Film Review: New Moon

By Barnaby Walter

This second film instalment of author Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, is nowhere near as good as 2008′s series opener. Separate details have improved – the cinematography is superb, the music score is better and the action is excellently filmed – but the story is clunky and erratic, and seems more interested in lingering over fit torsos than getting to the point.

As those who have read the books or seen the New Moon trailer will know, this is the part in the series where Edward, the vampire-heartthrob Bella fell in love with in Twilight, comes over all manly and leaves Bella to prevent her from coming to any harm. This is after a surprise attempt to eat her from one of his family members (her warm human blood was too much of a temptation). So Edward disappears and Bella is left wondering the woods or going to horror flicks with her boring school friends. This is where the movie gets lost. Bella is trying to recover from the loss of love, and enters into a moody faze (I know, she isn’t exactly smiley to start with). She then rekindles her childhood friendship with local boy Jacob. But this being the mad world of Twilight, Jacob could not possibly be a human being. Oh no. Jacob’s a wolf. An enormous wolf that can fight off even the fastest vampires. The transition occurs when he is angry (like a furry Hulk), and as he is friends with Bella (the most maddening female lead in the history of fantasy-cinema) he doesn’t need to wait long for an opportunity to go all wolfish. When Jacob’s not growling and covered in fur, he walks about in a state of undress (full torso eye-candy on display) that will have many blushing teenage girls and boys fanning themselves with excitement. His pack of fellow wolf-boys don’t exactly cover up either, making the film feel more like a homoerotic Diesel Fragrance for Men advert than a fantasy adventure.

It was always going to be hard to match Twilight, but Chris Weitz’s muddled and occasionally boring second helping is more disappointing than I had feared. The fan hype will no doubt make it soar to No.1 in the box office charts, but it’s a shame such rich ticket takings couldn’t be more artistically justified. It’s not a bad movie, and manages to be surprisingly funny at times. It just isn’t of the standard the loyal fans deserve. And for that reason I came away disappointed and unimpressed.

2009 | USA

Director: Chris Weitz

Written by Mellissa Rosenberg, from the novel by Stephanie Meyer

Production Companies: Summit Entertainment, Sunswept Entertainment, Temple Hill Entertainment.

Distributor: E1 Entertainment

BBFC Certificate: 12A (Contains moderate fantasy violence and horror).

© Barnaby Walter 2009 in association with WALTERMEDIA.co.uk