At Least It Was Better Than the First Film

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2010)

"New Moon" continues where "Twilight" left off. More sparkly vampires, more Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) being awkward and shy. But now, we have werewolves, too, and Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner_ becomes the most muscular teenager you've ever seen.
My colleague Erin Hietpas saw the film and reported: Dakota's "character really doesn't give her a chance to show her acting skills but I think she does a perfect job a being Jane." Kristen Stewart, however, "does some terrible acting in this film. I didn't know you could mumble all your lines with a blank expression and still be paid so highly."
If you drink every time Bella bites her lip, "You'll be drunk before it's half over. If you can get past the lack of chemistry and acting from the main characters it's a good movie." Billy Burke "stole every scene he was in with" Stewart. "Of course, she didn't put up much of a fight." Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson "are very bland on screen. You go there expecting the best meal you ever had and you end up getting white bread and water. And your bread is stale." I went to the film opening night with a large group of people and have since seen it twice more. I agree with pretty much everything Erin said. I wouldn't say I went there "expecting the best meal", but otherwise this sounds about right.
Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film a respectable two and half stars out of four, praised Kristen Stewart's performance in the film and wrote that the movie has "melodrama that, at times, is enough to induce diabetes". As I write this, IMDb has the film sitting at a putrid 4.4 out of 10, one of the lowest scores I've ever seen for a new release, especially one so popular. Perhaps the target audience doesn't use the Internet?
For those who went based on the preview, or want to, be warned: the trailer is grossly misleading. Pretty much all the action and suspense were fit into the trailer, meaning the bulk of the boring parts are left for you to discover on your own. There's too much romance and sap, which the girls will probably love (I would have cut at least five minutes of the "I love you" crap put), but there's also great humor and good references for the guys dragged along to this. The fictional film "Face Punch" had me almost falling out of the seat laughing. Horror fans!!!! There's a semi-subtle reference to "Dawn of the Dead" and its critique of consumerism. Very odd. And even "Pontypool", one of the year's best new horror films, gets a small cameo (look closely).
The budget was obviously bigger than the first film, and I'm happy to say the budget was better used. I didn't particularly like the special effects with the wolves I mean, if "Jurassic Park" looked more real in 1993 and "The Thing" in 1982 looked amazing why does CGI always seem to be little more than a cartoon these days? That's a mystery I want solved.
Writer Melissa Rosenberg saves the day again, adding depth to the story that Meyer lacked in the book, and director Chris Weitz made a nice balance of the romance and action scenes. Listening to Weitz's commentary on the DVD reveals that he is a very talented and knowledgeable director, with an eye for (Dutch) angles. I would like to think it's not his fault this film was weak, but rather that he had little to work with.
In the end, though I hate to admit it, I liked it. Not saying it's a good film — it's not — but a good time. Mark this one up as a guilty pleasure.