The Twilight Saga: New Moon

 

Released: 2009

MPAA rating: PG-13

Running time: 2:10

When the first "Twilight" came out, I had no interest.  It is a vampire romance pretty much aimed at teenage girls, so why would I? It was not until well into it being out on DVD, that I gave it a chance.  I was pleasantly surprised:  It wasn't awful, so, when "New Moon" hit the scene, I knew I would be checking it out.  Waited for the DVD again, but this time I watched with interest.  Like "Twlight", "New Moon" was better than expected and, perhaps, even better than "Twilight" was.  Sure, I could have done with less "shirtless dudes roaming around the woods" scenes, but what are you going to do when you are not the target audience.  In this chapter, our wayward couple Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) find themselves having to separate as Edward's vampire pals/family find it very difficult to control their urge to drink her blood.  While Bella is distraught, she rekindles her friendship with Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who really has designs on being much more than friends.   What Bella does not know is that Jacob is a werewolf, which makes him and Edward mortal enemies, along with being rivals for her love.  Apparently, this Bella is only compatible with monster-types.  Hey, chicks love the bad boy, right??  The wolf effects are top-notch and the werewolf battle scenes looked incredible.  My only somewhat major problem is that Stephanie Meyer (author of the books) plays fast and loose with the rules of vampires and werewolves.  Despite the title, werewolves don't have to wait for the full moon to become wolves, they can pretty much do it at any time..usually when they are angry. Hmmm, maybe they should be green.  Vampires also seem to have no problem roaming around freely during the day.  If you can get past this type of purist nitpicky stuff, the movies are actually fairly entertaining.  I'll probably wait for DVD again, but I will check out the third one.  Team Edward or Team Jacob??  Please, I'm certainly not THAT far into it!  

Grade: C+

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