Intro:
New Moon is the second movie adaptation in the Twilight book franchise. Thus, it follows the plot of the book by the same name. The movie starts with Bella’s birthday where you soon realize how much Bella hates that she is getting older. At a birthday party thrown by Alice, an incident involving Bella and Jaspar occurs, bringing Edward to reconsider his relationship with her. Through various circumstances, Edward and his family decide to leave town. Unfortunately, Bella could not follow along. Because of her obsession with her vampire “hottie”, she delves into a depression; that is, until she goes to hang with Jacob. They spend a lot of time together and because of this, the audience starts to realize what chemistry they really have. Bella even says that she feels happy around him. However, after doing some dangerous stunts, she starts to hallucinate little Edwards warning her of her actions’ consequences. Because she is desperate to see Edward, Bella continues to do these dangerous stunts until one of her actions prompts the real Edward to think she’s dead. Then, he goes to the Volturi, basically the Vampire Council, to commit suicide since “his only reason for existence” is supposedly dead. To prevent Edward from killing himself, Bella has to go to the Vulturi in Italy to save him.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Action
Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
Series: Twilight
Based on: New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
Director: Chris Wietz
Production Company: Summit Entertainment
Quality:
Plot +: In this part of the Twilight saga, Bella and Edward are split. I actually like that and hoped that the main plot line would continue without Edward because of the fact that Edward is quite possibly the most annoying character in the series, in my opinion.
Story +: I actually really liked the majority of the story elements in this movie. For example, Jacob and Bella’s growing relationship is warm and inviting and enjoyable to witness.
Characters -: I will admit one thing: I do like most of the other outside characters like: Jacob, Alice, and Emmett. However, I can only give the characters a negative point because of the characterization on Bella and Edward, the two main characters. I also did not particularly like either of them and thought that their actions and thoughts were quite annoying. They are lifeless and are so awkward around each other that it doesn’t make any sense why they’re together in the first place.
Dialogue +: I don’t remember having any instances of bad dialogue. The dialogue throughout the Twilight movies is usually fine.
Music +: The Twilight movies have a theme of having pretty good punk-rock music throughout. The setting is a small town full of teens; thus, punk-rock music fits the setting and characters well.
Special Effects -: I did think that the special effects on the wolves were good at one point, upon further review, I realized the special effects weren’t very good. The later Twilight movies get the special effects down better than this one.
Suspense -: The romance genre does not initially use suspense, but the paranormal romance genre allows for suspense. This movie didn’t take up the opportunity at any point.
Acting -: The Twilight movies have a tendency to have poor acting quality. The delivery amongst all actors is dry and there are unnecessary, uncomfortable pauses.
Errors +: I do not recall any errors.
Camera -: A lot of the camera involved unnecessary zooming in and moving. I can see what Wietz was trying to do with this. He was most likely trying to experiment with different camera techniques. However, the experimentation was not ideal and detracted from the viewing experience.
Length -: I thought the length was fine, but I do have to say that the entire end of the movie was not enjoyable for me. Like I said before, I really enjoyed Jacob and Bella’s aesthetic and thought they worked out well together as a couple. The movie should have been cut before Bella and Edward met up in the end.
Humor -: Because of the awkward acting, usually due to most of the actors’ discomfort, no lines actually had humorous quality.
Sound Quality +: The sound quality was fine. For example, there was never an issue where the dialogue was difficult to hear.
Plot Consistency +: The plot stayed fairly consistent. Although the plot was easy to stay consistent due to the simplicity of it.
Re-watch Ability -: I would not say that the movie is worth a re-watch due to the fact that there are so many problems with it that can detract from the overall watching experience. Such an example of this is the awkward acting.
Creativity -: The movie is based on a book, so it is not very creative. I never read the books so I do not know if the movie tried anything new.
Sets +: The sets were nice and conveyed the atmosphere of the movie well.
Series Consistency -: The series’ story was actually not consistent with the series because Edward left for a significant amount of time. The whole point of the series is a romance between Bella and Edward, so, if Edward leaves, it detracts from the actual consistency of the plot.
Quality Score: 5/10
Entertainment Score: 6/10
Outro:
This movie is a part of a series, so, you need to watch the first Twilight, Twilight, in order to fully understand New Moon. However, I must say that even though these movies are based on books of the same titles, you can still understand the story line without reading the books. Let’s be honest though, it’s not like the story is extremely complex to begin with. All in all, I would only recommend this movie if you’ve seen the first movie and liked it enough to keep watching the series or you like the series in general.
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