It seems as if we are being inundated with tons of footage of the “New Moon” movie, yet we can’t seem to get enough. I know that November 20th (actually midnight on the 19th) can’t get here soon enough for me. OBS Staffer Chris thought that it would be fun to examine the trailers and point out the differences between the film teasers from the book and I agreed!

We’ve heard or read in countless interviews where Director Chris Weitz reassured fans that this movie sticks to the book. Many Twilight Saga fans have criticized the first movie for not being enough like the book – particularly with dialogue (i.e., the infamous “spider monkey” line being completely out of character for Edward, although Robert Pattinson is completely adorable when he says it). In looking at these teasers, we can clearly see that there are several deviations from events as they were written in the book. Let’s break down what we know so far and take a closer look at some of these scenes.

**Warning: The content below contains book and movie spoilers!**

First trailer – Teaser from MTV Movie Awards
Bella isn’t thrown into the glass plates and Edward throws Jasper onto the piano, smashing it, on her birthday. Instead, she goes flying into a console table and her arm is cut up by a broken vase. In the book, Jasper slams into Edward and Jasper tries to shove past Edward, snapping his teeth. I cannot wait to see this scene in its entirety – especially when Emmett and Carlisle hold him back. I think that the deviation speaks volumes about the extent to which Edward will go to protect Bella. He destroyed his beloved piano to save her life. The fact that she didn’t go flying back into the cake table and get cut up with the plates and crystal is irrelevant.
Verdict: It doesn’t change the story in any way. She got the paper cut, Edward threw her out of the way, she was injured, and Jasper went berserk.

Second trailer – “Meet Jacob Black”
Bella’s hallucinations are visual and not auditory. We actually see ghostly images of Edward when Bella is being reckless. At first, I wondered, “WTH?” because the only time she saw his face in the book was when she was drowning and thought that she was dying. Then it made sense to me as I was re-reading the book. Every time Bella heard Edward’s voice, I saw his face even if she didn’t. Looking at it from a filmmaker’s perspective, the audience needs to see Edward (not to mention a little more Rob Pattinson) when Bella hallucinates.
Verdict: A simple voice-over just wouldn’t cut it for the big screen and I love the visual hallucinations.

Bella confronts the pack and asks them what they did to Jacob. This never actually happened in the book. She confronted Jacob after he had ignored her and then she confronted him again when she figured out what he had become. In the book when she first sees Jacob with the pack, Bella states that [she] wanted to be fierce and deadly, someone no one would dare mess with. Someone who would scare Sam Uley silly. [She] wanted to be a vampire.
Verdict: Acceptable deviation – Given her level of rage at this point in the book, I’m surprised that she didn’t confront them in the book.

Jacob shows up in Bella’s room through an open window. Bella’s window was closed and she was already asleep when Jacob showed up at her window. The sound of the tree branches scraping the window woke her up. She already knew that Victoria was hunting her and she wouldn’t have left the window open. It does look cool when Jacob launches into her room, but it just doesn’t sit right with me.
Verdict: Bella made a big deal about thinking it was Victoria about to finally get her in that moment. That window should have been closed and Bella should have had the crap scared out of her.

Third Trailer – First Theatrical Trailer
Edward explains who the Volturi are at the Cullen house. In the book, Edward told Bella about the Volturi at her house when they were watching “Romeo and Juliet”. This scene is a combination of events from “Twilight” and “New Moon” and looks like it will have some of Carlisle’s story intertwined with it. I’m glad that they are doing this because I really missed the Carlisle’s story scene in “Twilight”.
Verdict: It doesn’t matter where Edward tells her about them as long as it’s included.

Alice and Bella discuss what could happen to them in Italy in Bella’s truck as they pull up in front of her house. In the book, this conversation takes place as they frantically make plans to go to Italy to save Edward. Not knowing the full context of the scene, it’s hard for me to really make a sound judgment at this point in the game. I’d like to see a little more urgency and frantic behavior, though.
Verdict: Undecided at this time – ask me again on November 20th

Edward’s Volvo is black. Seriously…WTH? I could understand the color change if the color of Edward’s car had never been noted before in any of the books, but Bella repeatedly describes a silver Volvo. The car is practically another character in the Saga. I happen to know that silver is not an uncommon color option for Volvo because I see at least 10 of them every day when I’m out running errands around town. This I don’t understand. I’m fine with their changing the model from the C30 used in “Twilight” to the XC60 because I thought that the C30 was a little too girly for him and out of character. He drove his siblings to school every day and we were supposed to believe that all five of them were supposed to fit in that little bitty thing? Emmett’s left leg wouldn’t have fit in that car! However, I digress.
Verdict: Seriously…black?

We see Laurent start to stand his ground when the wolves approach, taunting them, and smacking one of them away with a menacing grin. In the book, he began backing away as soon as he saw them. Bella states that Laurent was afraid. His eyes were wide with horror, just like [hers]. I would have liked to see him run like the weasel that he was, but the taunting and fighting makes for a better movie. Besides, the wolves catch him and turn him into ashes anyway.
Verdict: It doesn’t change the outcome of the story in any way, so I’m cool with it.

Bella gets on a motorcycle with some random guy in Port Angeles. This one is a reach for me because she only went into the street and approached the guys outside of the bar on that night. That triggered the first hallucination, but she didn’t know what had caused it. After nearly being gang-raped almost a year earlier, I really find it hard to believe that Bella would have gotten on the motorcycle. However, not knowing the context of the scene and what led to her getting on the bike, I can’t really make a sound verdict as of yet.
Verdict: Very out of character for Bella and quite possibly unacceptable for this Twi-Hard.

Bella takes a swing at a member of the pack and he phases when she confronts them. In as subsequent clip from the movie (the iTunes podcast clip), we learn that it’s Paul that gets slapped after he laughs at her confrontation. He then phases and stalks Bella while Sam tells Bella to get back and Jared looks on enjoying the whole scene way too much. Jacob comes running out of his house, phases in mid-air and comes to Bella’s rescue. We saw the confrontation in the second trailer (“Meet Jacob Black”) and we know that Bella didn’t hit anyone other than Jacob in any of the books. The Jacob vs. Paul showdown did happen in the book, but under different circumstances. Just from what I’ve seen from the trailer and the iTunes clip, I am completely fine with this change.
Verdict: As I stated earlier about the confrontation, given her level of rage at this point in the book, I’m surprised that she didn’t confront them in the book. Seeing Paul phase and stalk Bella really showed what a punk he is. I like the change and I think that Bella should have slapped Jared, too!

We get a glimpse of Edward fighting Felix and Demetri to protect Bella in the Volturi’s lair. In a later clip available on Access Hollywood and Yahoo! Movies, we get the full context of the scene. The Volturi decide the Bella knows too much and Aro gives the order to Felix to take care of her. Edward rushes to her side and does this super-fast flip over his shoulder to move her to safety. He then charges Felix and Alice tries to get to Bella, but is grabbed. We then see Felix toss Edward and Demitri takes him by the neck and smashes him to the floor, cracking the floor and Edward’s face. We know from the book that there was no physical confrontation, but Edward did come close on several occasions. He even launched himself at Jane to protect Bella.
Verdict: I can live with this. It works for the amped-up action of the movie, making it more guy-friendly. Edward did come close to physical confrontation and he was verbally confrontational in the book. The effect of seeing Edward’s stone-like face crack with the stone floor was a nice touch.

Access Hollywood Trailer – Jacob and Edward Battle over Bella
Jacob and Edward have a confrontation in the woods and Jacob phases in mid-air after Edward gives him a shove. I’m assuming that this is from “Epilogue” after Jacob rats out Bella with the motorcycle to get her grounded. There was never any physical confrontation between Jacob and Edward. Things got heated when Bella told him that if a Cullen bit her it was none of his business. Jacob started to lose control and came close to phasing at that point. Edward never laid a hand on Jacob.
Verdict: The back flip with the mid-air phasing was awesome! I’m not so sure that I’m crazy about Edward shoving Jacob because that’s a bit out of character for him. He knew that would send Jacob over the edge and it would put Bella in danger if they were to fight right there with her. I’m a little conflicted, but it’s an awesome scene!

What other deviations have you noted in the footage that we’ve seen so far?

Do you wish that they wouldn’t show so much footage before the release, or do you want to see more?

What are your thoughts on the deviations that have been pointed out?