Movies we've seen

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

It’s true that I’m ashamed, but what better place to air my dirty laundry than my semi-public blog that I share with my (now) husband? I say semi-public on account of there being only what? 11 dedicated readers? I’m probably being generous to myself by that estimate.

Here it is people: I am a Twihard.

How could this happen to me?? You know I’ve seen the first movie. And if you’ve spoken to me since this summer, you know that I want to punch Stephanie Meyer in the FACE for writing this schlock which I so voraciously devoured over 5 days in June at the expense of my school work, my actual work and personal relationships all around. But how is it that I agreed to see the 12:01 a.m. screening of The Twilight Saga: New Moon last night with my glorious (now) sister-in-law?

<Stinky: GOOGLE IT!>

Despite my intense desire to, I certainly can’t explain it, so I’ll move on to some kind of review of the actual movie.

Here’s the kicker people: It’s not.that.shabby. In fact, it is better in every way than the first movie, except for possibly in the score. I have serious love for Carter Burwell’s score on Twilight because it has the right blend of sappy sweet and creepy mystery. You didn’t really hear it, because it was the right backdrop to the visual and you only notice it when you stop to wonder what’s tugging on your emotion-strings.

Alexander Desplat, who did the New Moon score, has traditionally done scores for straight romance and fantasy movies. There’s obviously no denying that the Twilight saga is, at its core, a love story, but when you’re talking about creating a spooky, depressive Pac-NW mood, you need a lot more than warm strings and triumphant build-ups.

Regarding the performances, I have this to say: Kristen Stewart only a-flusteredly stuttered twice or three times in the whole movie! It was like they made her learn her lines. Brava, my dear! I almost bought it. As for the boys… well, Taylor Lautner shocked me. Granted, Jacob Black is supposed to be the friendly, genial character that we all want to max and chillax with, but Lautner hits the nail on the head. He’s found the exact balance the character needs between supportive, fun buddy and guy-who-has-more-feelings-for-you-than-you-have-for-him-and-it’s-a-little-embarrassing.

R-Patz? I mean, meh. For one, he’s barely in it. For two, they really over did the makeups, and even though it’s not his fault, I was so distracted by his femme-y face paint to pay that much attention to the big picture. In the books, I’m all about Team Edward; in New Moon the movie, Lautner comes out on top. Team Jacob, jokers! Does this make me skeezy?

Overall, the story was more coherent, the scenery and camera work were more impressive, and I just liked it. Perhaps the most welcome change from the original film was the introduction of humor. The movie was funny. And it was funny on purpose.

I dig what Chris Weitz did with this movie. He made it more lighthearted and fun, even though it has some pretty serious subject matter (death, suicide, violence). And parts of it looked like a (decent) music video. The soundtrack is good too, so it all gels in a nice way.

My only qualm - again, besides the score - was the way they CGI’d the reckless Edward sightings. I would have preferred a standard Pattinson standing there to the ethereal cloudy version, but I guess I can’t have everything.

I’m looking forward to Eclipse whenever that’s happening, and I won’t be ashamed! It was by far the best book (that is, the least ridiculous), and I’m very interested to see what David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) is going to do with it. A) He pulls performances out of people, including the never-interesting Josh Hartnett and B) He’s made a scary vampire movie - let’s see what he can do with this franchise.

TEAM JACOB!

e/b(d) out.