Spoiler Alert - New Moon - My Review

My review of the movie New Moon

Catherine Hardwick

Seeing Twilight directly before New Moon was a sad reminder of how bad Catherine Hardwick hacked it up.  (Although being able to stay in our seats in-between movies and not having to wait inline was perfect).  She took Twilight and left out key parts; then chopped up and scattered the most important parts awkwardly throughout the film, leaving fans unsatisfied.  Catherine’s adaptation of Twilight was substandard at best.

Chris Weitz

You are my new hero.  Wow!  I came out of Twilight last year saying “I don’t know…I don’t know”.  I came out of New Moon saying “Perfect”

Where to begin?

Visually, New Moon was incredible.  Chris nailed the visual affects, along with the sets and scenes.  Jacob’s house, the ravaged meadow, flash backs of the meadow in Twilight re-mastered, Italy, the Volturi dungeon…all of it was right out of my head onto the screen.  The same goes for the wolves.  It is amazing what they can do with special affects.  Not only did they look great, they even showed emotion.

Wolf pack – We don’t get to see too much of them, but they were all wonderful.  I also liked Emily.  I’m glad she wasn’t left out.  “So you’re the vampire girl?” – “So you’re the wolf girl” – Great moment.  I’m excited to see Seth in Eclipse because he is my favorite wolf!

Adaptation

Perfectly meshed together; time wasn’t wasted on anything.  All key parts were included, and more so, included in a flowing time line of scenes.  When information from the book needed to be portrayed in a different way on screen, it was laid beautifully into already structured scenes from the book.

Some Examples

• October, November, December – LOVED IT. Quick, affective, and just as heartbreaking as when I turned the pages.
• Dream sequences – In the books Bella’s dreams are a bit confusing and awkward.  I never found them to move the story anywhere.  Most were just full of foreshadowing that made it seem like Stephenie Meyer thought her readers were kind of dumb.  Chris did a better job with dreams in the movie than Stephenie did in the books.
• Flashbacks were also effective.  What Bella’s thoughts took pages to convey could be summed up in a 15 second flash back from Twilight.  Very well done!
• Having Victoria cause Harry Clearwater’s heart attack was genius.  It tied in the wolves’ being hunted by local law enforcement and the Quileute’s knowledge of the wolves.  It was obviously imperative that Harry die, to set up the Jacob/Edward phone conversation, but movie wise, we knew nothing of Harry.  Then for Jake to chase off Victoria, send her into the water as Bella jumps, and then be there to save her…it was so much information from the pages of New Moon tied seamlessly together for the viewing audience. Once again, keeping key moments, but not wasting time showing them one by one.
• From cliff diving to Italy, the movie moved quickly.  “He’s planning a funeral.” One line allowed a few days of events to all occur in one night.
• The only “added” content seemed to be the Volturi wanting to kill Edward.  Unless I’m really forgetting the book, there was no fight during the confrontation.  Movie wise, I liked it.  We needed some more action and drama within that event.

Taylor Lautner

Last year when there was discussion of Taylor being replaced I was outraged.  Yes, his Twilight scenes were a little lacking (I see now that was Catherine’s fault, not Taylor).  We were given Taylor for Jacob, and I didn’t want a change.  He felt right.

Taylor did an amazing job….AMAZING!  He just fell right into Jacob.  For so many Team Edward fans, like me, we brush Jake off.  Taylor keeps him front and center.  I’m so happy with Jacob!  His personality change after his physical change was portrayed so well.  Taylor made me feel for what Jake was going through, in a way that I hadn’t before.   My only complaint/issue is that scene version of Jacob lacks some of the book’s humorous side of him.  But I think that comes out a bit more in Eclipse, so I’ll be interested to see that.

Relationships

We lacked so much of the Bella/Edward relationship in Twilight.  Too fast, too forced, too confusing.  Being a Team Edward fan, it’s disappointing to see their relationship unfold on the screen.  So much is lacking.

New Moon provides great content for the Jacob/Bella relationship.  I believe they are best friends.  It shows.

The only thing I can really think of that I feel was a missed opportunity was the Alice/Bella relationship.  Throughout the film Bella is “writing emails” to Alice, even though they are coming back undeliverable.  It was a nice way to give us Bella’s voice-overs and show that Alice is the one non-Edward vampire to whom Bella feels the closest connection.  But because of time constraints we don’t get to see Bella sleep on Alice’s lap, so happy to have her back.  We also miss Alice and Charlie’s conversation while Bella sleeps.  We definitely get more Alice in New Moon, but it still doesn’t seem like enough.

All in all, I’m SO HAPPY with New Moon!

Reviews

[Tahna]

can't wait to see it thanks!!