It is not a complete disaster, but it does not satisfy after the first settlement. It takes one man to destroy what a multitude has built, and that man here is Chris Weitz, the new director of the Twilight Saga. This settlemed of the Teen Vampire Movies should be made into an animated feature or a TV film.
I sat through this movie and realized that the mixture of issue such as eternal life versus the finality in closure found in death, or the debate over the price of the soul, is not well suited for a conversation or debate among teenagers. I think the books may have been better, because of the room created by the multitude of pages in which the author can elaborate on the intricate subjects he/she wants to tackle. Directors do not have that luxury.
New Moon may have been better as a stage play on Broadway, but it disappointed as a movie. The 130 minutes were helas not enough to cover the wide spectrum of life everlasting questions opened by this story. The result is an OK movie. If you however raised expectations for yourself as surpassing the itch that the first twilight left you with, well The Twilight Saga: New Moon surely disappoints. One can only hope that the third one will bring us back to the original circumstances that made the first flick draw us to “ok-ok-let-see-where-they-are-going-with-this” attitude.
Robert Pattinson returns with Kristen Stewart as Edward and Cullen. The story picks where Twilight left off. The Cullens have Bella adopted. Edward and Bella are trying to have a relationship while battling with issues that sooner or later, they will have to face in the reality of their vampire-human relationship. Challenged by the struggle of this odd situation, and offered an opportunity to escape, Edward leaves and Bella in her grief find comfort in the presence of Jacob Blake (Taylor Lautner) 2.0 in that he is grown and packing animal-like muscles. Things get complicated with Jacob’s werewolf side comes to birth and he embraces his new vampire-hunting duties.
The people who read the books seem to be in love with the Twilight Saga: New Moon. I like movies to hold their own piece whether they are based on a book or not. We want to watch a movie with having first to read the book. The last time I check, they don’t hand you a book at the box office with the mention “read first before watching the movie.”
Someone needs to explain to me why they replaced the a great story teller such as Catherine Hardwicke by someone barely equally talented: Chris Weitz. When you decide to change the direction of a multi-parts series of potentially epic proportion such as this series of books, why go downhill in the directing skills?
Here are the facts. Catherine Hardwicke directed the Nativity Story, and trust me, it takes a genius to tell you a story you already know, in a way that you have not imagined before. Replace her with the guy who directed 2007 the Golden Compass, and before that nothing of notice. Even though Melissa Rosenberg tries her best to recreate a screenplay that is “fidele” to the vision of Stephenie Meyer, Chris Weitz destroyed the Saga.
I think that in a way, the team became lazy on the production. I felt a sense of “we did so well from the first movie, why try too hard for the second one?”
One thing that I have however realized in this movie is that I am in admiration of Ashley Green and her character Alice. Though limited, her appearances made a believer out of me. She might have singlehandedly saved the feature for me.
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TAGS
twilight, new moon, edward |
