"Film Review: New Moon" by Melissa

Movie Review: New Moon:


Let’s just cut to the quick, shall we? Straight to bare bones of the situation? New Moon is a lifeless film.

For those who have been buried under a rock (perhaps a gravestone) for the past year or so, New Moon is the second filmic instalment in Stephanie Meyer’s hugely successful Twilight book series.

New Moon picks up where its predecessor left off: following the tragic, ‘true love’ romance between Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Bella is just your typical 17 year old, and Edward will be 17 forever. In the film, Edward realises that dating an un-dead dude might not be the best thing for Bella’s future, and so he dumps her. She proceeds to sink into a deep depression for a number of months, only to be roused to life, by her best-friend Jacob Black, who happens to be unrequitedly in love with her. Oh, and he’s also a werewolf. Throw in a last minute plot line where Bella has to save Edward’s life, and you’ve got yourself a typical love-triangle romantic comedy (or tragedy).

While Catherine Hardwick brought the last film to the big screen, this time Chris Weitz – of The Golden Compass fame, also a book adaptation – mans the helm. Though, it must be said, he steers without as sure a hand as one might hope, for a production of this size. Although New Moon was filmed in a rush, so that it could be released this year, when lines fall so flat that members of the audience laugh, and grammatically incorrect slip-ups are common, it seems that maybe re-shooting a few sequences would not have gone awry.

Still shocking – as in the first film – is the script, written by Melissa Rosenberg. Rosenberg wrote the script for the first Twilight film, and Step Up. I don’t even want to go into it. Oh, yeah, and none of the actors can act. Well, some of them can. Taylor Lautner has a great sense of timing, and quite an intense sexual gaze – and by that I mean, SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD gaze. He is too young to be getting his shirt off that frequently. Unfortunately, he can’t quite handle some of the more intense dramatic scenes. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are both as uncharismatic as ever – odd, considering I quite like them both in other roles. They twitch and mumble their way through every scene, and despite the fact that they are both very attractive people in the real world, in this retarded-vampire-world they both look as if they are constipated and/or heroin addicts at all times. I’m beginning to think that they themselves hate the Twilight series, and by acting badly are hoping that the franchise will be killed off.

The art direction is also laughable. I am, of course, referring to ghostly-apparition-Edward, who appears sporadically throughout the film to warm Bella off doing anything ‘reckless’. Partially, I was annoyed that her un-dead boyfriend was still trying to control her every action, from the other side of the world. But more importantly, he just looked really, really funny. An intense floating head that disappeared into smoke. I don’t know who decided having ghost-Edward appear to Bella would be better than having Bella hearing voices (as she did in the novel), but it was not better. It was worse. Also, speaking of style, Edward’s “liquid topaz” eyes always seemed like they were looking in two different directions. Though whether this was the fault of contact lenses, or just how Pattinson looks, is not clear.

There are scenes in the film that also just don’t make any sense (presumably they also didn’t make any sense in the novel). Why, for the love of vampire mythology, does Edward lead Bella deep into the woods, before breaking up with her? Just to freak her out? Why, when Bella is carried out of the forest by a half-naked man (werewolf character Sam Uley), after she has disappeared for an entire evening, does nobody question this man and suspect nefarious activities? He could have abused her in the dark woods, for goodness sake! Why does Edward melodramatically crush a phone with one hand when he thinks Bella is dead (laaame)? Why, oh why, does Bella fill… her… emails to Alice… with so many stupid… ellipses…?

Although it’s hardly surprising, New Moon is just as essentially anti-feminist as its predecessor. A vehicle for Meyer’s Mormon beliefs, abstinence is still sexy, and Bella’s sole personality traits still consist of her loving Edward unconditionally and cooking dinner for her father. In New Moon, it is perfectly acceptable that when her boyfriend breaks up with her, Bella gives up on life. And in fact, is only able to carry on with her painful existence when another male enters her life, in the shape of best-friend Jacob. She’s such an independent woman.

Casual sexism is still rife. For example, neither Jacob nor Edward allows Bella to drive her own car. Because, haven’t you heard, women are just bad at driving. It’s biological. Another example can be seen when Jacob and Bella are fixing up two motorcycles. Bella doesn’t attempt to lift the bikes, she never attempts to help fix them, and in one scene where she points out something on the engine, Jacob swats her hand away, with a roll of the eyes. The audience laughs. Bella’s role through this bonding period is to call for pizza (and provide food for her man). Bella also objectifies herself, saying that after the trauma of her and Edward’s teen break-up, she’s “never going to run right.” Like she’s a car. Like she’s a possession, and nobody could ever want a possession that wasn’t perfect.

In general, the film also still supports that ‘undying teenage love of the un-dead’ thing. Quote from Edward: “You’re my only reason for being alive, if that’s what I am.” Oh my god, get a hobby. Learn how to knit. This sentiment is perhaps acceptable from Edward – he’s been alive for 100 odd years, and is probably getting a little bored – but Bella feels this way, too. She’s a young pretty girl, with her entire life ahead of her! She should be playing the field, and having girly sleepovers with her friends, and swooning over hot boys in films (like girls of this generation are with Edward and Jacob). Instead, New Moon encourages the kind of obsessive love that can be incredibly damaging for a person. When pasting photos of Edward and herself into a scrapbook, Bella folds a photo over, and cuts herself out of it. She then sticks the photo – now of just Edward – into her scrapbook. Please, stop with the self-hatred, Bella! I mean, you’re character is annoying, but you seem like a nice girl. And later in the film, Bella is literally willing to die for her ex-boyfriend.

When Edward breaks up with Bella, she stops living. She doesn’t sit with her friends at lunch anymore, she rarely leaves the house, she says things like “The pain is the only reminder that he was real…” Dangerously, the film essentially encourages self-harm as a way of winning your boyfriend back. She starts placing herself in really dangerous situations (such as riding on a motorcycle with a drunk middle-aged man she doesn’t know, whose crowd of friends attempted to assault her in the previous film) so that she can see apparition-Edward. Towards the end of the film, she jumps off a cliff, telling ghost-Edward “This is the only way I can be with you.” While she later claims that she wasn’t trying to commit suicide – and was cliff-jumping recreationally – her actions and words suggest otherwise.

Although the whole ‘rabidly sexist and anti-feminist’ thing was apparent in the first film/book in the series, New Moon introduces a whole new range of exciting flaws, through the introduction of werewolves. For one thing, it totally normalises cults. The initiation rites, the wariness of outsiders, the fact that the werewolves are bound to follow the word of their leader – it all smacks of Scientology. (Okay, that’s not fair. Werewolves are clearly cooler than Scientologists.) But while this is all obviously creepy, in the film it’s fun. Oh, look, they have a house out in the woods, and a woman to bake them muffins whenever they feel like it! And they can read each other’s thoughts! And they’re all BFFs! Yay, go cults!

Not to mention the fact that the werewolves seem to sympathise with men who use violence against woman (Australia says ‘no’). It is revealed that in the past, werewolf leader Sam Uley got angry at his fiancé, Emily, and transformed into a werewolf. But she was standing too close – because it’s her fault – and was horribly scarred for life. Metaphor, much. The message of the film is essentially, “Poor Sam has to live with what he’s done forever. Poor, poor werewolf. Oh, and his fiancé is just such a lovely lady, because she’s still with him even after he brutally attacked her. That’s what a woman should be like.” Um… what? What about poor, poor Emily? What about the fact that men should be able to control themselves and not physically hurt others? Just as woman should, just as any member of modern society should.

And just so I can’t be accused of being a vampire-ist, there are a few redeeming features of this film. The cinematography is excellent, utilising the lush forested landscapes with grand aerial shots. I know nothing about what makes an action sequence technically adept, but I thought the few fight scenes in New Moon were interesting to watch and nicely stylised, if a little slow-motion heavy. And I will concede that the majority of the cast are blessed in the looks department, if not with the acting bone. But beautiful boys does not a good film make.

New Moon will satisfy the blood lust of hardcore Twilight fans. But for the rest of us, you may leave the cinema feeling a little dead inside.