New Moon

*WARNING* Read at your own risk if you haven't seen the movie yet (or read the book).

New Moon was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be--meaning, the parts I thought would still annoy me did, and the parts that I thought would be so much better were.

The movie was already better than its predecessor as soon as it began, with the absence of the bluish, grainy, indie filming style that Catherine Hardwicke used for Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I like those types of movies too, but I was super excited to see the more action-packed, special effect-enhanced New Moon in clean, vibrant colors, filmed the traditional way.

This is what new director Chris Weitz brought to the saga. And I loved it. I'm excited he stayed on for Eclipse too (which is also done filming, FYI). But despite the aesthetic changes to the film,
enough stayed the same so that we still had our beloved Twilight.

Like, the actors. Everyone portrayed their character exactly the same. Unfortunately this held true for Kristen Stewart. I'm sorry, but for me, personally, watching her act is the equivalent of watching cousins go out on a date--horribly awkward. Instead of crying, she breathes heavily. When she's overcome with...feelings about Edward, she breathes heavily. When she's in physical pain, she breathes heavily and screams (a scream that makes me want to cut my ears off). The interesting thing is, this isn't her acting. This is her. (Have you seen an interview with her? I've never seen someone look so uncomfortable just being...alive.) My favorite scene with her, that I actually liked her, was when she was yelling at Jacob in the rain about his hair and tattoo. Because she was yelling. And showing emotion. And looking normal. It was great.

Speaking of Jacob (cue screaming girls) I won't spend time on the obvious, i.e. smoking hot body. I will say that it made me uncomfortable when I realized I was in a room full of primarily married women over 30 or teenage girls under 18 and knew we were all thinking the same things every time they showed Jacob with his shirt off. Moving on.

What I will say about Jacob, Movie Jacob, that is, is that I. LOVE. HIM. Let it be known that I am officially and will forever be TEAM EDWARD. In my opinion, if you are basing it solely on the books, it's a no-brainer. Edward all the way. But in New Moon, I would be lying if I said I didn't think Bella was a little bit deranged for choosing a hairy-chested-sickly-looking-scrawny-in-comparison-to-the-hot-buff-werewolf vampire over, well, Jacob. I think there was actually steam coming off the screen every time it showed him. (If you don't believe me, you should have heard the teenage girls behind me. Yikes.) Taylor Lautner is an AMAZING Jacob, and single-handedly made me consider Team Switzerland. He was awesome. Funny, light-hearted, heart-breaking, emotional, and of course, the aforementioned HOT. So, yay Taylor.

But I still love me some Edward, especially Edward played by Robert Pattinson. I still think he is the perfect Edward, I still think he is gorgeous, I still swoon every time he does one of his intense, emotionally-charged scenes, the parts of the books that made me fall in love with him. (It's okay--my husband knows this. Fortunately for me he's not threatened by fictional characters.) He is still the meat of this franchise and the reason I love it. I would choose you over Jacob, Edward, I would!

However, I'm interested to learn why he looked like the true corpse that he is for most of the movie. Albeit very effective, the sickly pallor he took on after leaving Bella actually made me feel sick just looking at him (or was that my migraine? Hard to tell.) But I'm wondering if anyone informed the makeup artists that Edward is a vampire. As in, dead. As in, no blood. As in, he wouldn't look any different, no matter how broken his dormant heart is. I appreciate that he was so unable to live without her that he looked physically ill, but, come on, people, it's just not vampirely correct. Besides, he looked like death on a stick. I never dreamed I'd be wishing for the lipstick to be back.

The supporting characters were still fab. Chief Comic Relief as I fondly refer to him (aka Charlie, aka Bella's dad, aka Billy Burke) is back, witty as always. Jessica Stanley (Anna Kendrick) is even funnier this time around, if possible. My biggest laughs came from her, as well as Eric (Justin Chon) and Mike (Michael Welch). Hilarious. The Cullen clan weren't really around long enough to leave much of an impression on me, except for Jasper, who...what the heck?! It's seriously as if the director didn't think he was weird enough in the first movie, so thought that changing his wig to a mop would help cure that. Congratulations, Chris Weitz, it was a success. And did I detect a southern drawl at one point? Funny. I don't remember Jasper having a southern drawl in Twilight. (Yes, I realize his character is from the south but that still doesn't explain the sudden transformation between the two movies.)

Of course I wouldn't be a true Twilight fan if I didn't hate every time the movie strayed from the books. Like, Bella hopping on the motorcycle with the scary guy? And Edward immediately telling Bella he still loved her after she saves him? And Bella emailing Alice all the time? And Jane (Dakota Fanning) having to say "pain" to use her power? I know that is minor but for some reason it bugged me because it was completely unnecessary. And what is the deal with Edward's car?! First it's a hatchback, now it's a BLACK hatchback?! Have these people no respect for the most crucial details of the books? Apparently not.

But despite this, I loved it. Every second of it. I can't wait to see it again. There were definitely things I thought they could have adapted better, but all in all I thought it was better than Twilight and totally worth the astronomical chore of getting 312 people to go with me so I could see it 6 hours earlier. If you haven't seen it yet...why not?! I'll totally go with you.

Movie Queen's Rating: PG

*Check my other blog later today for my review of my night.