By: Cydia Matos, guest blogger
It is finally time to breath easy.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon finally lives up to Stephanie Meyer’s book. Director Chris Weitz barely steered away from what Meyer wanted readers to feel from the story.
It was all covered: sadness, jealousy, funny, anger, and joy. Melissa Rosenberg did a great job in doing the screenplay for this film. She kept to the dialogue from the books, especially when it came to Jacob’s bluntness. However, there was one scene where Bella said a line, then Edward says a line, and Bella again, for three minutes. I wish she would have had five lines instead of 20 to get to the point of the conversation.
It is not a film only for the readers, I believe those who didn’t read the books will equally enjoy it, which is actually opposite of what I said for Twilight. Where I felt that Twilight was more targeted to tweens and young adults, New Moon finally reaches for more than just tweens. Especially, with the introduction of the werewolves, more men are interested in watching and to understand what this whole phenomenon is all about. New Moon’s CG doesn’t look fake. With Twilight, everyone complained how Edward’s sparkle looked more like glitter. Be happy to hear that the wolves look real; almost scary real.
It was, should I say, awesome seeing Jacob transform in mid-air from human to wolf. To make it even more realistic they did several close ups of the wolves’ faces. Sheer talent when there was an extreme close up of Jacob as a wolf and you see a tear forming in his eye.
The camera tricks were absolutely fluid and there were a lot of them. Other than the vampires running, which we saw in the first film, we also see the wolves transformations and Edward’s spirit appearing and disappearing like smoke. My favorite trick I must say is camera rotation around Bella while showing three months passing by.
It was a great adaptation to what Meyer wrote, or rather did not write, about Bella’s loneliness after Edward left. I am also grateful for Weitz keeping New Moon looking like Twilight as much as possible. Though New Moon was shot in Vancouver, Canada it definitely looks like Oregon where Catherine Hardwicke shot Twilight.
But, everything in this movie was not perfect.
It felt a little choppy at times.
One minute Bella is mad at Jacob and the next she’s going to his house to talk to him. Like most movies, everything in the book could not have been put into the movie, but I would have appreciated a better transition between scenes. They did keep all major scenes from the book, which are all important, since it helps set up the upcoming films.
Why does it seem like every vampire is as pale and white as a sheet of paper and how they’re colored contacts look very dramatic?
Weitz did go a little crazy with the slow motion shots. Four major scenes were mostly in slow motion which I totally felt was not necessary — or the fact that Bella had nightmares. We see her screaming in the middle of the night five times.
One would have made the point.
Like every movie, product placement is always a key to marketing any brand name. So, thank you Virgin Airlines for supporting New Moon. And of course Volvo for giving Edward a new ride.
In terms of acting, not much has changed from Twilight. I still think Kristen Stewart is not the best Bella. I feel like she is monotone throughout the entire movie. I don’t hear any rises or falls in her voice deal to all the things that was happening to her. There was only one point in the movie where I felt like she finally is an actress.
Robert Pattinson did a good job pulling off Edward. He did at times sound like he was a table read more than being in front of the camera.
Taylor Lautner did a great job too. We know he worked hard to get to buffness of Jacob and it looks like he worked hard on his acting too. In Twilight, we didn’t get to see much from Taylor where this movie was mainly about Bella and Jacob’s relationship. He did great portraying the boy who wants what he can’t have, showing his jealousy toward other men, and the difficulty of his gift. The only thing I ask is if he can not sound like he has rehearsed being mad. The scenes when he is mad at Kristen he sounds like they had the conversation for than once and there is no point and screaming it at her.
As much as I enjoyed the three main actors, I got to say the biggest surprise was Dakota Fanning. She played an awesome Jane. The face emotion she gives when her powers don’t work on Bella is priceless. I cannot wait to see her in more action in Breaking Dawn.
Overall, I feel that The Twilight Saga: New Moon was a big step up from Twilight. Thanks to the bigger budget that Summit Entertainment gave Chris Weitz. I truly feel it was a great adaptation to the second in the series and already can’t wait until June for Eclipse (hopefully June).
New Moon — 4 of 5 stars
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Cydia Matos has a B.A. in Communications with an emphasis in Media Production from Florida State University. She is an editor and producer of Clear Screen Media, INC. and an employee of WFSU-TV.
