New Moon

This weekend, J being an amazing and wonderful fiance, took me to see New Moon. Before I begin, I want everyone to know that I'm not a big fan of the books. Yes, I have read all four of them )and the 12 chapters of Midnight Sun that were released last year). And yes, I have seen the first movie. And yes, I realize that they changed some things about the books in the movies. And no, that does not upset me. Because the books needed changing. However, this is not a book review so I will leave it at that and begin my review of the second movie in the Twilight series: New Moon.

For those of you who have lived under a rock for the past few years, Twilight is the story of a young girl named Bella, played by Kristen Stewart, and a guy named Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson, who turns out to be vampire. Well, Bella and Edward fall in love and begin the most forbidden romance since Romeo and Juliet. New Moon is the second movie in the series. It begins with Bella's eighteenth birthday party. While opening a present, Bella cuts her finger and bleeds. Chaos ensues as Edward's vampire brother, Jasper, tries to attack Bella. After this Edward decides that it would be safer for Bella if he left her. So he leaves and then she begins hanging out with this guy named Jacob,played by Taylor Lautner, who happens to be a werewolf. And that's basically the whole plot: Who does she love more, Jacob or Edward?

The plot isn't the best ever written, but you can't really blame the director or screenplay writer for that because the book didn't give them much to work with. However, you can blame the screenplay writer for the terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE, dialogue. Honestly, every sentence was completely cliche and unrealistic. No one in the world talks like these characters. And did I mention the melodrama? Everything is so over the top that it ends up being horrifyingly cheesy.

The acting, however, wasn't terrible. Lautner and Pattinson both did very respectable jobs with their characters. The did the best they could with the dialogue and lifeless characters. However, the best actor in New Moon was, by far, Dakota Fanning who plays the horribly evil vampire Jane who can inflict pain on anyone with just one glance. Unfortunately, Fanning only appears in one scene and has very few lines, but she did great with what she had. That being said, I cannot say that all of the acting was good. Because Kristen Stewart was absolutely terrible. She is unconvincing and cannot deliver any of her lines with the same power that Pattinson and Lautner do.

If you are looking for something deep and meaningful then New Moon is definitely not the movie for you. But it is a lot of fun. The scenery is beautiful and the leading men are even more beautiful! Director Chris Weitz did the most he could with the story, and I feel, that he made it even better than the book. New Moon is not the best movie of the year, but it was very enjoyable.

-H