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Normally when we go out in the world to review films, we end up in one of the smaller theaters at the Ritz 5 with a mere handful of other journalists and/or bloggers. For Twilight: New Moon, not so much.
Going into it, I was unaware that the advanced screening held at the UA King of Prussia on Wednesday evening was to be a mix of industry invites, journalists, and a whole mess of Q102 radio contest winners. In fact, if I had known I would be sitting through a painful pre-show trivia session in front of the most obnoxious tween girls who insisted on screaming every answer, I probably would have elected to go see Amanda Palmer at the TLA instead. HOWEVER, when reviewing of a film like New Moon it's actually sort of essential to see it with an audience. Especially one filled with annoying little teenagers. Because it's not just about the movie; it's about the spectacle.
Fair warning—if you know not the difference between your Cullens and your Quileutes stop reading now, because I'm not omitting plot points for non-Twihards. This has been your official SPOILER ALERT.
The movie starts off with a quote from everyone's favorite star-crossed lovers (before Edward and Bella came along, that is), Romeo and Juliet: "These violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,/ Which, as they kiss, consume..." It's a pretty clever steal directly from the New Moon book, which immediately gives the audience faith in the fidelity of the film. Shortly thereafter Director Chris Weizt takes a much better stab at the vampire sparkle effect than Catherine Hardwick was able to pull off in the first film (although, it's possible I've just learned to accept that sparkle on screen looks a little more like sweat than I had originally envisioned while reading). Actually, in my opinion, Weizt also draws better performances from everyone, especially Kristen Stewart, which was something I wasn't necessarily expecting.
Things moves swiftly post-Bella's dream of aging beyond her appeal to Edward. The central love triangle starts early and the moment Taylor Lautner appeared on screen as Jacob, high-pitched girlie shrieks echoed from front to back. He wasn't even flashing abs yet. But when he finally does take off his shirt, even the older women in the theater sigh. Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg does an excellent job rearranging key elements and condensing the story down to the essentials: Edward dumps Bella for her own good (because sex = the loss of your soul, don't you know), Bella goes all kinds of emo, and Jacob saves her from her own misery but he's a werewolf. Pretty simple, except for the fact that Bella can't possible be attracted to a normal dude, yes? Eh, no.
In true R+J fashion, there's mistaken death, attempted suicide, and then—in a twist from our old Bard's tale—a dramatic rescue. Of course, with soapy and somewhat unsophisticated source material such as Stephanie Meyer's, a fair amount of cheese manages to sneak in. There was plenty of awkward laughter from the audience to go along with the few scenes that featured awkward performances of the awkward dialog. It was um ... awkward. But somewhat charming and fitting all the same. Fortunately, there are also some snappy quips, mostly delivered by the much better screen version of Jessica (Anna Kendrick), the ever-easy going Charlie (Billy Burke) and the pale-faced James Dean himself (Robert Pattinson), along with captivating exchanges, especially between Bella and Jacob towards the beginning of their "relationship."
There are a few notable technical achievements in New Moon. The time passage that is expressed with four practically empty pages in the book is done with a 360 x 4 (that's 1440 degrees of circle!) shot of Bella looking out her bedroom window. The window beautifully shows the seasons changing as October turns into January with no physical movement on Bella's behalf representing her virtually comatose mental state. Bella's hallucinations of Edward are made more real when she actually sees a spectre of him instead of just hearing his voice in her head, giving her desire for the reckless even more motivation.
As for the battle sequences: I can see why Weitz was well suited to direct this picture, because Jacob versus Paul beats the polar bear versus polar bear fight in The Golden Compass. The Victoria/Jake standoff is just as cool, and had the added bonus of being underscored by the best song on the soundtrack. Wish I could tell you what that was, but whipping out the Shazam app in the middle of the theater would have been rude. I'll venture to guess it's whatever Thom York wrote, but I could be wrong. (Sidenote: The soundtrack is somewhat brilliant, but the score is horrible and distracting. This is strange because I normally like Alexandre Desplat's compositions.) On the other hand, I have an issue with the vampire on vampire fight in Italy. Not technically, but story-wise. Yes, the Voluri are older and stronger, but Edward's convenient mind-reading talents should have helped him not get his head smashed so much. It's kind of an important strategy later on in the Saga. Finally, the hair and make-up team does an absolute bang-up job on Dakota Fanning. I never realized her eyes were so freaking giant until they were red. Michael Sheen is also made to look quite creepy as Aro.
Edward and Bella are reunited but still locked in conflict over her future status as an immortal when the film finally cuts to black and the credits roll. The formerly mentioned obnoxious teen behind me shouts "I love Chris Weitz!" Now, no offense to the director—he did a really solid job on the film—but he's a not-all-that-attractive, middle-aged fellow. Teenage declarations of love for him are just further proof of rampant fandom. I may not be venomous in my devotion to the saga (or a teenager at that), but I'm not ashamed to admit my love for the tame vamps was sustained enough by New Moon to be excited for the next two cinematic chapters. Now how many days until Eclipse?
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Allison, somehow you seemed to have misspelled Twitards in your article. Just thought someone should point this out. Spelling errors on the internet can destroy a person.
Haha - Just wait until your wife comes home all swoony Saturday evening.
Good to hear independent non-Twitard confirmation that (a) this one works better than the first, and (b) yes, the soundtrack is actually pretty awesome.
Oh, and, not to make you second-guess your decision, but Amanda F. Palmer rocked my face off ;)