A slight improvement over the first one with some great moments, but as of yet this particular vampire universe just doesn't do it for me...

Rating: 6/10 (1 December 2012)

I had mixed feelings all the way through this and let me tell you, I tried hard to like it more than I did. To my surprise the first thing I noticed was a kind of role reversal of the two main characters. I actually found Kristen Stewart to be more interesting and likable in this. Not drastically, but she was less robotic than before. A less pleasant surprise was that I found Robert Pattinson to be much less magnetic and intense. He was still effective, with his whole brooding presence thing, but it seemed like they had turned him into a bit of a pouting brooding vampire puppy. Whenever he and Stewart were embracing or something in their scenes together he kept looking like he was gonna cry. It might sound odd, but I went off Mr Patterson a little when I discovered that he was actually British-and my image of him was really shattered when I recalled seeing him before as the campy over-the-top theatrical villain from Harry Potter 2! He's not the man I thought he was. Another mild surprise for me was that I found myself feeling the strong chemistry between the two of them, as opposed to Twilight, where I never did. It must have worked its "magic" on me more than I'd known-who knew! But, what the hell, no sooner do I find myself actually enjoying watching the two of them together, than he is whisked away for the main chunk of the film-and then it's enter the Taylor Lautner. Didn't care for him a bit. I didn't like his face, with its smug ear-to-ear grin. He looked like Hillary- f*****g-Swank. I just thought he was an awful character. And I thought it was a heck of a lot to ask of the audience that they accept this, new great supernatural love affair with him based on what, 20 minutes? The guy had nothing on Pattinson. After Edward vanished from the movie I just completely zoned-out and was bored to tears with it.:::2::: They wisely canned the crazy wire-work leaping and bounding and the body glitter was now kept to a minimum, but they had been replaced them with something far worse... The mega- lame, pathetic-looking giant cgi wolves! My goodness, they looked so freaking bad! I mean, the waving of the fur was effective, but what were they thinking?! The things simply looked pitiful, and poor Kristen Stewart frankly looked idiotic and lost running around them in the scenes. The wicked Victorian vampire lady was a welcome return, as she was one of the few things I loved in the first one, although she didn't get to do all that much. She certainly cut an awesome and richly Gothic figure running through that "twilit" wood. Sure hope she's as impressive as she looks if they give her a bigger part in the further sequels. My absolute favourite part was when everybody went to the French château- looking place where everyone was celebrating vampire remembrance day or whatever, and they confronted the ancient council of vampire elders in the magnificent cathedral/mausoleum building. I actually loved all of that sequence. It was the tense, knife-edge atmosphere of danger, the various impressive looking new characters that I bet we see again, and mainly for seeing more of the mysterious vampire special powers, like the creepy effeminate guy who could read souls via his icy touch-I found it all most brilliant and enthralling. Too bad the rest of the movie wasn't like that. I liked the unexpected cameos of Cameron Bright and Dakota Fanning! They didn't do anything, but I was seriously liking them in that room. They suited playing ethereal supernatural beings, already looking pretty weird as they do! At the end of that sequence I was surprised again when something honest-to-god horrific happened! It may occur off- screen, but I still thought it was a shocker of a moment. Yeah, that's what vampires actually do, lest we forget! It was a little strange and bugged me a little how quickly the guys left after that happened. I know there wasn't exactly a thing they could do about it, but it felt like: oh, about 40 innocent tourists were just horribly slaughtered but whatever! If you think it's a good idea lover, let's head on home! When push comes to shove, my beau comes first. After that as the movie drew to a close I found myself bored once again. This definitely has its moments, but for me it's just way too slow and glitzy and full of itself, there's too damn many of the endless romantic face montages that I found myself chuckling at. The pretentiousness of this series doesn't bother me, as it's not the hurtful kind. It's so overdone that it becomes something fun to laugh at. This sequel was okay and very enjoyable, but when it was all over I wondered why I had bothered with it. It's shallow, but harmless supernatural teen fun. Not altogether unapproachable if you're not a fan of this kind of thing. Thanks.