inert and drippy

Rating: 4/10 (9 November 2010)

We've all dealt with unrequited love before, but "New Moon," the second installment in the popular "Twilight" series, takes it to a whole new level. Bella Swan, the moody high school student who found herself in love with a vampire - the brooding Edward - in the first film, now finds herself attracted to a werewolf, her long-haired Native American childhood pal turned cropped-haired, muscle-bound super-hunk, Jacob. Now, that's a love triangle you don't come across every day of the week.
This disappointing, time-marking follow-up to the flawed but often imaginative "Twilight" is a tedious, slow-moving bore, consisting of little more than endless conversations about which of Bella's two "monstrous" beaus loves her the more and which is more likely to protect her from the danger posed by his rival and the assorted associates and kinsmen who come with him. In fact, so focused is the story on the romantic travails of the three main characters that the movie ultimately stalls out in a puddle of its own sappiness. And on a purely technical level, even the CGI werewolves are not as impressive as we'd expect them to be, given the massive amount of cash clearly lavished on the project.
Actually, the thing that strikes one the most about "New Moon" is just how much of a rehash it is of the previous film, with Bella's predicament simply being played over, only this time with a lover from a different species (especially as Edward voluntarily removes himself from much of the action this time around).
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson return as the human/vampire lovers, while Lautner gets to run around with his shirt off a good deal of the time (despite the damp, rainy climate). That may be enough to keep the movie's targeted audience of teenaged girls awake and glued to the screen for the duration, but the rest of us will have no trouble snoozing our way through to the next installment.