The Movie Fulfills the Cinematic Promise of the Book

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2009)

Just came home from watching probably the most hyped and anticipated movie of the year. It had an unwieldy title "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" for those who lived under a rock and did not know that this was the sequel to "Twilight."
I have read the book before, and expected this to be a better movie than "Twilight." "New Moon" the book had the best cinematic promise of the first three books, and the movie fulfills that promise very well. The parts about the wolves, the cliff jumping and of course, the Volturi in Italy were as exciting as I imagined them. The quality of the special effects during the wolf scenes and the fight scenes with Volturi were excellent.
After the movie, my wife was on Team Jacob. The character of Jacob Black is the best written main character in the Twilight Saga books, and it reflects here also in the movie. It is easiest to empathize with Jacob's situation, than with the distantly cold Edward or the confusingly conflicted Bella. The young teenage actor Taylor Lautner portrayed him very well, both physically and emotionally. A loud collective gasp was heard when Taylor removed his t-shirt (gratuitously) to reveal his body for the first time(among many). I found that hilarious.
Of course, this could not be the Twilight Saga without the classically cheesy scenes and lines, especially those that involved Edward. The ultimate in cheese would be that laughable "Edward and Bella running in the woods" scene. It was so awkward I do not know why Robert Pattinson allowed it to appear on screen.
Overall, "New Moon" is a better movie than the first "Twilight" film. I am not really looking forward to the next one (due out in the summer of 2010) because I found "Eclipse" to be the worst of the three books I had read. But I'm sure we will also be watching it. The ending scene and final line is probably one of the best cliffhangers in recent memory.