New Moon
Image courtesy of Summit Entertainment
It’s baa—ack. Not that the Twilight craze ever really went away. How could it with all that ridiculous merchandizing being crammed down our throats on a daily basis? Months before the film was even released, New Moon characters and logos were on EVERYTHING: posters, buttons, trading cards, water bottles, action figures, t-shirts, shoes, key chains, bracelets, necklaces, rings, jewelry boxes, pens, candles, blankets, pillows, pillowcases, journals, book marks, bags, band aids, hats, wallets, lunch boxes, jigsaw puzzles, umbrellas, even candy. The viral marketing campaign for New Moon was enough to make the most devout fan want to gouge out their eyes and cram knitting needles in their ears…except the tweens, of course. They’re the driving force behind all the nonsense. Now that the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s teenage vampire series has finally made it to the big screen, the insanity isn’t about to let up anytime soon. As long as the tweens keep screaming for either Team Edward or Team Jacob, it’s only going to get worse, and the rest of us are going to go deaf in the process. As for the film itself, New Moon basically picks up where Twilight left off. High school senior Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is still dating the hottest guy at Forks High, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), who happens to be a 110 year old vampire. For those of you not familiar with the books, this is also the point where Bella’s superficial obsession with youth and beauty really begins to surface. Since Edward is forever frozen at 17 (the age at which he was changed), Bella refuses to make it out of her teenage years without becoming immortal herself.
Bella can’t even stop pouting long enough to enjoy her 18^th birthday, let alone the birthday party Alice (Ashley Greene) throws for her. Instead, she spices up the shindig by giving herself a paper cut. In anyone else’s world a paper cut isn’t a big deal, but Bella almost becomes vampire chow for Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) when she starts dripping blood in a room full of vampires.		Image courtesy of Summit Entertainment
Edward saves Bella from his ravenous brother by accidentally throwing her across the room and into a glass table. Horrified that he hurt Bella, Edward completely overreacts to the faux tragedy by breaking up with her and moving away from Forks under the assumption that the absence of vampires will keep Bella out of harm’s way. To make a long story short, it doesn’t. Physically, she’s fine, but Bella’s an emotional wreck. She mopes around for months before her dad, Charlie (Billy Burke), finally gives her the ultimatum of reconnecting with her friends in Forks or moving back to Florida with her mom. Predictably, Bella chooses her friends. One friend in particular – Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). With Jacob’s help, Bella slowly returns to the land of the living while managing to become an adrenaline junkie in the process. Of course, that’s also right about the time she finds out her new best friend is a werewolf. From there, the narrative just goes from dramatic fantasy to flat-out ridiculous. Renegade teenage werewolves and schizophrenic hallucinations are only part of it. Before everything’s said and done, there’s even a whirlwind 3 day trip to Italy and back to stop a suicidal vampire from killing himself. Obviously, the film is geared towards its fans, and they aren’t going to be nearly as disappointed as they were with the first installment. After the all the needless butchering Hardwicke did on the first film, it was nice to see this adaptation actually follow its source material. Unlike Twilight, the changes made from text to screen in New Moon worked in favor of the visual medium rather than against it. Also, with a new director at the helm (Chris Weitz), the characters were more developed, the vampires’ ridiculous CGI roller disco body glitter was toned down, and the camera stayed on the actors instead of the scenery.
Image courtesy of Summit Entertainment				Another plus the film has going for it is some new cast members, namely Michael Sheen as Aro and Dakota Fanning as Jane. Taylor Lautner’s role is also beefed up in New Moon The 30 pounds of muscle he added to his upper body between the filming of Twilight and New Moon is definitely going to have all the overly hormonally tween crowd squealing every time he takes his shirt off in the film.
As for the leads, Pattinson is flawless as usual. Stewart, however, is another story. Even though “Blinky’s” performance has markedly improved since Twilight, there are still times when she looks like she has optic epilepsy. Another drawback is the soundtrack – or lack thereof. None of the songs from the artists featured on New Moon’s “Official Soundtrack” are used in the film. Granted, it’s not detrimental to the overall audio effect but, it is misleading to the fans who are expecting to at least hear Muse while the film’s rolling. Another issue with New Moon is its narrative flow which feels a little rushed at times. Part of that is a result of having to scale down a 563 page novel into a 2 hour movie. Yes, some details from the book will have to be cut. Others will have to be altered to fit a visual medium format. Scenes need to be shortened. However, once Alice returns and the narrative suspense starts to build, some sequences feel like they’re a little too clipped, almost as if Sgt. Joe Friday and his “just the facts, ma’am” approach to storytelling usurped the director’s chair. Lengthening these scenes by even a minute or two would give the audience more time to let the underlying emotion settle in Despite its abrupt “cliffhanger” ending, New Moon won’t disappoint its core fans because they finally get to see the development of the Edward/Bella/Jacob love triangle brought to life on the big screen. Who knows? Maybe even the impressive werewolf CGI, action sequences, and fight scenes will help placate all the husbands and boyfriends who get drug to see the movie against their will? Personally, I doubt it, but we can always hope they won’t buy into the whole Romeo and Juliet glorified suicide theme before the credits start to roll. My best advice for them is to bring a good set of earplugs to keep all the squealing tweens from rupturing their eardrums when Taylor Lautner takes off his shirt.
Yet, even more concerning than a bunch of bleeding eardrums is the mass coven of hormonal tweens being pitted against each other with the whole Team Jacob vs. Team Edward debacle. What is Summit trying to do – incite an Outsiders rumble? Oh well, if worse comes to worse, at least Ponyboy will be able to patch up any vampire bites or werewolf scrapes incurred with New Moon band aids this time. © Kelly Bartley 11/20/2009			Image courtesy of Summit Entertainment
Running Time:	2 hours 10 minutes
Release Date:	November 20, 2009
MPAA Rating:	PG-13 (violence and some action)
Distributor:	Summit Entertainment