Better than Twilight, but still not great!

Rating: 5/10 (23 November 2009)

I have read all the Twilight books and fell in love with the characters and the town of Forks! I watched Twilight on DVD just last week and was disappointed overall with the acting and the storyline itself! Having seen the trailer for New Moon, my hopes went up as it looked much more entertaining than Twilight. It was. The movie itself is overall much better than Twilight. However, the acting of the two main characters has not improved and the storyline was again cropped and many significant lines and scenes were not included. The first half of the film plods along relatively similar to the book except for the whole class watching Romeo and Juliet, and Edward and Bella discussing The Volturri during this at a volume I've seen few get away with in a classroom especially since half the class could have heard what they were talking about. We miss the grand entrance to Bella's birthday party at the Cullens with the pink flowers etc and I thought Robert Pattinson failed to act with the passion I expected Edward to have during the scene where Bella cuts here finger. Also I've yet to see in either film the firm friendship between Alice and Bella that we have come to expect from the stories. As we go along in the movie after Edward has left Bella, we follow Jacob and Bella's building relationship as we would in the book. The acting again was not excellent but was believable; however, I felt they included far too much of this in order to cut scenes from the last half of the film. It was the last half of the film that disappointed me the most. There were several important scenes from the book left out or cut to such a point where they became insignificant. The scene where Alice arrives back, again lacked the firm friendship and Bella's relief describe in the book. This scene is shortened dramatically from the book, with Alice arriving and Bella living with Alice to save Edward in the space of five minutes. No overnight, no Charlie leaving for the funeral, and no pretense of Jacob believing Carlisle was calling, instead of Edward. Alice never calls Rosalie to find out she has told Edward 'Bella died' which, if you hadn't read the book, would leave you wondering how Edward knew Bella had 'died'. The best line of the movie is included here when Alice tells Bella she will return 'when you've put the dog out'. From here though, we lose the book almost altogether and scenes I considered important in the book are left out or changed altogether. The Volturri live in a very flash looking Castle and we do not get the 'dungeon' feel, walking under the streets from the book. Bella and Edward discuss their love when she stops him in a scene I did not really believe. The fight scene with the Edward and Demetri was not written in the book, and I'm not sure why the changed this for the movie instead of following the book. When Aro listens to Alice's thoughts, I was again disappointed with this scene. From there we are rushed back to Bella in her bed in Forks. We lose them flying back, Rosalie asking for forgiveness, Charlie yelling at Edward, and Bella waking up and talking to Edward. I believed this was an important part of the book, but we are not shown this in the movie. For some reason the director has chosen to leave out or shorten valuable moments from the book and therefore the second half of the film is rushed. In the movie when Bella wakes up, Edward is sitting at the end of the bed. He is not lying next to her and the scene in her bedroom in the movie doesn't convey the need for forgiveness and love from the book. The scene that follows at the Cullen's house where they vote to keep Bella does not echo the sincerity and love the Cullens feel for Bella when they vote in the book. And the final scene is terrible, putting the scene in Bella's room after the vote and the Epilogue of the book together to create a loss of important moments and a scene of terrible acting. The proposal from Edward to Bella after seeing Jacob does not ring true and the lack of passion is what we have come to expect from the lead actors in the movie. I think this is what I miss most from the books. The acting between Rob and Kristin is awkward. He rarely looks at Bella when talking to her and I get the feeling he would rather be anywhere else, instead of the fact he is suppose to love her more than anything in the world. We do not see the scenes in Bella's bedroom where they lie together in her bed and I never feel the overwhelming love and need for each other than we feel through reading the books, and the lack of discussion about Bella becoming a vampire leads one to wonder if it will ever really happen. The acting of Emmett and Jessica has to be the best, and most true to the book, in the whole movie. They have been cast perfectly. I can't help but wonder if this film would be better if there were other actors playing the lead roles, perhaps Ashley Greene should have been cast as Bella to give her the chance to express the acting talent she briefly shows. As a fan of the Twilight books, I would love to see the lead actors portraying the love we have all grown to love and believe in, and I am always left disappointed.