NEW MOON - Sat. 11/21 10am showing

Well, it's somewhat difficult to judge this movie fairly since it's hard to separate oneself from having read the book, seen more than enough of the hype and drama that surrounds this phenomenon, and having had way too much time pass from my initial reading obsession to the usual "20/20 hindsight" phase one is bound to experience when the subject matter isn't that great.

That's right, I said it - the books aren't that great.

Then again, anyone who has read and is able to discern obsession and fascination with quality can admit that.

Don't get me wrong - I devoured the books when I first came across them too.  I thought about Edward and Bella like everyone else.  I felt for Jacob.  But even I could see then that the story isn't that great, but I didn't care.

Well, now, I can sort of care that there are better stories out there, and I can honestly say that the Twilight books hit at the right time.  Were it to have come on the scene after another vampire love story had paved the way prior, it wouldn't be where it is today.  But that doesn't matter now, does it?
(pics from http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1939314_1989138,00.html)

Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen was the best part of the movie.  She seems to have fully understood and embraced the personality of the spritely and lively vamp who is Bella's best friend and the most grounded "soul" of the Cullen "children."

So, the Good and the Bad:

Good -
Taylor Lautner is HOT!  OMG, I can't believe he grew so much from the Twilight to New Moon.  I didn't realize how young he was when he did the first film, so it was just good genes that helped him to grow so much taller and his hard work and dedication to working out to fill in the necessary muscles to pay Jacob but HOLY COW did he do such an amazing job of making himself into a powerhouse!!

Edward looked good too.  Pattinson did a great job of making Edward still so angst-y yet lovable.

Bella's hair looked really great.  Stewart's nightmares were more like night terrors so it made for an interesting bit of storytelling from the book to the movie.

The BAD -
*sigh*  No surprise when I say there is a lot.

The Volturi family was a joke.  I was SO looking forward to Michael Sheen being the head vamp, but his performance (while I got what he was striving for but) took on a rather campy and comical turn.  I guess the tone of the scene didn't help, and his two flunkies look like they were constipated and nothing intimidating at all.

I thought the wolves FX were pretty darn awful.  The first wolf transformation on-screen looked so bad, I was sure I heard snickers in the audience (perhaps it came from me, but I don't recall).

CHEESE-alert.  I won't give up any spoilers but there was a particular scene that was soooo cheesy, when it was meant to be sweet, that the audience DID crack up and I know I did and I know we weren't really supposed to.  SERIOUSLY people, did you not see the preview during editing and think, "Yeah, maybe we need to tweak this..."?!?!

There wasn't enough of a "decision" making process that Edward went through before he decided to leave Bella.

Jacob - at least in the book, you got the sense of how much Bella relied on him (pretty much used him) to get herself back together emotionally.  But here, there wasn't much pull between ever choosing between Jacob and Edward.

The story - this is the weakest book in terms of plot since it was mostly Bella's internal struggles with the loss of Edward, but in the right storyteller's hands, it could have been made more interesting.  But it goes to show that more money doesn't mean more skill when it comes to making a film in Hollywood.  Too bad.

For all the money this flick has now made and will make, I doubt it'll save the next movie.

Oh well.

I'd be curious to know what a viewer of NEW MOON thinks about the film if s/he has not read any of the Twilight books.