Loading ...New Moon review
With emotional teenage girls having barely been shepherded out of cinemas across the UK following the first Twilight film comes sequel New Moon, and boy has new director Chris Weitz pulled out all the stops to wrench heartstrings to breaking point.
Bella (Kristen Stewart) is back in Forks with boyfriend Edward who is still trying to balance displaying his affection for the love of his life whilst trying not to kill her on account of him being a vampire and very much desiring to consume her blood and all. Tough call. Too tough in fact as Edward (Robert Pattinson) panics and scarpers to Italy and leaves Bella to get on with her life, something she is very very unwilling to do. Fortunately local beefcake Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) is on hand to keep Bella company, that is until he somewhat inexplicably is compelled to become a werewolf, along with his macho pals. Cue ancient vampire werewolf rivalries reignited, though fortunately Bella becomes too busy trying to save a misinformed Edward from killing himself in Italy to appreciate what is happening.
Sound ridiculous? Or stomach churningly smulchy? It should do, and we haven’t even touched on the offensiveness of how Bella cannot move without necessitating saviour from a man with his shirt off, or the underlying Mormon principles which dominate the series, as Helen has explained above. Focusing on the film however there are serious flaws beyond the script. The intense stares and lingering shots which complimented Twilight’s focus on the innocence and novelty of a vampire and human falling in love are hopelessly overwrought in New Moon, which when stretched over 130 minutes leaves the pace excruciatingly slow. Robert Pattinson seems to have regressed even further into moody poses and facial twitches which makes his acting far more comical than intended. Oh and there are Labrador puppies more terrifying than the farcically lame CGI werewolves.
With all the hype over Robert Pattinson’s cheekbones and Taylor Lautner’s abs it is sometimes forgotten that the dominant character in the whole series is Bella, and fortunately the saving grace for this film is Kristen Stewart, who not only outshines the rest of her young acting contemporaries with her understated but powerful performance but miraculously gives an heir of dignity to her character which both the author and director seem so keen to remove. It is also obvious that New Moon is not aiming for cinematic credibility but is aimed directly at the fans which have made Twilight such a success, where lingering shots are welcomed and subverse narrative subtexts gladly ignored. Suspend your prejudices and you will find an immensely enjoyable film here, with genuinely comic and touching moments. Plus Michael Sheen as a pantomime head vampire. As all films should have.
