Added Nov 19, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
"Twilight Saga: New Moon": Movie Review (2009)
“The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Directed by Chris Weitz, written by Melissa Rosenberg, 1330 minutes, rated PG-13.
By Christopher Smith
The new Christ Weitz movie, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” had the sold-out audience at my screening heaving and sighing so often--usually when a young man’s shirt came off, which was often--here’s a recommendation for those who haven’t seen it: Bring an oxygen tank. You’ll need it and a mask, particularly in the presence of so much heaving and sighing and busy shirtlessness.
I’m telling you, if the crowd is packed, the air will be sucked free from the room. Just saying.
This follow-up to “Twilight,” which also is based on a Stephenie Meyers’ best-selling novel, is custom-made for hormonal tween girls just as the “Star Wars” movies were made for sci-fi loving young boys.
So, let’s give it up to its creators because regardless of how drawn out and dumb this movie is, with $142 million in the bank last weekend alone, this movie knows what its audience wants--shirtless boys, chaste kisses, and a female character caught between the hotness of two hotties (a werewolf, a vampire) who apparently is willing to throw garlic cloves to the wind to give her soul to the latter.
About the young woman in question--her name is Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), she’s slumming in Forks, Washington with her single dad, Charlie (Billy Burke), and her hormones are boiling over as if lit by a satanic hellfire.
We don’t know this because Bella expresses her emotions easily--she’s nearly a mute, poor thing, parting her lips but saying as little as possible--but because when the vampire, Edward (Robert Pattinson), decides he must remove himself from her life in order to protect her from his kind, she literally writhes in pain, screams out in agony and has nightmares that suggests one hell of an epic yearning.
With Edward gone for most of the movie, there to pick up the pieces for Bella is Jacob (Taylor Lautner), her lifelong friend who wants more than a friendship with her. Together, they grow close over motorcycles, mutual sidelong glances and his bulging new muscles. But here’s the thing--turns out Jacob has a gene that allows him to morph into a werewolf.
Who knew? He didn’t. And here’s the real issue at hand. Just as with Edward, if the two take the risk of edging toward sexual intimacy, Jacob could potentially harm her if things got out of hand between them. After all, all one has to do is look at the shredded face of one of the wives of Jacob’s werewolf leaders to know how dire having sexy times with a werewolf can be. Just as it could with Edward, it might cost Bella her life, or at the very least, a disfigurement. And who wants that?
Bella does--of course, she does--though not with Jacob. She wants Edward, who appears to her in ghostly flashes during those moments when she nearly harms herself. These moments fuel her desire for him even more--he wouldn’t appear to her if he didn’t love her!--and so as the movie unfolds, she becomes more and more determined to have him back in her life so she can strip down and give him her, um, soul.
Just what goes down there, we’ll leave for you, but it says a lot for the movie that the two most interesting characters come at the end--Dakota Fanning rules the screen as a dead vampire zealot with a mean stare, a tight golden bun and a hot clip, and Michael Sheen creates all kinds of chaos as the leader of all vampires. Each ooze menace to the point that you think--finally, characters who fill up a room, tear up the scenery and allow fear to creep into your heart. These two actors are so superior to the juiceless love otherwise served up in the movie, you can’t help wishing they had a movie of their own.
source
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Review
I highly doubt that I need to post a synopsis, do I? So instead I'll just state my thoughts.The first time I saw Twilight I thought it was good. They could've done better, but good. The second time, it was worse. The third time it was bad. They changed so much that I had to separate the book from the movie; pretend that they were completely unrelated. But when I did that, all that was left was a lame movie where the romance was too forced, the acting wasn't up to par, and the special effects made the vampires look like sweaty animals or something; but definitely not the amazing vampiric ability that is needed from vampires.
So, please imagine how thrilled I am about honestly being able to say: New Moon was SO much better than Twilight.
The acting was way better. We see less of Edward (Rob Pattinson) and more of Jacob (Taylor Lautner) which is good, because Taylor is noticeably a better actor than Rob. And, guess what? Kristen Stewart (Bella) can act! Instead of stuttering and blinking rapidly when upset, and she seemed less nervous on screen, and (this wasn't really her fault in Twilight, though) she looked better. Dakota Fanning did great in her role as Jane, even though (again, not really her fault) her contacts seemed too big. I loved Bella's dad, Charlie, and the very rare times that the Cullen family were in the movie they were all great.
New Moon actually stuck to the book, too. They didn't cut out very important scenes like Twilight did, luckily. And they didn't add much, either. (Except one scene involving a motorcycle and a guy. My friend and I were literally freaking out and most likely making everyone around give us odd glances.) They stayed very true to the book, though.
Special effects wise: Edward still looks sweaty. Maybe a little more sparkly, but still not what's described throughout the series. I was too relieved that they didn't make the weird sparkly sound to care too much though. The wolves were so cool! I loved the human-like expressions they would have, and the close-ups they did of the wolves eye.
It's weird, because in the books I love both guys, but I know that Bella should be with Edward. But, in the movies, she looks like she should be with Jacob. They showed their relationship progress so much better than Bella and Edward's did in Twilight, and they have better screen chemistry.
My friend and I would giggle through the movie while we cracked stupid jokes and watched men take their shirts off for no apparent reasons. ("Bella, you're bleeding! Let me take my shirt off to stop the blood.") Oh, and, here's something that made us roll on the floor laughing in the theater that you need to look out for: Edward's nipples. One seems giant, hairy, and possibly slightly deformed, while the other is very small and dainty. It was just weird and hysterical. Oh, and Jasper's hair. It was like some kind of Weird Al perm.
All in all, my faith in the movie franchise has been restored! Huzzah! Hopefully Eclipse, with its new director and new Victoria (both against my wishes) will live up to its successor. If the second time I watch this, its significantly worse than my first time, I'll re-review it, but I highly doubt that will happen.
source
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Twilight Saga: New Moon
I thought that the original Twilight film was interesting. A new spin on the classic with some fresh faces and decent plot lines. Twilight was based on a book series by Stephenie Meyer. The film prompted me to go out and purchase the next book in the series, New Moon. I liked the book far less than the first film, attributed mostly to the tedious task of tracking Bella's every thought. Because of the brilliant imagery and interesting spin in Twilight, I thought I might give the film New Moon a chance. I mean, without constant voice-overs to track Bella's thoughts, how could they possibly incorporate that much mental baggage into the film?
Boy was I dissappointed! New Moon, the film, failed me on every level. In fact, my teenager daughter, who was impressed with the buff Taylor Lautner as Jake Black, admitted that the film barely exceeded three stars. I'm not that generous. In fact, Lautner did expose his impressive abs, but he also exposed his lack of acting chops. Lautner's lines were delivered with the passion of an elementary school play. Aside from his physcial attributes, Lautner was nothing short of horrible. But I digress...
New Moon picks up where Twilight left off. For a brief period of time, all seems normal. But an unfortunate incident at the Cullen's house, combined with the fact that Mr. Cullen has been in Seattle too long, and hasn't aged, leads the Cullen's to depart Seattle (oh, woe...where will they find such dismal atmosphere to protect their diamond glistening skin?) Poor Bella (Kristen Stewart) slips into a deep depression at the departure of her true love. Not to mention her obsession with aging. Bella exorcises her demons by finding any adrenaline opportunity that avails itself. Reckless and naive. Meanwhile, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) believes Bella has killed herself and seeks his own demise.
In a nutshell, this book in the series is supposed to conceptually track the Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet. If you are not smart enough to figure that out, Meyer beats you over the head with the concept with references to the classic. However, Romeo and Juliet succeeds because it is a tragedy. They die. New Moon is only a tragedy in that I not only read the book, but wasted my money on the film version as well.
source
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)