The Twilight Saga: New Moon has reached new popularity and has broken box office records (well the unimportant ones anyways) and has taken it's young stars to new levels but it comes in a package that is an improvement on the first movie but it still gets bogged down with it's major flaws which makes it a totally unmemorable movie. Director Chris Weitz came on board the twilight train after the horrendous first movie was a sham in the view of the studios but people still loved it. The studio fired the first filmaker and hired a new one that has a great history in film; he's directed some classics like About a boy, The Golden Compass, just to name a couple, so I actually had high hopes for this one. The story with this film was way better than the first one; we have a firey love triangle and and emotional Bella as she contemplates losing her life because her beloved Edward left her and we also get to meet some nasty vampires (finally). It also takes us to new locations other than dumpy Forks, we go to Italy and see the lovely sun, and even spend a little time cliff jumping too. This movie was obviously visually more appealing than the first outing.
The special effects were one of the biggest improvements in this movie. The First Twilight the special effects were horrendous and laughable; it was like watching a really bad soap opera, that's how horrible the action and effects were but what we get here is much different. New Moon boasts some slick directing and awesome action and the special effects are beautiful, I could watch Jacob transform into a werewolf all day, it is noticable that the special effects were apart of the directors mind this time around. There wasn't enough action though, there is a sequence where Jacob is fighting his brother werewolfs and it begins but Bella runs off and we follow Bella and never see the end of the fight. I thought this was a little stupid but it's a very minor complaint. Overall this movie boasts some impressive effects and action.
The direction and plot of this film were very good, well as good as you can do with a story like Twilight, it was noticable that there actually was a skilled director behind the camera, the action was slick and thrilling, the vampires were a little darker and scarier, and some of the scenic shots in this film are beautiful. One of my favourite parts was a time lapse shot of Bella sitting in her room, as she sat the camera panned around her and when it reached the window there was a different season everytime, stuff like this really surprised me but the direction was a little sloppy in areas, there was stuff happening that I didn't know about and it just felt like a mess, I guess I have to read the book.
One thing that didn't improve and that killed this movie was the acting; it was horrible, Robert Pattinson had the weirdest expressions and was stumbling over his lines everytime, I couldn't even hear him sometimes, it was horrible. Kristen Stewart was actually worse than him though, she looked constipated throughout the film, she was mumbling her lines, she had no reaction to anything what-so-ever and I just didn't care about her mopy annoying character or lack of character. She was brutal. These two cannot lead a film, I'm sorry, but this film died and lost steam everytime these two shared the screen, there were times when they were having dialogue and I tuned out because I was embarrassed for them and I just didn't care about either of them because these two were brutal. Once again, no chemistry at all, this is not a romantic film at all and it feels like I'm watching an arranged marriage. The supporting roles were a nice surprise though, Taylor Lautner was a nice surprise, he played a dumb character but he had the fire and ferocity of it and he can actually act, there could be a nice future for him in film. Dakota Fanning was an awesome vampire (probably the best in the film), she was so creepy and awesome, and Michael Sheen as the head vampire was awesome, these people were a nice surprise in this film.
Overall, this movie wasn't horrible, the directing was decent, the action was thrilling, the special effects were awesome, but the acting just killed this movie for me and there were times when the direction was sloppy and things seemed everywhere, and for a romance this movie sucked simply because there wasn't any chemistry between the leads simply because they cannot act if their life depended on it. This movie just proves that if you're good looking people don't care how quality you are or if you're good at what you're supposed to be at, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are nice looking therefore the world sees them as good actors. They aren't and it's a shame that they play these roles because without them, The Twilight Saga could've been a lot better. Oh well. I won't see this one again. Next...
