Review 37: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is a painfully stolid, soapy and melodramatic experience and a shockingly ill-conceived continuation of the Saga.

Based on the second book in The Twilight Saga, New Moon by Stephanie Meyer, On Bella Swann's (Kristen Stewart) 18th birthday she cuts herself while unwrapping a present which causes Edward Cullen's (Robert Pattinson) brother, Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) to become overwhelmed by her blood's scent and attempt to kill her. Realizing the danger that he and his family pose to Bella, Edward ends their relationship, and the Cullens leave Forks, Washington.
This leaves Bella heartbroken and depressed for months until she develops a strong friendship with werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Jacob and his tribe must protect Bella from Victoria, a vampire seeking to avenge the death of her mate by killing Bella.
A misunderstanding occurs, and Edward Cullen believes Bella is dead. Edward decides to commit suicide in Volterra, Italy.
Accompanied by Edward's sister, Alice (Ashley Greene), Bella sets off to Volterra to save Edward.

The plot is a dreary plod through the murkish sludge of tedious romantic drival which never comes together in a cohesive way and the pacing feels from the start. After Edward disappears from Bella's life the film just meanders along with no sense of plot direction until the last 1/2 hour when suddenly with no warning the climax does a hard right turn and the plot turns really soapy thanks to a "misunderstanding" that's both arbitrary and unlikely and contrived and left me feeling underwhelmed because everything happened so fast that I didn't have to time appreciate it. It bearly tied into anything else that had happened and whatever development that happened between Bella and Jacob is unceremoniously dropped by the end because "Status Quo is God."

 

Let me ask you: Who wants to watch a whole movie about a teenage girl moping and acting depressed? Not me! Well, ok, only if it's a moving portrait of grief and heartbreak, but New Moon is not.

What could have potentially been a heartbreaking and poignant look at break-up instead descends into soapy and melodramatic slog. Most stories like these are used to convey woman's strength and how they heal or destructive they become as a result. New Moon indifference to its characters wants, conflicts and world building is only matched by how  There’s nothing wrong with New Moon that a good director and writer couldn’t fix. 

It moves with (in the words of Roger Ebert) the energy of an album of slow romantic music and I got, frankly, impatient and eventually board waiting for the drama and crisis to occur.

The catalyst for Edward leaving Bella is because Jasper almost killed her over a paper cut. That set is flimsy because if Jasper is the Cullens latest vegetarian and is that unstable, why would Carlisle and Esme allow him to go to school with loads of potentially vulnerable teens.

Be honest, when Ed broke up with Bella and told her that this was the last time that she would ever see her, did you buy it for even a second? Because you it's clearly not worth getting invested in an emotional break up when its clearly not going to stick and that by the end the film will have nullified its entire runtime.

The novel and by extension the film are allegedly inspired by Romeo and Juliet with both being centred around a forbidden romance. In New Moon's case, it's because Edward "endangers" Bella's life which is why they're apart for the majority of the running time. Unfortunately as the film goes on it becomes clear that Meyer doesn't understand the work beyond a surface level interpretations. It also doesn't work because Bella and Ed relationship is not the focus on round 2. Their separation is made all the more extraneous by spooky visions of you-know-who that coincide with moments of great danger. Hence, Bella becomes a biker babe. These adrenaline-fuelled escapades are extraordinarily and uncovincingly lame.

 

New Moon introduces two new elements to the mythology of the series: The existance of werewolves, in this case a group of Native American boys from the Quileute tribe reservation not far from Forks.

Like vampires in the first movie, these werewolves have their own set of rules that don’t conform to the familiar legend. They can transform at will and, day or night (good for them) and their metamorphosis has no baring on the phases of the moon (despite the title). Also, in the Meyerverse, lycanthropy is passed on through hereditary genes.

Which leads us to the next big question; How do you make werewolves boring? The simple answer is that we never get sense of impact of their introduction has on the larger world or how being a werewolf impacts Bella and Jacob's friendship. The strength of Bella and Ed's relationship in the first film was the romantic and physical tension that came with Ed being a vampire and restraining himself from hurting her.

In the case of Bella and Jake, their is no tension or spark and being a werewolf doesn't impact them in any meaningful way.

Their introduction is handled without much texture or depth; They’re an after in the grander scheme of things

The other is the Volturi, a very powerful Vampire coven that watches over the world of Vampires making sure that they aren't discovered. As Edward puts it "They're the closest thing my world has to royalty." Unfortunately, they don't appear until the last quarter of the film and generally came across as a clumsily tacked on afterthought so we never get a clear idea of who they are or how they operate.  

New Moon's story up to that point had nothing to do with Volturi political intrigue or Vampiric rules stating that Bella and Ed couldn't be together so why introduce it this late in the film? There's little complexity in the social, cultural or political shape of these both corners of the Twilightverse. 

The emotional core of the film is clearly the friendship that develops between Bella and Jacob but it's never given the time or attention it deserves to be explored in any depth. Perhaps because the plot is thinner and more inconsequential, the characters don't have the same impact.

Jacob is meant to be the friend that will always be there for Bella after she's left depressed and alone after Edward leaves but they don't really seem to have the kind of connection they should because she clearly has no interest in him because she still pines for Ed. Even when, she starts hanging out with him, she still indulges in these suicidal tendencies. After initially bonding over mending motorcycles and Jake promising that he'll never leave her, he disappears for as yet unknown reasons leaving her depressed for a second time. They aren't there for each other when they need each other the most.

Jacob has also got own stuff going on with the Quileute tribe, so he ends up being away from Bella for a while which means Bella shuts down "again". Neither of them are there for each other and Bella reliance on having either Ed or Jake in her life don't exactly endear her to the audience because it makes her look dependent and clingy. We don't believe their relationship. It’s this false friendship coupled with this meandering pacing that makes New Moon feel like it never really gets anywhere. 

Director Chris Weitz's direction is limp, stolid and flat; This feels like is was made by a director for hire because scenes are staged with with so little enthusiasm and lacking in any soul or passion that the picture itself seems dissociated.

There’s also a distinct lack of dynamism to what little action there is with vampires and werewolves simply going from one side of the screen to the other without any kind of interesting camera moves. The only time he shows some flare is through the use of a rotating camera while Bella stares out of her bedroom window and ths scenery changes with each passing month, giving us a good showcase of how hollow and depressed she is.
The score by Alexandre Desplat is dreary and not up to Desplat's usual standards, the editing is sluggish making every shot in this movie feels so lethargic. The pacing is sluggish; 20-30 minutes into the film, Ed breaks up with Bella and it isn’t until an hour into the film where the wolves make their first appearance and by this point I had zoned out. 

At least the film looks nice: the cinematography is luminous, bringing to life the wild and exotic landscape of Forks Washington and its surrounding forests and the (albeit brief) scenes in Voltera, Italy, the production design is terrific, the costumes are splendid, the locations are splendid and the special effects are mostly good.

 
The acting isn't much to write home about, Kristen Stewart mostly whines and comes over as uninteresting mainly because the screenplay gives her little to do other than mope or act depressed. Bella is so wrapped up in her love for Edward that it practically defines her character. Once he leaves her, she immediately shuts down and she gives a one-note performance as a result. Edward is practically her whole world, so when he's not there, she has no life. And given that she very rarely takes any action to recover from her "breakup" with Edward, it's very easy to see her as a passive protagonist. In scenes that repeat themselves, Ed breaks up with her, she becomes depressed. The minute Jacob leaves her, she becomes depressed. It becomes tiresome. Lines like “It’s like a huge hole has been punched through my chest” may sound profound and moving but really they just make her look melodramatic. 

Robert Pattinson isn't in the film that much and whenever he is onscreen he's given little to do other than to look pretty and act tortured. Abandoning Bella "for her own safety" also doesn't exactly endear him to us as an audience.

Taylor Lautner makes a valient effort as Jacob. Bella is in such as deep depression when Edward leaves and Jacob is suppose to be the friend that will always be there for her. They share some lighthearted banter between them and they bond over their hobby of fixing motorcyles but Bella doesn't really have any conversation and if he were the guy at the next desk at her high school, she probably wouldn't go out to the movies with him. Jake and Bella spend moments staring moodily at each other clearly acting detached from one another. Bella is clearly too hung up on old Edward to be invested in Jacob.

Michael Sheen, Christopher Heyerdahl, Jamie Campbell Bower, Dakota Fanning, Cameron Bright, Charlie Bewley and Daniel Cudmore show up towards the end of the film playing Aro, Marcus, Caius, Jane, Alec, Demitri and Felix high ranking members of the Volturi.

 

Sheen - whose performance involves more overacting than nauance - is alternately presented as a Venus fly trap, a child like grandfather and a would-be power hungry vamperic leader; the one thing he never gets to be is a credible villain.

Fanning, on the other hand, whose performance consists of more pouting and smug expressions than acting, has few lines apart from "pain" and comes off as more annoying than threatening.

Heyerdahl main job is to sit slumped in a chair and look pained and board.

 

Billy Burke’s Charlie is mostly relegated to the role of the awkward and affectionate dad who lives with in Bella’s house whose disciplinary policy involves offering Bella to return to Jacksonville to live with her mom if it will make her happier and then disappearing so she can jump from cliffs, haunt menacing forests and fly to Italy so the film can poorly evoke the sad final death scene from Romeo and Juliet.

Because of the prolonged absence of Edward and the increased focus on Jacob, the Cullen clan played by Peter Facinelli, Elizbeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene get reduced screen time and aren’t given much chance to shine to the point where I’m not even sure why they’re there.

Rachelle Lefevre, a wonderfully, cheeky presence in the first film is bearly a footnote in this film as vengeful vampire Victoria. She's in this film for what amounts to a non-speaking cameo.

Edi Gathegi’s Laurent only has a single scene with Bella in a field before he abruptly dies offscreen no less.

 

When Ashley Greene’s Alice returns during the second half, she comes off as needlessly cynical and hostile towards Jacob and the wolves and none of the spunk she had in the first film is present.

Anna Kendrick, Michael Welch, Christian Serratos, Justin Chon, Chaske Spencer, Kiowa Gordon, Tyson Houseman, Alex Meraz, Tinsel Korey, Graham Greene & Gil Birmingham round the cast in largely inconsequential supporting roles.

 

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is a unmitigated slog, 1/5.

The Anonymous Critic