Review of The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) by Wes S — 28 Feb 2016

Werewolves and Vampires and Teenagers, Oh My!

Critics and fans alike generally have a pre-determined agenda when it comes to pop-culturally significant films. Whether they feel the necessity to instantly voice their deep-seeded aversion or squeal-out about their diehard "Oh-My-God" passion, ones level of enjoyment greatly depends on how much goodwill and open-minded ones objective is.

Armed with a bigger budget, New Moon is the less engaging and morbidly awkward middle-child entry in the highly successful Twilight saga. Acting as a transitional bridge for the third installment and deepening the series mythology, the aptly named harlequin style teen-romance has been met with the same level of extreme devotion in the fangdom twiworld from twihards, twimums and twimanics. (According to the Twilight dictionary!).

Meeting expectations from this kind of fanatical society takes commitment. Staying faithful to the essence of the book whilst injecting a new sarcastic dynamism, Screenwriter Melissa Ronsenberg (from TV's Dexter) spices up writer Stephanie Myers juvenilely dramatically purple prose. With cleverly streamlined references, underhandedly quipped one-liners and a sly introduction to the next movie, Ronsenberg's invigorating interpretation has genuine bite.

Onboard for this installment (but not the next), director Chris Weitz delivers a much more MTV-slick, teen-friendly glossiness to the production. The cinematography utilizes a more normal gold-base color palette, helping viewers to realize the story arc distinction, fluidly shifting from the coldness of the vampires to the warmth of the wolves (who sadly, are rather neglected and underwritten in this installment).

Needless to say, unless you have been living under a rock for the last 3 years you would be excruciatingly aware of the Twilight Mythology. Redundancy aside and with breathless anticipation the movie begins, as per the book with a quotation from Romeo and Juliet. Promising an intense exploration of the trials and tribulations of a sullen and angst-filled teenage girl Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her unnervingly handsome 17 (correction 109) year-old vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattison).

Whilst enjoying the festivities of her 18th Birthday, Bella gives herself a paper-cut and suddenly sets off a ravenous hunger for the six vampires in attendance. Determined to protect his muse from these kinds of danger, Edward abandons Bella, vowing that she will never see him again and demanding she move on with her human life, but only after making her promise to stay safe and not do anything reckless.

Lost without her lover, barely managing to function and suffering graphic nightmares, Bella falls into a ripping deep depression. Until one night, whilst keeping up pretenses on a girls-night-out, Bella decides to be reckless and break her promise, receiving in return a welcomed surprise, Edward's velvet voice in her head.

Plunging her deeper, Bella decides extremism is the only way she can hold on to hallucination Edward. Enlisting the assistance of her mechanically adept childhood friend and son of the local Native American Tribe, Jacob Black (the newly buffed-up Taylor Lautner) Bella catapults herself into a myriad of destructive hobbies.

Eventually finding solace in Jacob himself rather than the adrenalin inspired visions he helps produce, Bella is blind-sighted when the obviously infatuated Jacob withdraws from her and seems to have his own issues to contend with. Confronting him head on, Bella is shocked but easily accepts the fact that he is in fact a shape-shifting werewolf, who has been secretly attempting to protect her from an advancing vampire.

Alone again, Bella tries to prompt the visions. But, when she goes too far and Edward's precognitive sister, Alice (Ashley Greene) wisps' back into town to check on her safety, Bella's "danger magnet status" sets of an unfortunate series of events forcing her to decide an allegiance between the vampires she loves and the wolf she needs.

The ridiculous amount of vampire lore entertainment currently plaguing the media makes it hard to comprehend why this is ruler. Myers Mormon founded and conservatively virginal prose lacks the bite and sexuality of its topic. However, it does make for a nice conduit for Sir Richard Branson's 11 second Virgin Atlantic product placement.

The Verdict: This cornball supernaturally uber-popular film is a wonderful allegorical metaphor for the Botox generation's defining nightmare. Although fans would say the oddball CGI and the continual top half nakedness of the male leads throughout the entire film is worth the gasping audience participating watch alone, this film does satisfactorily hold merit for the more astute viewer.

Published : The Queanbeyan Age.

Date of Publication : 27.11.2009.