I should probably mention that I loved this movie before it came out. I loved the last one. I read all the books. And i didn't just stroll to the theater and watch this. I bought tickets over a month in advance. I made shirts. I was in the front row of the pseudo-iMax at the midnight premiere. And I would still consider myself a moderate fan.
Maybe not moderate. Seasonal maybe. That's it. I get obsessive for about a week and a half.
I realize this movie isn't that good. For one thing, though, it's way better than the first one so don't pull the old "well that first one sucked, so it's just not worth it." They're on completely different levels.
Like I said, I loved New Moon. I re-read the book before the premiere and though I knew it wasn't pulitzer prize worthy or anything, I had forgotten how terrible it actually was. It has some excitement. It is drained by a lot of dreamy eyes and "tortured" thoughts. It was LONG. Holy cow, was it long.
The movie cut out soooooo much of the hazy hot mess that is Stephanie Meyer. After getting through about an hour and fifteen minutes and thinking "oh my god, this is only halfway through the book" (i didn't mind, but this my sister rolled her eyes) I was relieved to find that the entire, oh, hundred pages or so of a FLIGHT was eliminated.
Other than that, the book was followed well, if not embellished a little. It's naiive to think, "oh my god, that's not how it happened in the book. This movie sucks." I feel that way about Harry Potter too. How do you expect a scriptwriter to follow a story that isn't his to a tee? Who would want that job? Personally, I commend Melissa Rosenberg for writing a script that was, at the very least attention-holding out of Meyer's snoozefest novel.
You can't go into this movie expecting a masterpiece or any part of realism to translate. That's the point. It's not about sex. It's about love. And it actually is a really unique form of love. Bella is not perfect. She's not pretty or the girl next door or the sexy one. She's moody, not nice. She's studious, but not smart. She's not funny. She's not winning. To the average moviegoer, she's boring and the worst movie character of all time.
But she's exactly how everyone feels at one stage or another in their lives. Try to tell me you've never found yourself completely bored with who you are. Wishing you were somebody more (insert adjective here).
It's not a romantic story about the cute girl finding the perfect guy and living happily ever after. Bella and Edward have a really fucked up relationship. They're not perfect. They're in that "first love" euphoria that has you making this relationship EVERYTHING. Like it's the only thing in the world. But in this situation, he kinda wants to kill her. SPOILER ALERT. She kinda makes out with someone else. It's not supposed to be perfect, but it's not supposed to be real either. It's symbolic of everybody's screwed up love.
On another note, I thought the wolves were awesome. I'm not a CGI expert and I didn't invest much hope into those scenes being cool. But they were exciting. And sexy. Of course.
Jacob isn't just about sex appeal though. He's warm. He's the friend who is in love with Bella. He's what every girl wishes for. Falling in love with their best friend. But this situation is different. Bella wishes Jacob were her brother so he couldn't fall in love with her. She needs him but she's not sure in which way. She could make herself love him, but is that fair? She knows she's being selfish but she doesn't have the strength to make herself stop. I think everyone has times when they do this, just not exactly the way Bella does.
Last thing. Music. AWESOME. Makes me wonder who has the connections to get Bon Iver and Thom Yorke to agree to a song release. I was sooo excited to hear some of my new favorites from this year featured too. Lykke Li, Monsters of Folk. And of course my eighth grade favorites the Killers and Death Cab.
Whatever you want to say, New Moon has some themes that ring true in everyone. You can't go into it judging though and you can't skim the surface of the medium presented.
Oh, and, in response to **food for thought**. That sexist argument is bullshit. What would people say? Nothing. Clearly you've never heard of Britney Spears, Hayden Panettiere, Jodie Foster, or watched Disney Channel. We can go into this more if you want but your argument is as unfounded as you knew it was going to be when you wrote it.
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