New Moon....HOTT or NOT??

Opening day for New Moon brought in a staggering $72.7 million, beating previous record holder, The Dark Knight. However, one is left to wonder what is bringing in the fans, Stephanie Meyer’s story or the actors chosen to play the parts…

New Moon is the second in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series and continues the tangled romance between Bella Swan and vampire, Edward Cullen. While the first book explores the relationship between mortal and vampire, the second introduces an entirely new breed…werewolf. As Edward is missing for the majority of this movie, Bella is left to pass her time with Jacob Black (aka Taylor Lautner). As the two grow close, Bella is left confused and hurt when Cullen and Black butt heads.

Avid fans of the series wanted to see the movie because they love the book, no doubt. However, it never hurts to have a buff heart throb running around half naked right?! Lautner certainly did his time for the movie, working out daily, almost non-stop, he achieved a body that turns heads if nothing else. It can even be argued that the popularity and hype surrounding Lautner in the movie surpassed the excitement fans harbored for Edward (Robert Pattinson) one year ago when Twilight came out. Although Lautner’s over the top muscle and lack of clothing added significantly to the movie, it may have only compensated for the lack of sufficient plot development.

For anyone who has read the books, the movie followed the plot line very well, with very few alterations, and vivid portrayals of each scene. However, for anyone who has not read the book, read it before seeing the movie, or you will be completely confused. New Moon had a painful lack of dialogue. In many scenes where details of the plot that would have clarified events in the movie could have been discussed, the characters simply breathed or looked at each other instead. You know what I am talking about. Bella approaches Edward, says his name, touches his chest, looks down, breathes audibly. Even an avid Twilight fan can agree with me, there was entirely too much breathing going on in the movie. The soundtrack also took over many scenes that again could have been used for plot development, such as when Jacob is building the motorcycles.

Overall, the movie was good. It was a remarkably huge improvement on the first one, which was so awkward in some parts that the audience could not help but laugh. This one is a lot less awkward, although there are times when Edward pops up looking like a ghost (it is supposed to be in Bella’s mind but ends up making otherwise emotional scenes quite comical). Given a larger budget they were able to do an excellent job with the special effects and the filming was quite artistic in some places. The vampires and werewolves were portrayed very convincingly and Bella had more color to her face, while Edward looked sickly throughout most of it. Again, the werewolves running around shirtless, tan, and chiseled certainly was an added bonus.

Given the hype, New Moon was a success, an improvement on last year’s film, and the key to Taylor Lautner’s immortality. (Not many girls will forget that sight for a while.) So girls who have read the book, you will enjoy it. It is an accurate portrayal, very well done. Girls who have not read the book, go for the eye candy. And boys who have been suckered into going with your girlfriends, buy some popcorn, sit back and relax. It isn’t half bad.