Movie Review: New Moon

A couple of weeks ago I had the following conversation with someone who had seen a girl reading a Twilight book:

SO: Ugh, Twilight? Those books are terrible.
Me: Have you even read the books?
SO: Well, no, but the movie was bad, so the books must be bad, too.
Me: ...have you seen the movie?
SO: No, but I have seen the previews, and they're bad.

And thus I found myself defending Twilight. Now, I don't count myself as a Twilight fan. I didn't read new books in one sitting, I don't follow Robert and Kristen's every move, and I bat for neither Team Edward nor Team Jacob (though I would be a member of Team Alice, as she's my favorite character). Actually, my mother is a bigger fan than I am, proudly declaring that she found out Robert likes older women.

Anyway... in essence, Twilight is a fun and thrilling story about two perfectly mismatched lovers. Yes, it's unrealistic (even not considering the supernatural aspects). Yes, it's badly written. Yes, it's cheesy. But Stephenie Meyer was not trying to write the next American novel. She was trying to put a dream to paper. Yes, a dream--the series is not meant to reflect real life but to help us escape it.

Nevertheless, this is not a book review; this is a review of the latest movie, New Moon. Going into it, I didn't have any expectations. I didn't think it would be the highlight of my year, nor did I think it would be the world's most horrible movie. If there was one thing I looked forward to, it was Taylor Lautner's performance. Take that as you may.

It was the typical atmosphere for the opening weekend of a teen culture flick. The theater was crowded (and I went to the theater at which you don't usually see a soul except the candy counter boy) and there were plenty of obnoxious girls Whoo!-ing at Robert and Taylor. After the trailer for Remember Me, one girl shouted "I'll remember you, baby!" Naturally, these girls were told to shut up about five times over the course of the movie. They hooted every time a shirtless guy was on screen. They hooted a lot. But the audience's hormone count aside, I enjoyed the movie.

Here's the basic story: at Bella's (Kristen Stewart) 18th birthday party at the Cullens', she accidentally cuts herself on wrapping paper and Edward's (Robert Pattinson) brother, Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) becomes too overwhelmed by his thirst for her delicious blood that he attacks. In order to protect Bella, Edward leaves her (being unnecessarily cruel so that she doesn't follow him) and he and his family move out of Forks. This sends Bella spiralling into depression for months until she finds solace in her old friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). This is the moment in the series that has sparked all the Team Edward/Jacob debate: as Jacob falls more and more for Bella, she needs to decide whether to let Edward go and be with Jacob or not. But I won't spoil the ending for those of you who haven't read the books and somehow still don't know how the series ends.

Personally, New Moon was my least favorite of the book series (and I believe many fans agree) because of the frustration it caused me. I thought Edward was being ridiculous and I wanted him to come back before Bella got in too deep with Jacob. In the movie, however, it changed. When you see Taylor's bright smile and willingness to do childish things against Robert's constant brooding and seriousness, it's hard to side with Edward over Jacob. Not to mention Taylor looks great shirtless and Robert looks... weird.

In terms of acting, New Moon is widely the same as Twilight. I had forgotten someone else directed it (Chris Weitz), because everything was in the same style as the first movie. I found Kristen and Taylor to be decent, but was again disappointed by Robert's performance. Two characters I really liked, though, were Charlie (Billy Burke) and, most of all, Aro (Michael Sheen). I loved Charlie's obvious discomfort having to deal with his daughter's girl problems, and I loved Aro's wide-eyed fascination with Bella and the Cullens. Both of these performances made me smile from the humor and the excellent identification with the characters on paper.

One problem I had with the movie was the wearing amount of dark lighting. Save the Voltair square, every scene had profound amounts of blue. This does contribute to Bella's overall mood during the course of the movie, but when you compare New Moon to something like Slumdog Millionaire, which had buckets of color accompanying a heartwrenching story, it's hard to see why New Moon couldn't give us a break from all the blue, even though Forks is supposed to be an overcast town. The soundtrack fit well with the scenes, though. Action scenes had exciting music, sad scenes had mournful melodies, and the music faded off entirely during absolutely jaw-dropping scenes.

In the end, the best part about New Moon is that you won't be bored--it will wrench emotion out of you. You'll be sad with Bella, frustrated with Jacob. If you're just seeing the movie to further spite the series, you'll find plenty to sneer at--but you won't find the movie dull.