Pleasantly Surprised.

Rating: 8/10 (22 November 2009)

I'd like to begin by saying, I am by no means a rabid Twilight fan. I felt that the first film, while somewhat entertaining, wasn't terribly good, mostly due to the Directorial style of Catherine Hardwick. However when I entered the theatre for New Moon, I tried to keep an open mind.
I was blown away by how different this film was as compared to the first. While the first movie was choppy, shot almost exclusively in blue tones, and had a painfully odd and out-of-place soundtrack, I felt that New Moon flowed smoothly, and was pleasing to the eye with it's gold tones. A more Indie-rock based soundtrack, and more tasteful score left me hungering to buy the soundtrack.
I also found better acting, where instead of swallowing there lines and over acting the teen angst (as was in Twilight) they took a more playful and classic approach to the script. And I found myself laughing through the whole film, at the much more humorous approach to the story.
I felt that without the Twilight name on it, this film still would have held it's own in the box office simply because it was an entertaining and well made film. Sure it was corny, silly, occasionally showing the fact that it was made from a plot-hole-laced, under-developed, badly characterized novel. But, on the whole, I quite enjoyed it. And I plan to recommend it to all of my friends.
8 out of ten stars is entirely warranted, I think.