RATING: 1/5
In TWILIGHT (2008), Catherine Hardwicke's revisionist take of a love story between human and vampire is actually credible for its teen-angst undertones. Although the movie is weighed down by its overall corny execution, TWILIGHT remains decent enough. But not so for this much-anticipated follow-up, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, in which director Chris Weitz replaced Hardwicke (who had to back out due to scheduling conflicts), is shockingly dull in almost every department.
Continues from where TWILIGHT has left off, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is now turning 18-year-old and she begins to wonder whether her undying love with the eternally youthful vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson) will last or not. Just as Bella is suffering from depression, she learns that Edward and his family are leaving Forks. What's even more shocking is that Edward may not be returning at all. Feeling devastated, Bella is then subsequently becomes closer with her best friend, Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who is now all bulked-up and clean shaven than his previous appearance. That's not all, she also learns that Jacob is actually a werewolf who have long history against the vampires, particularly the one with the Cullens.
Apart from Alexandre Desplat's magnificent score and some beautiful scenery location, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is pretty much a train wreck. Spastic dialogues are never so corny and awfully pathetic the way the actors have to say -- the so-called love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob are painfully stilted and laughable it's actually hard to take them seriously.
The acting is pretty much more of the same from the first movie, while Twi-hard fans can easily swoon over Taylor Lautner's well-toned, muscular body who often appears in the scene shirtless.
In the meantime, Chris Weitz's direction is more dutiful than inspiring. Of course there are times Weitz does get ambitious -- notably on the seamless 360-degree camerawork spinning around Bella's sitting on the chair while spring, summer and winter goes by outside her bedroom window.
Unfortunately that's just about it. At 130 minutes, the movie is painfully slow-moving, overlong and lifeless, filled with too much fillers and longings it's almost like eternity. Vampire action are little less than the first one, while the special effects are laughably bad -- the werewolf transformation is too computer-generated and weightless that makes the UNDERWORLD trilogy seems like a few notches above by comparison. The ending is especially anticlimactic, even it suppose to be meant for cliffhanger: "Marry me, Bella"... God help us all.