Could it be?!? A moderate Twilight fan...?

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2009)

I'll let you be the judge. I just felt like an opinion somewhere in the middle needed to be shown for the people curious about the movie, but without strong feelings either way.
The people sick of twilight will hate it, the fangirls will love it.
For the independents: A decent teen romance with a supernatural aspect. Is the dialogue cheesy at times? No question. Like the previous movie, are many scenes composed entirely of silent eye contact? For certain. Can the melodrama be overpowering at times? Wouldn't be Twilight if it wasn't.
I am a 21 year old male, whose girlfriends roommate made me curious enough to read the books. I hadn't read a fantasy series in a while, and it was refreshing to get lost in a world of sparkly vampires and teenage werewolves. A nice break from my engineering homework. I was interested to see how they would translate to film. The first was very mediocre, with goofy writing and sometimes bad delivery, but I felt they got the setting right.
As for New Moon: I gave it an 8 purely on the basis that it was faithful to the book, through and through. The new characters (Volturi, wolves, etc) were perfectly cast and fit right in. Fans of the book, you can stop reading now, in my opinion you will like the movie. It was truly a movie for the fans, as many small details from the book were included. The main departure, Bella seeing visions of Edward instead of merely hearing his voice, made perfect cinematic sense. The soundtrack is a bit jarring at first, as many of the songs in the background are very distinct, and it almost feels like a montage should be happening for much of the movie. But as the movie progressed, the song choice grew on me. I have read some complaints about the CGI, but for me they proved to be unfounded. The wolves were fine, and the vampire fights/effects were much improved from the first movie.
As for dialogue and acting. I like Kristen, especially liked her in Adventureland, so I'm biased there. Pattinson was a bit too monotone for me at times, but as he's playing a vampire, it makes sense he would error in the lack-of-emotions direction. Lautner of course had a very larger role in New Moon, and for the most part he rose to the occasion. As stated before all new characters played their parts well. The only complaint I really had is that at a few key points, mainly the climax in Italy, the plot is moved along very quickly. When Bella decides to go, there is a shot of the plane, an exterior shot of the yellow Porsche, and they arrive. I would have liked to see a little more dialogue/background info to move the plot along.
All in all I got what I went to see, that is, a very accurate portrayal of New Moon the book. From a purely cinematic perspective, there were not any major flaws that would kill the movie for a casual viewer. Either you like the characters and storyline or you do not.