I loved this..!!

Rating: 10/10 (3 April 2010)

While I don't think this deserves a 10, the harsh rating of 4.7 on IMDb leaves me no choice.
I saw this movie last December itself, but writing a review now. Everybody knew that this movie would not win any Oscar awards or anything. So, before trashing this film, you should also know that. This was made for the fans & it sticks to the story in the book for most of the time. Let me make one thing clear, I loved the first movie & bought all the books immediately last year. The books are also pretty great. I loved Kristen's performance as Bella in this. My dream girl is Kristen Stewart. So, you have to know that I won't give one negative comment about her, because honestly, her performances are really good.
Moving on, this is the story of the film. Bella Swan is worried that when she gets old, Edward Cullen, the vampire of her dreams will not love her anymore. In Bella's birthday party, there's an incident & Edward is noble enough to leave her from endangering her further. She always didn't understand why he liked her. She was insanely ordinary. So, though she knew there wasn't any reason for him to love her, when he leaves her she is depressed. Almost suicidal depressed. That is first love for you. Then Jacob, Charlie's friend's son becomes her "own personal sun" & he turns out to be a werewolf. And he also loves her. Doesn't any normal guy get to love Bella? (Mike Newton is a pushover anyway). She still loves Edward & thinks that if Edward won't come back, couldn't she be with Jacob & make him happy instead of everybody being sad? She tries & then Alice Cullen comes into the scene to tell her that Edward thought she was dead & went to the Volturi to get himself killed. Bella immediately goes to Italy to save him. She doesn't want him to get himself killed over regret. (Well, she doesn't want him dead, period). All these are shown in the trailer & the final battle.
Michael Sheen, the man who was nominated for Oscars last year, took this project around that time. Dakota Fanning, the actress everybody seems to love also plays a part in this. So, you have to know that this movie isn't terrible. The only terrible part was the werewolves taking their shirts off for no reason. The franchise should have stayed with Catherine Hardwicke, director of the first movie. She brought within the actors, a certain charm which was missing in some parts here. The new director Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, American Pie), brings nothing to the table. He simply follows the book without any heart. Guaranteed box office hit will sometimes do that to some people.
It seems true, pure, unadulterated love is not finding many takers among the reviewers who have judged this harshly. I would definitely hope that I would get someone who loves me even half as much as Bella loves Edward. Coming to performances, Kristen did a great job in portraying her hopeless yearning for Edward. Robert Pattinson wasn't even in 70% of the movie, but he gave a good performance. Charlie Swan (Billie Burke) is very good in his portrayal as Bella's dad. The relationship between him & Bella was better this time around. The enemy vampire, Victoria wasn't given much of a chance to act. Jacob (Taylor Lautner) gives an average performance. I was blown away by Michael Sheen's, Aro. He really shone in that part. Dakota Fanning is really wasted. I thought I was looking at a 25-30 year old woman, instead of a 16 year old girl. Also, the director should have shown the anguish in Edward after hearing about Bella's death, how he thought about a hundred ways to infuriate the Volturi clan. The scene where Alice comes back to the scene where Bella & Edward gloriously re-unite should have been dragged out, because it felt really rushed.
The film doesn't deserve most of the hate coming towards it. Seriously, I think the reason why people hate the actors of Twilight & anything related to it (I'm talking about people who gave this a below 5 rating) is because the actors found overnight success & they became top stars in Hollywood. Ideally, this film would have a 8/10 rating from me, but because of the extremely low rating on IMDb, I give 10/10.
-Girish, 20