The Twilight Saga: New Moon

From TwiMoms to teens, theatres have been packed with the much anticipated sequel to Twilight.

Personally, I can’t imagine seeing this movie without having read the book beforehand. Although great strides have been made from the screen adaptation of the first book to the second book, but they are still not without their failings. It’s the classic issue of interpretation; as a reader you use your own life experiences to relate to the book, but with a movie you are steered more in a specific direction to tell the tale. The movies in this series really play up the “highschool’ component, where comparatively the books make a clear mention that Bella is in highschool, the focus in my opinion is really on the relationships in her life and her constant second guessing of her worth.

The continuation of the Bella and Edward story takes quite the dismal twist in New Moon, one that leaves Bella empty and hopeless, until Jacob returns to the scene. Jacob transforms Bella, if only for short periods of time, back into as close to a normal state as possible without the inclusion of Edward.

I was happy with the outcome of this film and feel that the change in Director has given the story the umph that Twilight was missing… no disrespect to Catherine Hardwick, but Chris Weitz‘s interpretation seems to have done a better job hitting the mark.

Whether you’re a Team Edward, Team Jacob or just a teenaged vampire lover, you know this movie is not to be missed. But I strongly encourage you to read the books first, to get a real impression of what Stephenie Meyer was trying to say when she penned this story.

I give this movie 6.5 ‘Forks’ out of 10.

Twilight

Every real reader knows how tough it is to go see a movie based on a book. You are drawn in because you loved the book, but you’re skeptical the movie will retain the storys authenticity. It’s a sort of catch 22.

I happened upon the Twilight book by Stephenie Meyer on a recent flight to Las Vegas. I was travelling alone, meeting the Reel Ninja there, and at a loss for on-board entertainment, so I decided to peruse the book store at the airport. The cover should have given it away, but having become a recent fan of True Blood on HBO, I thought that a vampire story might be the perfect read for my flight across the country. It was not until I was nearly half way through the book that the flight attendant interrupted me with, “I just read that! Glad to see you’re not as embarrassed as I was about reading a teen novel. I only read it when I was alone”. Nice one. Point to my little blurb here on the book… I was hooked! Great little story, fantastic characters and I could have cared less that it was driven to teenagers. And once I heard there was a movie coming out the following week, I was elated!

Back to the movie.

While I feel that the characters were fairly true to form, the movie just doesn’t give enough back story to make it even a 10th of the value of reading the book. The movie was more embarrassing to be seen at, than being caught reading the book. It had a very teeny-bopper feel to it, with far too much forced “lingo”. That one character Eric, is nothing like his character in the book, he was completely irritating on the screen.

The Cullens were pretty much what I expected onscreen, except for Jasper… did he not look like Edward Scissor Hands? Very weird look for him. Esme and Carlisle, Rosalie and Emmet, and Edward and Bella were very true to their written form. Alice, although not reminiscent of a Johnny Depp character, was still a bit less like I expected based on the book.

Strong performance by Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. I feel they were both well cast for these roles and I look forward to seeing them in New Moon (2010).

The movie ended with me wanting more, which is usually a good sign, but I suspect it’s because I’m invested in the story already, and a little less to do with the actual production.

If you’re looking for a teen version of Interview with a Vampire, or feeling a little bit Buffy, then it’s worth going to see. If you’re looking for the next fantastic movie though, you might want to wait for the Christmas releases.

I give this movie, 6 ‘forks’ out of 10.

–RNW