Film Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

I saw this movie with my Aunt, oldest sister, and sister-in-law during Black Friday. My aunt paid for our movie tix, lol. The theater was still full, but not like massive full like the first week. So, we were able to find good seats and finally saw this movie.

Here's my review...

[Warning! ... for those who haven't seen this movie and don't want to be spoiled...]

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

starring:  Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Kellan Klutz, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki Reed, Dakota Fanning

Watch the trailer for below:
 

[source: clevverTV]

Synopsis
In the second installment of Stephenie Meyer's phenomenally successful "Twilight" series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the mysteries of the supernatural world she yearns to become part of-only to find herself in greater peril than ever before.

Following Bella's ill-fated 18th birthday party, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and his family abandon the town of Forks, Washington, in an effort to protect her from the dangers inherent in their world. As the heartbroken Bella sleepwalks through her senior year of high school, numb and alone, she discovers
Edward's image comes to her whenever she puts herself in jeopardy. Her desire to be with him at any cost leads her to take greater and greater risks.

With the help of her childhood friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), Bella refurbishes an old motorbike to carry her on her adventures. Bella's frozen heart is gradually thawed by her budding relationship with Jacob, a member of the mysterious Quileute tribe, who has a supernatural secret of his own.

Now, onto my review...

It's amazing that The Twilight Saga: New Moon had this huge box office success on its first two weeks of opening even doubled the first movie, Twilight. It had broken some records too including it's midnight opening. It's quite a phenomenon that the Twilight saga mania continues, which I'm not surprised as the fans of the book series keeps growing and

it leads them to see the films. Though I'm more of fan of the books than the films. Still, I go and see the films for the visuals and to see the film maker's take on them.

I thought this movie was good, but not great or amazing as some other films I've seen this year (see my reviews for The 2009 Films I've seen...). I liked this film, but not so much on the acting or the story telling wise as New Moon (the book) wasn't my favorite or rather my less favorite from the Twilight series. I don't know, I
think it was probably because for the most part, Bella Swan, the main character's storyline (much like from the book) was mostly pretty depressing to watch that she was quite depressing and unlikable to watch as does Edward. As much as I loved him in the book (and the first movie, Twilight), I preferred Jacob (aka Bella's best friend and the werewolf-shirtless-so-nice-to-stare-at- hottie, lol) and Alice Cullen (one of the good vampires and Edward Cullen's siblings). I thought they saved this film for me along with the awesome special visual effects (they're very good here at least, especially Jacob's transformation to being a ware wolf, the wolves pack scenes, and the vampires from the Volturri in Italy). Also, I love Alice and the Cullens family, but unfortunately, they were not seen much in this movie. I did liked their brief scenes with Edward & Bella.

Here are some of my favorite scenes...


- Bella and Edward's parking lot conversation and his hot slow-mo entrance, lol...
- Jacob and Bella's conversation
- Alice's birthday present for Bella
- Edward disappointing the teacher by answering the question correctly
- Emmett's funny comment about Edward dating an older woman
- Emmett installing Bella's stereo (though I like this part in the book more)
- Carlisle patching Bella's paper cut and their brief scene together (would've love to see more)
- Bella's birthday Kiss from Edward
- Jacob and Bella working on the bikes
- Bella's comment, "you're sort of beautiful," then Jake's comment, "how hard did you hit your head?" lol...

- the theater scene, love how both Jacob and Mike try to hold Bella's hand.
- Jacob and Bella's conversation on the stairs, about how he'll never hurt her like he did
- Jacob and the rest of the werewolves taking out Laurent.

- Jacob defending Bella from Paul

- Jacob saving Bella after reckless cliff diving
- Alice return to Forks and  and her comment about Bella being the only human she knows so prone to life threatening situations.
- Jacob coming back to check on Bella and protecting her even though it's against the treaty. Also, his near kiss with Bella. Watch out Edward! lol...

- Bella and Edward's reunion

- Seeing Bella as a vampire in Alice's vision (very nice...can't wait till Breaking Dawn movie is made!)
- When Charlie confronts Bella about Edward
- When the Cullens vote over Bella's future towards the end, especially Jasper's comment, "I would like not wanting to eat you." Also, Emmet's answer of "Hell yeah." lol...
- the to be continued ending with Edward asking Bella to marry him as his one condition.

Least favorite scenes...
 

- Edward talking about his envy of Romeo (from Romeo & Juliet) for his ability to die
- The painting scene (Aro killing that vampire though who knows he probably deserved it, lol...)
- the paper cut scene (eww, that looks like a lot of blood loss for Bella...so not good to watch on screen nor even read in the book)
- Edward's attitude after the party (what's up with that? lol)
-Edward & Bella's Breakup scene (so sad and depressing to watch)

-The search and rescue scene for Bella (poor Charlie)
-Bella's depression (I did like how they showed the months of her being sad and depress, lol...and the Dear Alice emails)
- Bella's motorcycle ride with the stranger (how stupid of her to be riding with a stranger...Jessica was so right with her reactions to this scene, lol)
- Jacob and Bella's conversation about cliff diving
- Motorcycle scene (though Jacob with his shirt off here was awesome to stare at...just not the long hair, lol)
- Jacob ignoring Bella, but then, he tells her to leave when she comes to him. How odd...

- Laurent trying to kill Bella (but of course!)

- Paul attacking Bella
- Bella almost drowning or dying after cliffdiving as well as Victoria's another attempt of killing her
- Jacob trying to persuade Bella not to save Edward (so uncool, though I don't blame him...Edward abandoned Bella) 
- Edward trying to commit suicide (so uncool for him to think or do so, committing suicide does not solve your
problems nor does it help his loved ones cope with the situation...it'll just make it worse)
- the Vulturi scene with Edward, Bella, Alice and the Volturi vamps like Aro, Caius, Jane, Demetri, Felix, and Alec in Italy
- Jacob, Edward, and Bella's conversation (Poor Jacob...)


Overall, while I thought this film was good. It wasn't the best, it certainly wasn't the worst nor it was unwatchable either (well, besides Bella's mostly depressing scenes, but other than that, the rest of the movie was good and I liked a lot of scenes that has shirtless Jacob with short hair, lol...Alice and the Cullens, and a few scenes with Edward & Bella not feeling depressed, etc.). It had its moments and its flaws most
certainly, but I thought this was a lot better than its first film, last year's Twilight. It also stayed close to the book pretty much. I haven't read the book in so long and watching this movie made me remember a lot of the scenes from this movie that I've read in the book, except for the part where depressed Bella's motorcycle ride with a stranger...that was so not in the book, at least not from what I remember reading, which was not

smart of Bella to do so, lol. Like I said, the 2nd book, New Moon, wasn't really my favorite, but it also had some good parts that I liked and enjoyed, otherwise I wouldn't have made it through or finished it and get through the last two books. So, the three awesome things that stood out about this movie (for me, at least...and putting away in the backseat, Bella's unfortunate depressing, depression scenes...they were

just too depressing for me to watch or remember, lol...) were: Jacob's transformation into a werewolf (did I mention, he looks super
gorgeous shirtless and with a short hair? I prefer him in a short hair than his long wig he had been sporting in the movie, lol...not too mention, as much as I love Edward and his ever hotness especially in one of his shirtless scenes in the Volturi in Italy...I thought Jacob was super handsome and a lot more likable here than Edward. Sorry, Edward, I'm
Team Jacob in this second film, lol). Alice Cullen and her brief scenes with Bella (as well as the brief scenes with her family), while they were brief, they were still memorable scenes to watch. She was funny when she had a scene with Bella and Jacob and Bella was asking her not

to go, though she does not like Jacob's dog smell, lol. She told Bella, "I'll be here until you walk the dog out," or something close to it, haha...Too bad she didn't have much scenes in this movie as she had in the book. Hopefully, she'll have more in the third and fourth as besides, Edward,
Bella, and Jacob...I also love her character. Alice and Edward are two of my most favorite Cullens' siblings/vamps/characters in the Twilight series. And the visually stunning visual effects for the werewolves (including Jacob's transformation to turning into one). I quite liked the visuals (the colors were just so good to look at) and visual effects shown in this film. Very cool. Jacob and the warewolves fight scenes including one with the baddie vamp from Twilight's Laurent and chasing bad girl vamp Victoria. Those were some nice action sequences and visual effects. The VE team did a great job.

Having said all that, this movie is a must-see for the Twilight series fans (and even for those who don't like to read books or has never read the Twilight series). Though I can understand and must say that this film is not for everyone. It got mixed to bad reviews from most critics other not-so-into-the-Twilight series audience and I could see why. This is one of those movies where either you love it or not...it's just a matter of your own personal preference or the type of film genre you prefer watching. We all have different ones (own opinions included) and though sometimes we agree, but not always. My Aunt and sisters thought this movie was just alright. They didn't get all the hype and huge box office success it got for a "so and so film," as they said, but you know, that's there opinion and preference as does one of my friends was disappointed and only liked Jacob and Alice in this one. Some of my friends who had seen this though mostly thought this was a very good. So, there you go...Go see this film first before forming your own opinion as I just did. You may like it, you may not...it is what it is! Now, I'm looking forward to Eclipse! It might just be a lot better than this one (and perhaps the whole series...who knows?). This one went by like a breeze! LOL! Is it July 2010 yet?

My The Twilight Saga: New Moon film rating: ! (8/10; B-)