Movie review: New Moon

Nov 25 2009 by Ian Bunting, Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser

THE Twilight Saga: New Moon is the second installment in Stephenie Meyer’s popular series of books about lovers Bella Swan (Kirsten Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).

After a frightening encounter during Bella’s 18th birthday party, Edward decides to leave town with his family. This opens the door for werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) to claim Bella’s affections but will she be able to get over Edward?

Well, here we go then. The sequel to one of the worst films of 2008. My girlfriend, who is a massive fan, dragged me along for a second dose and the good news is, it’s better than the first... just.

Chris Weitz replaces Catherine Hardwicke behind the camera and brings a better look, brown autumnal colours replacing the first’s desaturated blues and greys, and tension to the franchise.

In fact after some edgy early scenes, including a severed head and an up-close stitch job, I was getting fairly excited that this was going to be a fun ride. However, Weitz spends far too long on Bella’s ‘broken heart’ and very little happens during the first half.

Pattinson has become inexplicably popular since Twilight. His performance there was awful and he’s little better in this sequel. The constipated looks have cleared up but the morose brooding grows old fast. He didn’t annoy me as much this time around... but that’s probably because he’s on-screen a lot less.

Stewart, better than Pattinson in Twilight and good in this year’s Adventureland, is rather wasted. We get that Bella’s depressed. We don’t need to see her moping the entire time. Lautner starts out OK but he’s horrible at trying to provide menace during later scenes.

Thank god for Billy Burke, excellent again as Bella’s dad Charlie, and Michael Sheen (Aro) and Dakota Fanning (Jane), members of the Volturi vampire clan. Fanning is deliciously evil and Sheen, while a bit OTT, is a welcome change from the brooding teens. All three, though, have very limited screen-time.

There’s a lot to hate; bad CGI wolves, terrible lines like “I guess the wolf’s out of the bag,” too many longing glances and near kisses and hideous ‘ghostly visions’ of Pattinson to keep him on-screen while Edward’s gone.

The highlight is a chase/fight scene with an excellent tune, Hearing Damage by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, played over it but most of the running time sucked the life out of me.

New Moon is definitely one for the girls. Repeated male torsos, an eyelid-fluttering Pattinson and a love triangle between a human, vampire and werewolf (not half as interesting as it sounds) meant the cinema was filled with female screams and wolf whistles.

Me? I don’t quite get it. The thought of sitting through another two of these movies makes me want to howl at the moon.

But if you loved Twilight you’ll eat this up too. And it is better... just.

Rating - 5 out of 10.