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It’s vampire versus wolf when ‘New Moon’
ascends
Movie brings out best in book, feelings of characters
The Advocate
The second installment of the Twilight saga, “New Moon,” comes out this weekend and it has already broken a record: the most pre-sold tickets ever according to Fandango.com.z “New Moon” follows Kristen Stewart’s character Bella Swan and the heartbreak that comes early in the movie when her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson, leaves her. This passage in the book was emotional, but on screen the chemistry isn’t quite there. It just looks like an awkward goodbye with a performance that is not up to the standards expected of Pattinson.
“New Moon” is the second in a four-part series and definitely a better movie than the first. Emotions in this movie are presented more realistically and the performance by Stewart is much better than in the first movie. The book depicted Bella as completely detached from the world around her and oblivious to all of Jacob Black’s hints about being a wolf. Because the movie was faster paced, Stewart was able to come off as the smart, lovable and weird Bella rather than the heartbroken, detached Bella in the book. The movie, in this instance, stays closer to the characteristics of Bella than the book.
After the Cullens leave the rainy town of Forks, Bella realizes that adrenaline will bring the memory of Edward back. Jacob, played by Taylor Lautner, rebuilds a motorcycle for her so she can continue to get the rush.
When Jacob finds out that members of his tribe are able to morph into supernaturally large wolves, he no longer wants to be around Bella, but instead starts hunting the vampires that have come back to hurt her. The morphing of the wolves was a very fast process that looked incredible on screen.
Bella’s need for adrenaline is picked up by the Cullens, who believe that Bella has killed herself. Edward runs off to Italy to provoke the Volturi and, in essence, commit suicide. Bella goes to Italy to save him.
In Italy, the Volturi capture Bella and intend to kill her. The fighting scene that continues played out incredibly weak on screen. The fact that vampires can’t get hurt makes this scene even weaker. The scene goes from slow motion to hyper speed and back to slow motion.
The movie had almost no appearances from Pattinson, but in his absence Lautner steps up and commands the screen with his incredibly, mostly shirtless, performances. Lautner was able to mix a little bit of humor into his on-edge character, which made him a great contrast compared to the always-serious Pattinson.
Overall, “New Moon” brought the viewers closer into the life of Bella than “Twilight” did. The emotions that Stewart showed on screen seem sincere and the lovable character of Jacob makes the movie more substantial.
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