New Moon Review

The short version?  New Moon was fantastic.  It blew Twilight out of the water 100 times over. 

The long version.

What I liked:

• Chris stayed so close to the book.  That by far is my favorite adaptation I’ve ever seen.  He took all the best scenes in New Moon and then made any other subplots work around it.  I recognized so much of the dialogue from the book and then there was other stuff that just made it better.
• The movie was so rich.  So nice to have that blue tint gone. 
• The acting was better.  I was a little worried that the stuttering manic Kristen we saw at the end of Twilight would be all we saw of her this movie but I was wrong.  She did a fantastic job.  And all the supporting actors were fantastic as well.  I was also a little worried about the werewolves but I felt like their acting was authentic.  Even Quil and Embry were funny.  Even Emily’s small part was great.  And Harry!  He was funny.
• Charlie was amazing.  He’s so funny and real.
• The makeup and hair was so much better.  I am in love with Victoria’s red curls!
• I loved that the setting was the same.  I guess I thought for some reason that her room might be different or the school or something. I don’t know.  Even with all the changes, a lot of it still felt like Twilight, which was nice. 
• Edward’s sparkling was SO much better.  I loved that one scene when they were taking them to see the Volturi and you got one small glimpse of his shoulder in the sun.  I really felt like he glittered!
• The cliff diving.  So much more authentic than I thought it was going to be.
• Bella learning to ride the bike.  Loved that Jake still had a sense of humor.
• The volturi.  Especially Aro.  He nailed his character.  The fight scene was cringeworthy and even as an addition, was perfect.
• The werewolves.  They were AMAZING.  Really.  So, so, so realistic.  I loved the color of Jac0b.  It was so perfect.  And the way they fought. Everything.   It was just how I imagined and even better.
• Edward smiled!  It was so good to see him and Bella happy.  I know he’s a tortured soul and all but in the book he IS happy. 
• In fact, I loved all of the Edward/Bella interaction.  I felt like we got to see Edward’s devotion to Bella, not just Bella’s.
• JACOB!!!!  Taylor Lautner KILLED this movie.  Yes, he looked um, great (17, 17, 17) but his portrayal of Jac0b was just amazing.  Huge kudos to him.  I loved the scene in the kitchen when they almost kiss.  It nearly tore my heart out when Kristen chose Edward.  Seriously, that tore me up much more than when Edward left Bella.  I knew Edward was lying.  But Bella? She means it.  She’d pick Edward over Jac0b any day and wow, Jac0b loves her so much.  And I love that Bella says she loves him but it’s just not enough and it broke my heart!

What I didn’t like:

• First and foremost, the worst part of the movie was the stupid scene when Aro reads Alice’s mind and sees Edward and Bella running through the forest.  Seriously?  That’s how she knows Bella is a vampire?  Dumb, dumb, dumb.
• Makeup was a *little* sketchy.  At one time I saw Edward’s hand looked a little dusty.  Also the Volturi makeup was a tad weird for me.
• Not a huge fan of the music placement.  Seemed like good songs on their own but not entirely crazy about them in the movie.
• The elevator ride to the Volturi.  The music was really weird here, it was unnecessary screen time and it felt more like a ride down to the Spa.
• I have to admit the kissing between Edward and Bella seemed a little awkward.  Maybe that’s the point.  Maybe Edward can never truly relax around Bella.  But compared to Bella and Jac0b?  Sorry, don’t care for much screentime of them kissing.  Boo.
• Jasper still seemed odd in this movie.
• Alice’s scarf and outfit in Italy was weird.

The things I didn’t like were very, very nitpicky.  I just felt like Chris did an AMAZING job at sticking with the book.  In fact, I would almost say that I liked this as much or even more than New Moon.  Then again, it was my least favorite of the 4 so possibly some things that didn’t translate well on paper went over much better visually.  I don’t know.  All I can say is I’m extremely happy with the movie.  I wish I could write down what I loved about every single scene and all the quotes that were so funny and moving.  Maybe I’ll continue to do some posts about it just to get it out of system.  In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out when to get back to the theater to see it again!