Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (23 November 2009)

I went into the cinema full of high hopes, having loved Twilight and read all of the books and seen the exciting adverts for New Moon. Sadly after the cool opening title where it is slowly revealed by the moon for me it rapidly went down hill. The first thing I thought when the lights came up was god, that was boring!
In an effort to include as much as the book as possible I felt it skated over everything, never going into depth. Considering this film is supposed to be about the Wolves, they weren't in it that much although I did enjoy the bits that they were in the most.
When Edward left Bella, considering how well she'd acted at the end of Twilight when she was in Hospital and Edward suggested they separated, I thought we were going to see more of that in the scene where he leaves her. In this film she was sad, but she wasn't sad enough! In the book when he leaves its like all the joy had gone from the world, like she has been sucked into a black hole.
When Jacob first disappears after his change its weeks before Bella manages to see him again, but in the film this all happens in a matter of minutes.
When Alice and Bella go to Itlay to save Edward, they get there far too quickly, in the book the tension builds because they're journey drags, they have to take a long flight, Alice gets stuck in the traffic, but they miss all of that in the film so it doesn't feel exciting because you don't get that build. When they do get to Italy in the film and are in front of the Volturi, it doesn't feel like a big deal like it is supposed to be, in the book its built up to be really dangerous. Although I thought the Volturi were well cast and well acted.
I really liked Kristen Stewart in the first film, I thought she acted really well, but in this film she seemed barely affected by anything. I liked Jacob a lot, he was the best thing in the film. I also enjoyed any bits that had Bella's Dad in it, he's good.
I thought the scene with Bella, Mike and Jake in the cinema was funny. I also really likes the scene where Victoria was running through the forest and the Wolves were chasing her I thought it was really atmospheric.
The part where Bella gets on that guys motorbike and goes off with him annoyed me because it seemed the like a pointless bit of Director's licence where he could get a bit more of action in. It was also frustrating that Jake shows up at the beginning of the film to give Bella a Birthday present which makes it look like they're already really close when in the book he's not in it till after Edward leaves, and that's when they're relationship first begins to blossom, because when Edward was around she barely spent any time with anyone apart from him, let alone Jacob.
I liked the score, but in the scenes where there wasn't any music it was really noticeable.
Also I thought the Vampires looked really odd in this film, especially Jasper, in comparison with the first. In the first film they all looked very nice but I didn't think they stood out enough among the collectively attractive cast, because they are supposed to be abnormally beautiful, but in this film they did stand out, but it was because they looked abnormally weird! Most noticeably their eyes. I didn't care about the Cullens in this film with the exception of Alice, they were boring, even Edward.
The end felt rushed but I liked the confrontation between Edward, Bella and Jacob (minus the part where she says don't make me choose 'cos if you do I'll pick him, I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen in the book) and the fact it cut off with Edward saying will you marry me like it was a massive cliffhanger annoyed me because nearly everyone in the cinema knew he was going to ask!
Perhaps it would have been better if they hadn't decide to go down the frankly unsuccessful Harry Potter route, having a different Director each film. I thought that the Catherine Hardwicke did a good job. I'm hoping I will like it better on a 2nd viewing, and also that the Director for film 3 will do a better job!