As you may know, my husband works for Blockbuster and we enjoy his one and only perk - free DVD rentals. Especially the new releases, which staff are encouraged to watch one week before they go on sale, so they can inform customers about the films.
My husband is a film buff extraordinaire. He don't need no encouragement, girlfriend. He watches everything. This weekend he watched Astroboy and The Fourth Kind, among other things.
Yesterday I piled onto the couch with The Pack - my husband, the Alpha Male; yours truly, the Alpha Female and our dog Xena - and settled in to watch the second instalment of The Twilight Saga, New Moon.
Both Brad and I enjoyed it, which we can't say about the first one. It's rare for an origin story to be the weakest of a film series, but that's definitely the case with The Twilight Saga. The change in directors most assuredly helped. Chris Weitz made character-driven About a Boy as well as the suitably sinister Golden Compass, and his handling of the love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob in New Moon brings the strengths from both previous films to the fore in this one.
What I enjoyed most was the exploration of a particularly female lament throughout history. Bella has two love interests who insist 'It's not you, it's me', breaking their previous promises never to hurt her, by wounding her deeply. The men in her life make decisions on her behalf despite her protests about how she actually feels.
Given the particular problems these two men in the love triangle are dealing with, their desire to protect her from themselves makes sense and gives the love triangle more pathos. I do so love romantic triangles where each participant is attractive to the audience, where there is no clear bad choice.
What I was truly looking forward to, however, was the supporting role of Aro, played by Michael Sheen. I couldn't help but laugh when I read this review of New Moon from Rolling Stone:
"Late in the film, a real actor, Michael Sheen shows up as the mind-reading Aro, of the Italian Volturi vampires, and sparks things up. You can almost hear the young cast thinking, 'Is that acting? It looks hard.' So Sheen is quickly ushered out, and New Moon begins swanning toward certain box-office glory." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
LOL! Burn.
Here's the trailer that showed more Volturi and less beefcake. Enjoy.
Ms Snarky Pants says Loved that movie. Saw it at midnight the night it came out with my best friend. I thought it was actually better than the book.
Akelamalu says I loved the first in the Twilight series but I haven't seen New Moon yet - I really must!
Jennifer Leeland says I just can't bring myself to participate in the Twilight madness. I'm not a big Vamp fan so no surprise really.
Loved that movie. Saw it at midnight the night it came out with my best friend. I thought it was actually better than the book. The book dwelt so much on the depression and angst which is understandable but it got old. The movie was focused on the action of the story.
ReplyDeleteI loved the first in the Twilight series but I haven't seen New Moon yet - I really must!
ReplyDeleteDo you get 'True Blood' over there Julia? MWM and I are hooked on it - the second series has just started here.
I just can't bring myself to participate in the Twilight madness. I couldn't do it with Harry Potter either.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big Vamp fan so no surprise really.
I will say that your endorsement will make me consider renting it.
I could barely sit through the first movie *cringe* (loved all the books, btw) so you've given me hope for the second.
ReplyDeleteWe read the series and enjoyed it. It's quite light and we didn't take it very seriously, which I think added to our enjoyment. We're not really in a hurry to see the movies though.
ReplyDeleteI found Twilight positively painful. I winced through a lot of it, but I'm willing to give New Moon a go.
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