Film Review: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON

I’m probably going to get a lot of hate mail for this review but I’m doing it anyways. I love werewolf films and despite the fact that I hated the werewolves in this film, I don’t think that THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON was as bad as everyone wants it to be (and there are a lot of people that want it to be). When I did my review of the first film TWILIGHT I didn’t think that the film was all that bad and its sequel which is vastly more entertaining isn’t that bad either.

After reading and hearing many opinions on the new film I’m still left with the same opinion I had on the first film – This is not a film for horror fans. I can’t say this enough. The TWILIGHT novels which were geared heavily towards the female audience has been adapted to films heavily geared towards the female audience; therefore all you horror fans looking for blood and guts and action need to check yourselves at the door. It’s not like the advertisements for the film didn’t warn you (nor the fact that the novels are love stories for the young and female crowd). The movies, which have become more like date movies, are the equivalent of two people going out and watching SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE or THE WEDDING DATE, just with vampires and werewolves. This is no secret.

Whereas the first film was about two people falling in love, NEW MOON is about the break up and how it affects one of the two in the couple who refuses to allow herself to let go and heal. Despite everything about the “sparkly” vampires and the so-called “juvenile” dialogue the film works because it never forgets who its target audience is which are people who experience a breakup and most learn how to deal with it however which way they can. Bella (Kristen Stewart) deals with the breakup of her true love Edward (Robert Pattinson) in a very destructive manner and it is Jacob (Taylor Lautner) who is there to pick up the pieces and try to help Bella cope. This then leads into the love triangle between the three and the conflict between humans and werewolves and vampires (which is all just great food coloring to what otherwise is just a typical love story).

I can find all types of faults with the film (the giant werewolves for one) but these faults do not diminish the impact of what the story, essentially, is trying to say which is breaking up with the one you love is hell and we (as humans, werewolves or vampires) do a lot of stupid things in order to cope. I could go out there and watch WHEN IN ROME, IT’S COMPLICATED, LEAP YEAR, DEAR JOHN, or COUPLES RETREAT, among many others, but why should I when I can get the same thing here only with vampires and werewolves?