Weak Sequel

Rating: Null/10 (4 September 2011)

New Moon (2009)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Second film in the smash-hit Twilight series has Edward (Robert Pattinson) leaving Bella (Kristen Stewart) who then goes into a deep depression. The one thing that saves her is her best friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) but she doesn't realize that he's a werewolf and soon she's going to have to pick between this friend or the love of her life. Opinions on this film are probably very mixed but I think everyone could come to an agreement that Mrs. Bella needs to have her head checked as she has a pretty strange taste in men. With that said, I'm not familiar with any of the books and I'm watching these movies without knowing very much. I do know that the director of TWILIGHT was let go and Chris Weitz was brought in. Weitz has made some decent pictures in his day but why on Earth they selected him is beyond me because he certainly doesn't do anything to keep this film going. I thought the first movie ran way too long but it's nothing compared to this film, which has enough story for about a twenty-minute short yet it gets pushed to over two-hours, which was just painful to sit through. I'm sure fans of the books are going to take away more than someone like me but I personally thought the story was incredibly weak, some of the character motivations were beyond me and the pacing was just so bad that I had a hard time staying awake. I think things got off to a pretty poor start with a rather silly opening sequence that really adds nothing to the film but sadly things don't get any better. I thought the relationship between Bella and her father was good in the first movie but it's hacked up here. Her relationship with Jacob just never held much interest from me and I think that even the chemistry between Bella and Edward was lacking here. I always say great actors can drown in a bad screenplay and it's interesting to see how Stewart and Pattinson do here. I thought they were terrific in the first film and while they're still good here their performances are certainly a major step down. I think a lot of this has to do with the tired screenplay that doesn't give them much to work with including some lame dialogue that doesn't help things. Lautner, sorry ladies, wasn't all that impressive but I'm guessing they got him so he could constantly have his shirt off and not so much for the acting. NEW MOON doesn't even look that good and the CGI werewolf effects are embarrassing at times. I found TWILIGHT to be an entertaining little movie but sadly everything good about it is turned bad in this sequel.