better than average, but only just

Rating: 6/10 (27 July 2010)

For someone who had not read any of the books and only actually seen the first movie, I can't say that I didn't enjoy the film. The visuals are spot on - capturing nature at its very bleakest which sort of gave the two 'tribes' (vamps/wolves) a very good setting for the story to be told upon. The improvement in directing from the first film is VERY apparent (the first film was a complete shambles). However, rather disappointingly, the central three characters are just not up to the task of portraying this story to its full effect. Its frustrating to watch at times, as you often find yourself thinking that key moments involving the main cast just weren't acted well enough for their full effect, and non-key moments involving the supporting cast were acted extremely well! A couple of the computer effects are a little cringe-worthy here too and could have easily been left out (the vamp running through the forest scenes etc).
In summary, for a non twi-hard fan or whatever they are being called nowadays, this movie was definitely worth seeing on the big screen, but is trying to tell an epic tale rather averagely; the worst part is, you can tell there should be more!! Annoying :(