Two OBS staff members have reviewed the New Moon movie.
Amanda:
Acting: Everyone’s acting is so much better this time around. Good, focused direction and a good script make a world of difference. Rob is much more relaxed as Edward. Anyone who says that he looks constipated like they did with his performance in Twilight didn’t see the same film that I did. He has his emotional, heart-wrenching moments, but it’s not anything like what we saw in the first installment. There are several light-hearted moments that make you melt when you see him! Kristen has really evolved as Bella. She doesn’t seem as awkward with her as she did in Twilight. Taylor nailed Jacob’s character. I can’t imagine anyone else ever playing Jacob.
Script/Dialogue: I cannot get over how funny this movie was, despite Bella’s heartbreak. Anna Kendrick and Mike Welsh have some shining moments as Jessica and Mike with some great one-liners. In fact, just about everyone has some great little one-liners in the movie, including Aro. This script was infinitely better than the first. I recall reading that Stephenie was more hands-on this time around and it shows. I expect that tons of credit is also due to Chris Weitz. We can also assume that the lack of a writer’s strike helped. I’m still not completely sold on Melissa Rosenberg, but the dialogue was much closer to Stephenie’s work and not the indie ramblings of Catherine Hardwicke and her crew.
There is one omission of dialogue from the book that I just realized wasn’t in the film that makes me sad, but it took more than an hour for me to even notice. I pray that it will be in the DVD extras! (I promised no spoilers, but I will touch on it later.)
Read more of this review here.
Krystal:
Michael Sheen as Aro: Oh Aro, how I love your devilish charm. So very little footage was released about the Volutri, so it was a pleasant surprise to find myself in awe at the presence they managed to hold with so little dialogue. Of course what little dialogue he does have, is played perfectly creepy. I was kind of scared yet intrigued at the character, which seemed so sweet yet deadly, just like the book Aro.
Dakota Fanning as Jane: Wow… that’s all I can say. Anyone who knows Dakota Fanning’s acting caliber will no doubt expect the performance this teen girl belts out. Like many of the other characters in this film, Jane has limited lines and therefore all her emotions have to be expressed through body language and most importantly her eyes. The sheer evil behind her eyes is enough to put any human into fear or at least in utter silence.
The Volturi: I’m going to lump together the rest of the Volturi and the guard because it’s all really the same. Caius, Marcus, Alec, Demetri, Felix and Heidi all have either short screen time or no lines and therefore I can’t make a judgment on their acting skills. Come check back when I do Eclipse I guess.
Dialogue
As I stated before “good acting can save shitty dialogue, but good dialogue can’t save shitty acting.” This is fairly true, but that doesn’t mention that good dialogue along with good acting can make for some really fun films.
Despite the overall theme of loss that this film has, it didn’t stop the script writers from making some fun out of all the turmoil. There are some great one liner’s that I will not repeat here (go see the movie damnit), but I was surprised by who was saying them sometimes. Emmett is back to his funny self from the books, despite his serious nature in Twilight, but Jasper gets one of my favorite lines overall.
Read more of this review here.
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