The Freak's Rating: B- : Before parents of those teenagers who waited in line for a midnight showing of New Moon begin to question their daughter's excitement, I'd encourage them to consider the alternatives out there. Do so and you may start to realize that the Twilight saga is one you need not worry too much about. A teenage girl is shown not being promiscuous, rather deeply in love with a vampire. We aren't shown iPod/Blackberry addicted teens, but rather ones who have more important things on their plate than keeping up with the latest technology. Slipping in realism by not showcasing that accuracy of today's youth, the Twilight films rarely give you a moment to pontificate and push you into a world where you could care less about realism and instantly must suspend disbelief. I mean, come on, we're talking about vampires and werewolves!
The same cast returns and they have all improved upon their previous turns as leads in the franchise. Kristen Stewart is reliably cute as Bella, embodying all the simplicity the novels want you to and still holding the attraction of the males watching her on screen. Robert Pattinson has improved dramatically and though his lines still come off cold and unfeeling even when they are supposed to be "with all his heart", he shows room for further improvement that does make me optimistic about the third film. Essentially new to this film is the character of Jacob. Though present in Twilight, Jacob takes center stage throughout a good chunk of the film here and suffers some of the same faults as Pattinson did in the previous film. With the exception of Stewart, the leads still need an acting class or two to truly pull this franchise into "must see" status.
Writing is horrific in moments and without knowledge of how much of the script is pulled verbatum from the novel, if the line "I guess the wolf is out of the bag" was a direct lift, it is direct evidence that the writing ability of Stephenie Meyer is infantile. There is some dialogue in this film that is so poorly written I had to giggle at the stars attempting to spit it out at times.
The film still succeeds on a few levels, enough to recommend it. There is more suspense mingled in here than the first film, which is a drastic improvement. Supporting roles also continue to be strong, such as Bella's father Charlie and the entire Cullen family sans Edward. Most notably though, the magic of having vampires and werewolves be your teenage drama is ever present and nicely defined, enough so to keep us interested in what will happen next.
At the rate we're going, I should truly love the fourth film in this franchise. Having given Twilight a C+, New Moon dips into the recommendation area, but just barely gets its feet wet. Those who love the franchise will see it regardless. For those who haven't read the books or seen the first, I'd stay away as it retreads many of the things that kept you away from it in the first place. With a cliffhanger like New Moon had though, I have to say I'm excited to see what happens next!
