Great direction and acting given the material.

Rating: 9/10 (24 November 2009)

Before I launch into a review of the movie, I need to specify that while I love Stephanie Meyer's writing style, I'm not particularly crazy about the Twilight series for the following reasons: 1) Bella is one of the weakest characters I have ever seen and no matter how much Stephanie Meyer claims that she is strong, I disagree. 2) Edward is unreal in every way possible. 3) The only real characters don't get nearly enough attention, these being Jasper and Jacob. 4) I have a basic aversion to obsessive romances.
Now, having said all that, there is something about the story that caught me when I watched the first movie (Ihad never even heard of the books at the time).
The first movie was good (not truly great), but to be perfectly honest, I prefer the second one, and I think the credit goes mainly to the director. Chris Weitz's graphics work is amazing as usual and though there were weak points in the film (which I will not mention as I don't wish to prejudice anyone), I thought that the manner in which he managed to pull out emotions from all the actors in this installment was much better than the first movie. Additionally, I much prefer the colors in this second installment as opposed to Hardwick's version (the blue overlay was too much for me, too fake spooky when it needed to feel more real.)
Kristen Stewart's acting in this installment, I personally feel, is better than what she did in the first one. She wasn't as wooden for one and I really felt her pain this time.
Robert, unfortunately didn't live up to my expectations of him. But then,I've never been team Edward so that might have been part of the problem(although I am definitely Team Robert, and will definitely go check out Remember Me, which looks really good based on the trailer.)
Taylor Lautner carried this movie from beginning to end in my opinion. Since I happen to know that they used his facial expressions for the wolf, I am even more impressed because the wolf was amazing!!! Taylor is maturing quite quickly and as such I understand why his facial expression remained a certain way for most of the time and anyone who doesn't get it, is basically missing out on the tone of the entire series.
I do, however, feel like Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning were wasted in this movie owing to their small roles (which they performed to perfection). They have me anticipating the Breaking Dawn movie with baited breath.
Everybody else did as well as can be expected.
The weakest point though was the script. I definitely think Mellisa Rosenberg needs to be fired. No offence to her, but she is just not doing a good enough job to improve one Stephanie's work, which is much needed.
Otherwise, I really enjoyed the movie and when it ended, my reaction was like What???? It's over??? Already???
And to me, that's a good thing.