The Twilight Saga: New Moon *** (2009, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen, Anna Kendrick) – Classic Movie Review 587

New Moon, the 2009 Part Two in The Twilight Saga, focuses entirely on Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan, who is heartbroken when her vampire lover, Edward Cullen, leaves just after her 18th birthday. She finds solace with her childhood friend Jacob – even when he turns out to be a werewolf!

The film is a bit lop-sided with poor Robert Pattinson mostly out of the picture for nearly an hour. But teenage girls can find plenty of comfort in Taylor Lautner’s buff Jacob Black, who obligingly takes his shirt off for most of the time and also seems to be shaping up as a decent actor.

More of an event – or a screamathon – than a movie, New Moon is a step down from Twilight (2008) in terms of story-telling, action and excitement. With all the stress on doomy romance, there is not much room for manly action, though the CGI werewolves and vampires have a bit of a rumble and Pattinson gets thrown around a bit by his kind. Though too many characters are sidelined, with the whole Cullen family off screen far too long, newcomers Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen make their mark as hissable members of the vampire council.

If the screaming of teenage girls drowns out the dialogue when you see it, that would be good, since it varies between cheesy and drossy. Nevertheless, with the oestrogen going through the roof at all the testosterone on screen, New Moon is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser for girls of eight to 18, plus their mums.

There is a new director in Chris Weitz, but Melissa Rosenberg again writes the screenplay, adapting Stephenie Meyer’s novel.

Also in the cast are Anna Kendrick as Jessica, Michael Welch as Mike, Justin Chon as Eric, Christian Serratos as Angela, Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen, Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale, Russell Roberts as Mr Berty, Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius, Billy Burke as Charlie Swan, Christina Jastrzembska as Gran, Christopher Heyerdahl as Marcus, Peter Facinelli as Dr Carlisle Cullen and Daniel Cudmore (Colossus in X-Men) as Felix.

New Moon is followed by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in 2010, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012).

The Vatican condemned the film as ‘nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such is something that should be of concern.’ However, the film still grossed £1,800,000 at the box office on the opening day in Italy.

Around the tenth anniversary of the US release of Twilight in November 2018, Anna Kendrick hilariously tweeted: ‘Holy shit. I just remembered I was in Twilight.’

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