New Moon

The most of you that read my film reviews must know what film this is. Yes, it's the second film of the both adored and hated saga (got it yet?) across the world. Twilight. I'm a strange one. I utterly despise the books...but both films so far have pleasantly surprised me in being quite an enjoyable experience.

The story has a Romeo and Juliet esque, with a slight difference where the Montague's and Capulets are actually Vampires and Werewolves. This does sound promising, and though the books rumble the pits of my stomach with what I ate last night, the film does otherwise, leaving me satisfied, wanting to know more of the story as the films continue. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has fallen in love with Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), Edward is the Vampire, Bella is the human. That's all you need to know, anything else could and probably will cause numerous spoiler alerts in this review, so I shall say no more and review the movie, not story tell.

Let's begin with the good stuff. Stewart has much, much improved her performance from the first film, being much less annoying and really grasping her character in this film, the pain showed after Edward leaves her (No, that's not a spoiler, it showed that in the advert), and though her reaction is rather strange - screaming out loud while you sleep is slightly unnatural to say the least - she gradually loses her pain as she comes closer to Jacob (Taylor Lautner), and then gains it once more when an incident involving Jacob causes her to remember Edward again. Cue un-human screaming once more. But, nevertheless, this is a minor gripe in an otherwise good performance from young Kristen.

Though there is very, very little action, the action it contains is of a good standard coming from a romantic movie, with the Werewolves fighting eachother and Werewolves fighting a Vampire (yes, it only happens once sadly) which is another gripe. I know this is a romance, but come on. There're vampires and werewolves. Action scenes should be a plenty, but sadly it was concentrating on the romance, leaving less than 5 mins of action in the 130 minute film. Poor turn out, Chris Weiz. This is where I prefered the first film, it's action was plentyful, the baseball scene was superb and the climax was one of high tension and good fighting. Though this is another gripe, the film's content is an important crux to the story and possibly to the crux of the entire series its self.

To finish, I pose you all a question. We've all seen this Team Jacob and Team Edward business because, after witnessing the latest installment, they both have impressive labido's. But, the thought I pose to you, is one of wonder. Where the hell is Team Alice?

To sum up, an impressive film that lacked the action the 17 year old male inside me desired, but the story was well told by a group of relatively young actors and very impressive turns from both Michael Sheen (the leader of the Vulturi) and a surprise appearance from Dakota Fanning, playing the creepy Jane, a young vampire with the ability to inflict pain. Chris Weitz has set up for a very interesting 3rd installment, and with (hopefully) more of Sheen and Fanning, it should be a belter.

7/10.