Thumbs down for New Moon

Rating: 3/10 (28 July 2010)

Kristen Stewart once called herself as a "professional liar" when referring to her performances in movies, like Twilight. The problem with "New Moon" is that the performances of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattison, Taylor Lautner, Anna Kendrick and others are so obviously a lie that it is nearly impossible to believe in any of them. In this respect, New Moon is a very inferior film to the first Twilight which, for all its flaws, at least had believable characters and a believable love story. The main reason for this major flaw in New Moon is that the script lacks compelling dialogue. Most of the dialogue, especially in the beginning, is absurd; and the actors know that their dialogue is absurd because they give the consistent impression that they do not believe in what they are saying. So the result is a superficial vampire movie.
But the problem with "New Moon" goes even deeper than that. The plot is not really interesting. For most of the film, Bella is meant to be depressed after her break up with Edward Cullen that is never properly explained. But Bella never succeeds in establishing a connection with the audience - not least because the Kristen Stewart voice-over sounds so fake - and therefore watching her depressed is a boring experience, instead of a touching one. There is a somewhat interesting part of the film with the wolves, which in my view really do upstage the actors. But the part with the volturi, who are meant to enforce a rather rigid set of vampire laws, was done completely wrong. If the film-makers were smart, they would have done something unique and original with the set, like create a whole new vampire world hidden from human civilization with its own unique look (why do vampire buildings have to look like human buildings, for instance?), culture and way of life. Instead human beings can see the volturi simply by walking into an elevator, clicking the basement floor - how unoriginal (what happened to secret passages) - and then walking into a throne room that looks like a baroque cathedral from a tourist guide. The volturi themselves, moreover, are not that scary, even when they do come close to killing Edward Cullen (I really stopped caring by that point, because I wanted an early end to this film). Martin Sheen is miscast as the head volturi, because he lacks the stature and command to make that role work. Sheen was much better in "Frost/Nixon" because in that film he was supposed to be a mousy interviewer who seemed way over his head financing and carrying out the interview of President Nixon. Perhaps Frank Langhella would have made a better volturi or Eva Green. But Sheen is all wrong for the part. The same is true for the other actors attempting to look scary as volturis. The female volturi, for instance, looks like one of those part geeky, artsy theatre chicks one meets while attending the fringe festival. Of course, the script does not give the volturis much to do or anything interesting to say. So these actors are also hamstrung from the start.
Overall a disappointing film. Thumbs down. The other sad thing about this film is that Graham Greene, who was so brilliant in "Thunderheart" and "Dances with Wolves," is in this film, but the film-makers only gave him a bit part instead of utilizing his considerable talents in full. What a sad day when a great actor's potential is not exploited to make a bad film, like this one, somewhat better.