Twilight Saga: New Moon Movie Review (non-spoilery)

On Friday night, my two best friends came to visit.  We went out for dinner, and then caught at showing of The Twilight Saga: New Moon.  I read the Twilight series in the fall of 2008, and re-read them a few times since.  It's light and fluffy and I can't help but enjoy those stories.  I wasn't so impressed with the first Twilight film, though (it prompted this post, in which I lament about book-to-movie adaptations).  I decided I'd give New Moon a try anyway, because I did feel that the cast was right, and so maybe with a new director things would improve.

In general, I was much happier with this second film.  The acting at times leaves something to be desired (especially Robert Pattinson (Edward) and Kristen Stewart (Bella), a.k.a The Leads! -- they can be so blah when they're together, and when they kiss it is AWK), but Taylor Lautner (Jacob) actually did a pretty good job, and I find Kristen to be more enjoyable/animated when she's acting alongside Taylor, so that made up for some of the other scenes.  The Volturi were AMAZING.  I want Breaking Dawn made into a movie JUST to see more of the Volturi -- they were entertaining, and they acted exactly how I pictured them when I was reading the novels.

As for the story, I was much more impressed with this screenplay based on how it followed the book.  Were there some cuts and changes?  Yes.  However, they worked and the major scenes still played out how they should.  I know the story is going to be changed, because Stephenie Meyer's novels are long, but this one did a much better job at putting the book onto the screen than Twilight did -- especially in the area of character development.  Twilight very much relied on subtext, and I think it lost a lot in the way of character development.  New Moon had actual dialogue between the characters and it was much better -- less "independent film"-like.  Also, the wolves were great -- not nearly as corny/awful as they potentially could have been. 

There were of course changes I would have made, and there were many "cheesy" parts that are a little painful to sit through, but overall I was much happier with New Moon than I was with the first film, and now I'm looking forward to Eclipse in June 2010.  Especially to get a little more of the Cullen family, as I really like those actors and how they portray their characters.

In sum, New Moon: not the greatest film in the history of cinema (like, duh!), but an improvement on the first Twilight film, and more enjoyable to a fan of the books than what I was expecting.  I took it for what it was, and I wasn't so disappointed this time around.