By Christina Diane Espinoza / Staff Writer
By Christina Diane Espinoza / Staff Writer
Love sucks.
Or at least that’s what Bella (Kristen Stewart) learns after her cold immortal lover, Edward (Robert Pattinson) decides they will be better off apart in “New Moon.”
Edward’s punishment for abandoning his human obsession becomes clear only minutes into the film when Bella is forced to take comfort in the arms of her childhood friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner).
Jacob in turn, does a great job of comforting Bella back with his six pack abs and biceps.
An impressive performance was given by Lautner, who captured the real-life struggles of being a teenage werewolf.
Bella hits rock bottom without Edward and tries to cope without him, but when she discovers a brush with death will reveal visions of Edward, she grows an obsession with danger and pays a hefty price.
Stewart seems to do it naturally, playing a high school senior in love with a 108 year old vampire, while Pattinson compliments her stable performance with his own talent.
Unable to keep Bella out of Jacob’s paws and protect her from danger, Edward ventures to Volterra, Italy to see the Volturi on a suicide mission.
The Volturi are an organized coven of vampires who enforce laws in the vampire world and will not tolerate disobedience.
As head of the Volturi, Aro (Michael Sheen) laid down the vampire law and left Edward and Bella with only one ultimatum.
Sheen was simply perfect as the head of all vampires and with his last blood-sucking role in “Underworld,” has no doubt left his mark in vampire films forever.
Dakota Fanning was given a small role as a mind controlling vampire, Jane, serving on the Volturi and showed great diversity as an artist playing an uncommonly wicked character.
The Volturi were only introduced briefly in order to set anticipation for the next film in the series.
In the end, the film leaves some stones intentionally unturned and shocks audiences with an unexpected romantic twist, unless you read the book.
The audience is left oooing and ahhing during the credits, wondering what the next eclipse will bring.
When comparing “New Moon” to the original independent film “Twilight,” fans may notice an increase in special effects but the fancy film work may have been unnecessary because even the most amazing action sequence seem to be no match for Taylor Lautner’s sculpted upper torso.
Some may think the creators of the film took budget cutbacks with Lautner’s wardrobe in order to add some impressive werewolf transformations, however, the creators of the film were actually portraying facts from the Twilight book series.
The release of “New Moon” truly was a success, making a staggering $140.7 million its opening weekend.
The film remained a hit over the Thanksgiving holiday, bringing in $42.5 million to the box office and beating out Warner Bros. new film “The Blind Side” starring Sandra Bullock.
While it may be true some movie goers want to see a forbidden love story, it may also be true some people don’t care enough about the love story and just want to be entertained.
Toward the middle of the film, audiences may feel a bit restless due to the heavy storyline.
Perhaps this is because the viewers who have not read the Twilight saga are not concerned with details, however, there are those viewers who have read the series and may want to see it all on screen.
It was clear who director Chris Weitz made the film for as there were virtually no complaints from Twilight fans.
One might think Chris Weitz is not a particularly good pick for directing a PG-13 fantasy film which is aimed toward a younger audience. This may be in part to his directorial work with brother Paul Weitz in “American Pie.”
Still, Weitz managed to pull it off and provided all the appropriate elements to satisfy every fans needs.
Following closely to the Twilight book series written by Stephenie Meyer, it seems Weitz realized he did not need to create a successful love story filled with romance, betrayal, vampires and werewolves because thanks to Meyer, it already exists.
Weitz showed great restraint in directing this film and also managed to compliment Meyer’s literature while doing it.
So whether you’ve read the books or not, this film has a fair amount of entertainment to offer for the whole audience and won’t leave you feeling dead.
