The problem is the book, not the film

Rating: 5/10 (22 November 2009)

What do you do when you are forced to put together a movie that should not be made? You do your best to please the fans (i.e. keep the script as close to the original book as possible regardless of whether it all works or not) and you try to get it out of the way as soon as possible so that the next movie in the series, with a much better and interesting storyline, gets released. I don't envy Chris Weitz's job as I don't think I would have been able to successfully turn Meyer's mediocre second book, with a very poor storyline and completely stereotypical characters, into a film I would have been happy with. For this, I have some respect for the director and I spare him in my criticisms of the movie. I think he actually managed to recreate the events narrated in the book quite faithfully and allowed the characters to at least try to develop. The reason why this movie does not completely work is that the director does not have much to work with in the first place and does not have the freedom to improvise as he goes. Let me explain my point. Think for a second what happens in New Moon which makes the book really a must read. Yeah, that's right, the answer is nothing, absolutely nothing. Let's see, we have boy leaves girl, girl gets depressed, girl gets closer to her (really hot and) supportive friend who falls in love with her but boy reappears at the last minute and both are reunited in the end. BORING! Really, really boring; we've seen it before, and we've seen it done much better so there is not much new that New Moon offers to the viewers. What made the first book and movie in the Twilight saga relevant was that they offered a new version of the impossible-love dilemma but that was already explored and dealt with in the first book. So, we are left to deal with Jacob now, it's all about him and the fact that, like Edward, he has a special secret and is in love with Bella. Great, that sounds interesting, so how come the whole thing does not really work in the end? Because, despite having all the ingredients for love to rule again, tragically and unbelievably, the moment when Bella is supposed to succumb to her passion never actually materialises. Oh, Bella, Bella, Bella, you embodiment of all virginal purities of this world, who is going to believe you as a character. You martyr, you angel, you the chosen one to be free from all sins. We would be able to feel warmer to you if you could show us some of your weaknesses as a young teenager. We would be OK if you decided to hate your boyfriend for leaving you without a warning and then give yourself some time off with the werewolf, even if it's just a few smooches one in afternoon after a hard day's work in school. We wouldn't judge you Bella if you decided to go ahead and forget your ex-boyfriend for a few hours because we know that, after all, you are young and you are human. Anything else would be an unrealistic expectation. What could anyone do with such a character to begin with? The lack of a powerful love storyline weakens this second movie which is only partially redeemed by the action scenes in the last twenty minutes or so, but by then some of us have grown bored of the pointless moaning. The potentially interesting plot of Bella finding out that there is somebody out there who could be equally, if not better, for her than Edward is never actually fully explored and the whole hour of interactions between Bella and Jacob is an absolute waste of the paying audience's time. This is not the director's fault but the author's. The corny dialogues and uninteresting characters with no room to show how multidimensional they can be are not Weitz's fault either but Meyer's.
I am glad I watched this movie in the cinema if only to see how the characters I have read about are brought to life, but I don't expect a lot of other people to enjoy it as it suffers from some of the serious clumsiness of the book. I look forward to movie number three with the hope that it will be a better experience all around and I leave with a message to whoever is assigned the job of directing book number four: please don't, it's just not going to work. You've been warned.