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), who develops feelings for Bella. But when Jacob stops returning her calls, she soon discovers that her best friend is a werewolf, along with other Quilettes, and is introduced to a whole new fairytale/fantasy world. The wolf pack then take it upon themselves to protect Bella from Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre) who returns to Forks looking for revenge.
Kristen Stewart’s performance seemed slightly awkward to me in 2008’s Twilight but make no mistake, for this year’s sequel Stewart OWNED the film. With Pattinson’s noticeable absence from the majority of the proceedings’ it’s left to Stewart to carry the story. Somewhere between Twilight and New Moon, she also seems to have honed her skills and in this we have an animated, far more believable Bella Swan.
That isn’t to say she didn’t have help.
Taylor Lautner, the young pup who grew up, shares much of the screen time with Stewart for the sequel. With his character befriending and eventually fall in love with Bella it’s up to him to pick up the pieces after Edward Cullen’s departure. And of course, for the girls, he takes his shirt off occasionally too.
The visual effects while obvious, certainly serve to aid the story and the Jacob Black/Wolfpack transformations take place effortlessly on screen, leaving you actively looking for mistakes as the screen fills with both smooth and fluid wolves right before your eyes.
The Volturi are exactly as I imagined them to be, Michael Sheen as Aro was of course inspired casting. His seasoned acting skills brought to the table a completely seductive, if insipid incarnation of the popular character and I think it’s fair to say that he’s done his daughter proud. Dakota Fanning was a surprisingly scary Jane, before watching the film, all I could picture was her as the little girl from War of the Worlds, but she definitely deserves recognition for pulling off the sinister character so well.
I was certainly disappointed with how little screen time Rachelle Lefevre had in New Moon. Lefevre’s character, Victoria was by far one of the most enjoyable (and solid) performances in last year’s installment and am very disappointed that she will not be reprising her role in Eclipse.
To wrap this up, all I can really tell you is ignore any negative reviews you may have read about this, people complained that it ran for too long but in my opinion it was the perfect length, and I am planning on going to see it again tomorrow!
Rating: 
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