The Twilight Saga: New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz (2009)
24 November 2009Now I am a Twilight Fan, possibly even a Twi-Hard, having read all the books, twice in fact, and having enjoyed the first film, TWILIGHT quite a bit, even owning the Blu-ray, so I was quite excited about seeing New Moon. And solely as a sequel to TWILIGHT I did enjoy this film, because, well, it is more TWILIGHT, but it could have been oh so much better without Chris Weitz’s shoddy at best directing. Sure I enjoyed ABOUT A BOY, but this is the guy who did ruined the adaption of the THE GOLDEN COMPASS, ripping out the most important aspects of the book (like it’s comments on religion) and making it devoid of any emotion, and who on the day of TWILIGHT’s release twittered about how he would rather be shot in the head than to go see TWILIGHT, and he was allowed to direct. And he, unlike Catherine Hardwick does not seem to actually get the book at all, making arbitrary changes that do not add to the story (the first Motorcycle scene, and the death of Harry Clearwater do not add and in fact only detract from the film), not eliciting good performances, and relying on exposition and camera to tell the story, editing that could have easily been tighter, and having so many gratuitous fan service shots (shots of Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattison shirtless) that is starts bringing the movie towards parody, and why did Alice’s vision have to look like some cheesy Jay Crew commercial? Weitz’s direction is so staged. Look at how bad Bella’s birthday is staged, there is no life to it, as there is not for much of the film. Sure some things are good, like the casting of Michael Sheen as the Volturi Aro, as he is amazing. And the effect showing the movement of the vampires has been improved a great deal, though the digital on the werewolves looks awful, as do the water and ocean effects, which look so incredibly cheap. And I am glad the film did so well, making the 3rd largest opening of all time (incredible for a $50 million dollar film) because it means they will greenlight BREAKING DAWN, but I hope it does help to shine on Weitz, and it sure has not for reviews, and it’s 29% on Rotten tomatoes. Another minus for the film is that it really requires you to have seen TWILIGHT or read the books, there is no way you could just jump in, and since it requires so much knowledge, if you don’t get it, why not at least just adapt the book, and not make arbitrary changes that do not nothing but detract from the story. An fun note is that if you can see it with the rabid young fans it adds to the enjoyment, especially all the gasps and giggles, though the texting through the movie was driving me crazy, and the girls filming scenes with their phones, need to be taught just how illegal that is. There are rumors that they are waiting to fully green light the final film in the series until Chris Weitz steps aboard, PLEASE LET THIS BE FALSE! It was not Weitz who made this so big, but just the fact that it is a TWILIGHT FILM!!
Back in Fork’s Washington (now shot in Canada) just after the events of the last film, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has a strange dream, first she runs though a strange city she does not know, then she comes across her Grandmother in a clearing in the woods, and her boyfriend, the Vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattison) comes out into the sunlight, sparkling, which she is nervous about because her grandmother, but when she looks back, she realizes it is her in the mirror, having grown old with Edward, since he refuses to make her into a vampire, and she is getting older every day. Her best friend the young Quilute Indian Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) comes to see her at school, and then Bella goes over to the Cullens for her Birthday, though she swears she wants nothing, but Edward’s sister Alice (Ashley Greene) always gets her way. There are the rest of the Cullens, Alice’s boyfriend Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone), Rosalie (Nikki Reed) and her boyfriend Emmett (Kellan Lutz) and their parents Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) and Esme (Elizabeth Reaser). Bella gets a paper cut, and Jasper, the youngest to stop drinking human blood goes nuts. Edward hits Bella back into the wall, making her get cut more, but holds off Jasper. Bella is OK, but Edward is crushed and he goes to her, tells her he and all the Cullens are leaving, and she will never see them again, and since she never believed she was good enough for him, she believes he no longer loves her, and accepts it. Bella is completely crushed, and becomes lost in the woods, with the whole town out looking for her. She is found by Quileute Sam Uley (Chaske Spencer. She is safe, but becomes a zombie, barely skating through her life for months on end.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Bella’s Father Charlie (Billy Burke) finally decides he must send Bella back to live with her mom in Pheonix, and this draws Bella out a bit, because she does not want to leave, and make her time with Edward seem more unreal than it has become. She says she is having a girl day out with her friend Jessica Stanley (Anna Kendrick), and manages to get Jessica to go out even though Jessica has basically given up on Bella because she has barely talked in months now.
The two friends go out, and Bella is weird all night, and she sees some guys on motorcycles, thinking they might be the guys that were going to attack her in the first film, and she goes towards them, because as she does she hears Edward’s voice telling her to stop, which makes her go farther. And in a huge and useless change from the book, she goes and gets on one of the guys motorcycles, and rides with him, until she sees Edward begging her to stop, and she gets him to stop and let her off, and she walks back to Jessica, who for some reason is still standing in the same spot waiting for her (this is the kind of useless change that really pisses me off, the Motorcycles do not need to be introduced earlier, and all it does is make the story weaker by diverging from the source than by adding anything useful). Bella has become an adrenaline junkie in order so that she can see Edward in her head, even if it means that she is crazy.
Bella buys two used and badly beaten motorcycles and heads over to Jacob’s house, and gets him to agree to fix them, and she will hang out, and help tutor him for school, and slowly her heart starts to heal a bit. Jacob is obviously smitten, and wants more from Bella, but she is not ready for it.
Jacob is also worried about a local indian gang led by Sam Uley and his old friend Embry Call (Kiowa Gordon).
They ride the motorcycles and Bella sees Edward before she crashes and hurts herself, and Jacob swears she can never ride again (another useless change from the book).
They go out to a movie with Bella’s school friend Mike Newton (Michael Welch), but Mike gets sick, and on the way back Jacob also gets a major fever.
After that Bella is told that Jacob has mono and can’t see her, but he won’t talk to her even on the phone, and when she comes to see him he gets angry, and she has to leave.
Jacob comes to her at night and tells her he has a secret he can’t tell her, can’t tell anyone, and that she should be able to work it out from their conversation on the beach in the first film, when she realizes that Edward was a vampire.
Bella goes to see Jacob at his house, and he won’t see her, and she sees the shirtless Native American gang led by Sam with Embry, Quil Ateara (Tyson Houseman) and Paul (Alex Meraz). She yells at them, and it pisses off Paul, and he changes into a wolf, and Jacob runs out and does the same and saves her, revealing Jacob’s secret, and showing that Sam is the pack leader, and he can’t disobey him, and when they are wolves they all hear each other’s thoughts.
Bella is brought to Sam’s girlfriend’s house, Emily Young (Tinsel Korey) who was mauled by Sam, but he loves her so much, and she feeds the wolf pack. And the wolf pack was formed because their tribe turns with vampires in the area, so the Cullen’s caused it, but now they are trying to hunt Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre), who Bella tells them is hunting them.
We see Charlie go out wolf hunting as Victoria’s kills and giant wolf prints make him think that it wolves or bears killing people, and he goes with tribe leader Harry Clearwater (the great Graham Greene, makes me wonder where Patrick Shining Elk has gone, hmm), who sees Victoria, and is attacked by her, but dies of a heart attack (which he did in the book, but we don’t see why, and if he was thrown like that he would show attack wounds, not just a heart attack, so it is an added fight, but totally unnecessary).
Bella, wanting to see Edward again, so she goes and jumps off a cliff the Quileute boys jump off, but she doesn’t realize the tide, and almost drowns, and the swimming Victoria almost gets her, but she is saved by Jacob and brought home. He tries to kiss her, and when the phone rings he answers and says that Charlie is at a funeral. Alice returns, having seen Bella jump from the cliff and disappear, and when Edward called he thought Jacob was talking about Bella’s funeral, so he has headed to Italy to visit the powerful Volutri, a clan of vampires who help to keep vampires hidden, so he can have them kill him.
Bella goes with Alice to Italy to stop Edward. The two rush in Alice’s stolen yellow Porsche to the small town that is the headquarters of the Volturi, and Bella jumps out to run through the crowds for a festival, and just manages to stop Edward from killing himself, but the Volturi have noticed, and have them, and Alice brought down to their underground layer.
They are introduced to the Volturi, led by Aro (Michael Sheen, who is awesome here) who has the power to completely read the mind of someone he touches, Caius (Jamie Campbell BOwer), Marcus (Christopher Heyerdahl) and their pain causing soldier Jane (Dakota Fanning). Aro is intrigued that he cannot read Bella, and he orders Jane to try her powers on her. Edward tries to stop this and fights, and is put down in pain by Jane, but Jane cannot effect Bella. Aro will then kill her, but Alice shares that she has seen Bella as a vampire (in one of the worst shots of the film, what looks like a cheesy J, Crew commercial), and they are allowed to leave with the warning that they cannot wait long to turn Bella.
They return to Forks where Charlie is livid, but Bella has forgiven Edward much to Charlie and Jacob’s chagrin. Bella asks the Cullens to vote for turning her into a vampire, and though Rosalie is against it, the rest are for it. Edward gives Bella a choice to have Alice turn her after graduation or to marry him, and he will turn her.
Jacob though reminds the Cullens of the treaty, that if any Cullen bites a human, the truce is over, and though Bella tries to stop the emnity, it is certainly there!
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Could have been so much better. Weitz just doesn’t get it. Sure it made a ton of money, but despite him, and not because of him!
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