Don't judge a book by its cover, nor a film by its poster

Rating: 6/10 (19 November 2009)

Living in New Zealand can be very aggravating as most of the time we get to see films such as Die Hard 4 and 3:10 toy Yuma come out months after they have been released in the UK & USA, so you hear reviews for a film you haven't seen and admit it or not you go in with some level of bias. But once every so often a huge worldwide release will be showen here first due to time zone differences, my point is in seeing this opening day having heard no feedback on the film i was rather open (even though i hated the first).
Chris Weitz I feel has done a good job on this adaptation of the terrible book as the in the first film the relationship between Bella and Edward felt very forced and fake which I blame on Cathrine Hardwicke to some extent. But Chris Weitz has had success in the past with teen relationships with his "American Pie" so he was able to make the relationship not only between Bella and Edward a lot more believable and interesting but also between Bella and Jacob and Bella and Her Dad. It was things like these that I felt the first film was lacking.
As for cinematography, and i do realise that nobody goes to see "The Twlight Saga" for cinematography but the use of light and framing was fantastic in New Moon, this was my main problem with the first film. Light is a very important that vampires evade it but it was used terribly for twilight but in "New Moon" it felt like it had a purpose and did effect the look of scenery and the general mood of the film.
Now for the bad bits and there are quiet a few. The screenplay was terrible, it dragged out areas that were unnecessary to drag out such as the Vampire family bit in Italy where Michael Sheen is talking about powers to Kristen Stweart this went on for a good ten minutes but the time spent between Bella and Jacob was not enough time to suggest a possibility between the two having a chance at a relationship. Dialouge is also a big problem but that is unavoidable in this sort of situation, That lead me to think "Why was Cathrine Hardwicke blamed for all the problems for the first film? because they are the same ones in New Moon". The culprit Melissa Rosenberg the screenwriter, she isn't talented and there are lots of people out there that would be willing and could do a better job than she is doing.
Another thing was acting wise, "New Moon" is the sort of movie where it suits movie stars such as Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner who are good at what they do selling a film, but in "New Moon" they had Michael Sheen and Dakota fanning who are more actors rather than movie stars and it is obvious that they are more talented at acting as they blow everyone (bar Kristen Stweart) Off the screen which shouldn't happen as this is not their movie.
But overall if you go in open to the new direction of the franchise you won't mind the unnecessarily hopelessness or idiotic screenplay or horrible soundtrack.