The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Kristen and Robert are just as vacant, trying to display the torrid emotions of the characters. The dialogue is just as silly. The emo is just as emo.
“Twilight”- the modern day vampire romance phenomenon by Stephanie Meyer that should be known as “emo-vampiritis”- returns to theatres with “New Moon,” as Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) go through the type of complex emotional issues that every teen girl-vampire boy romance goes through. Think Buffy and Angel, without the snappy Whedon quips between the emotional outbursts.
In “New Moon,” some things are different- like the official start of the Team Edward vs. Team Jacob rivalry as werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) starts to mark his territory with Bella after sparklefaced Cullen (and his equally zombie-faced family) leaves town, I think for her own good, even though he does show up in her visions when she becomes a thrill junkie, thinking that death will bring her closer to him.
But between nightmares and relationship issues with Edward and Jacob, it’s not a great 18th birthday for Bella. This classic movie monster groupie is finding herself conflicted and uncertain about what she should do. About the only thing she does know is that she misses the connections she had.
After “Thirteen” director Catherine Hardwicke dropped the ball on “Twilight,” making it just another teen emo romance/genre film, producers turned to Chris Weitz, who started off directing “American Pie” before creating an unexpectedly compelling fantasy in 2007’s underrated “The Golden Compass.”
Unfortunately, he has an equally dull and cliche-ridden script from Melissa Rosenberg to work with that Hardwicke had on the first film. But, he does have a more interesting story, which is a lot of where the film’s higher grade comes in ahead of “Twilight.” The dilemma Bella has between Edward and Jacob is a compelling one- both have her best intentions at heart, even if it seems like a dull book on tape version of a tragic teen romance. Weitz has a strong visual sense, though, that helps give the film more scope (especially when it comes to some key moments involving Edward’s dealings with the Volturi, which acts as a prominent clan of vampires), as does the compelling score by “Golden Compass” composer Alexandre Desplat, who follows up the equally interesting score by Carter Burwell from the first film.
I get the appeal of the series’ stories on its’ rabid audience (even if it’s being brought to the screen rather lifelessly)- you can see it in how the basic beats unfold onscreen. But so far, no one’s brought it to life in a way that makes me feel what I should be feeling as these movies unfold. The Gothic horror of vampires and werewolves. The tragic love of a woman and an immortal. It’s just not there in these movies. Hopefully, the last two films can make it more clear.
