When the Cullens are forced to leave town Bella develops a warm friendship with Jacob Black while struggling with a depression.

Rating: 7/10 (5 December 2009)

Looking over the reviews of this movie it was easy to figure this is where the haters of this movie go, not the fans. So I wanted to comment on this movie as a FAN, not a person who have read all four books and watched both of the movies solely to join the basher's club.
New Moon was a LOT better than the first movie, Twilight. People complained that it was long drawn but I felt that it was necessary in order for the movie to captivate Bella's depression and the many months that pass by as it was portrayed in the book. As a fan you are bound to fear the animated adaptations of the books because you know they will most likely have to cut off a tremendous load to keep it as a movie. That said I think Chris Weitz did a really good job on pleasing the fans, keeping everything as original as possible.
I remember that from the first movie the acting seemed off; it was as if they couldn't quite captivate their characters' personalities, especially in the beginning of the movie the actors didn't seem to belong. Now in New Moon it really felt as if the actors had had time to properly adjust, to read the books and get to know their characters and now know how to act exactly like them. Kristen Stewart's acting had definitely improved for the better, there were less pauses and less blinking and she came off so much more natural. I was also really pleased to see that Taylor Lautner did not only commit physically to his character but really seemed to know how to act like him.
It saddens me to think that this movie is mainly getting so many bad user reviews solely because of its fan base - teen girls. It seems that in the US they have an obsessive and crazy fan girl base that whine and moan about the male actors. But if you did not expect that from this kind of genre you must be truly naive. There will always be obsessed fans related to anything you ever watch or read, it's unavoidable. And it seems that along with a crazy fan base follows a much obsessed anti-fan base, and it really surprises me how much time some people choose to use on the Twilight saga to find every flaw about this film and not to mention the books, because I have seen worse movies out there and so it confuses me. Bella is supposedly a bad role model, yes, she does many reckless things, but there are so many more bad role models out there who get a lot less attention - and who are not fictive characters. I assume no one ever called Dracula abusive when he and Mina wanted to be together in the movie, because it simply wasn't aimed for teens. You don't see many complaints about Romeo & Juliet either because of course, the ancient writers are protected. And though it was not aimed for teens I am sure you won't find a teen who didn't know how that story went. You'll never see anyone bash a macho movie with gore and blood as much as you will see them bash a teen series where the main plot is love. Personally, I never thought the books were aimed for people below age 16, I simply don't think they can comprehend the feelings involved.
But to get back to the movie, I must be one of the only fans left who can see it regardless of the many haters and crazy obsessive fan girls pulling it down and actually just like it for what it is. I rated it 10 because it succeeded to captivate me throughout the entire thing, the battle scenes were a lot greater than I had expected from watching the trailers, the CGI was well done and it had great character development and the actors pulled it off professionally. I'd vote for Chris Weitz any day over Catherine Hardwicke. And I fully agree to the fact that there was actually chemistry between the characters now - not so much in the first movie.
One more thing - I just want to mention Dragon Ball Evolution as the most horrible movie adaption ever made and compared to that New Moon is a really great adaption to a book with more than 5-600 pages and it really deserves a lot more credit without considering its crazy fan girl base and the haters that try and bash the movies solely to kick it out of the mainstream. I'm sure that if it wasn't because of the Twilight hype going on it would go a lot more unnoticed as any other movie and just be appreciated as another romance movie. New Moon even does a good job on adding extra action sequences than there were in the books and though it's a tricky and dangerous thing to add more than there originally was Weitz really pulls it off.
But one thing I've got to say - I was very disappointed there was no Charlie in the end of the movie yelling "BELLAA!!" Anyone who read the book would know what I mean. But all in all, 10!