Bulldog flicks: New Moon
Luke Stankiewicz, Staff Writer
Issue date: 12/4/09 Section: Variety
How a movie performs at the box office depends mostly on expectations at first, and later by word of mouth. New Moon, the second movie in the Twilight series, had high expectations from teenage girls, and low ones from almost everyone else. I'm not interested in stereotypes and think that categorizing a movie as only for a certain demographic is counter to the idea of film as art and film in general. I will argue that New Moon should appeal to everyone on a fundamental level, and should not be passed over simply because of its expectations.
Technically speaking, New Moon is very weak. Its dialogue is poor, the lighting is overwhelmingly depressing, and the acting leaves much to be desired. But no one would ever go see this movie for any of those things; even teenage girls would know better. Rather, this is a movie that you go see because you like stories about eternal love, fighting for what you believe in, and giant wolves doing battle with vampires. It's a movie that appeals to our deepest desires, which, if you have never felt then you have simply never lived.
Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is in love with a 109 year-old vampire named Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) who will eternally appear seventeen years old. Bella is concerned about her human condition, and desperately wants to be transformed into a vampire to be rid of pesky things like aging, death and illness. Edward refuses; he doesn't want her to be a monster with a damned soul.
At the Cullen household Bella is thrown an eighteenth birthday party, but when she gets a paper cut Jasper Cullen comes within inches of biting her after smelling her sweet blood. Edward decides the only thing to do is leave Bella behind forever, to guard her against his insatiable family. "This is the last time you'll ever see me" he tells her. This is the most obviously unrealistic statement in movie history.
Bella subsequently falls into a deep depression, the cinematography leading us to believe that she sits in a chair for three months simply staring out the window. After she breaks out of her haze she rediscovers her friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), newly buff and suddenly appealing. How shallow are the morals that are enforced in this movie.
Technically speaking, New Moon is very weak. Its dialogue is poor, the lighting is overwhelmingly depressing, and the acting leaves much to be desired. But no one would ever go see this movie for any of those things; even teenage girls would know better. Rather, this is a movie that you go see because you like stories about eternal love, fighting for what you believe in, and giant wolves doing battle with vampires. It's a movie that appeals to our deepest desires, which, if you have never felt then you have simply never lived.
Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is in love with a 109 year-old vampire named Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) who will eternally appear seventeen years old. Bella is concerned about her human condition, and desperately wants to be transformed into a vampire to be rid of pesky things like aging, death and illness. Edward refuses; he doesn't want her to be a monster with a damned soul.
At the Cullen household Bella is thrown an eighteenth birthday party, but when she gets a paper cut Jasper Cullen comes within inches of biting her after smelling her sweet blood. Edward decides the only thing to do is leave Bella behind forever, to guard her against his insatiable family. "This is the last time you'll ever see me" he tells her. This is the most obviously unrealistic statement in movie history.
Bella subsequently falls into a deep depression, the cinematography leading us to believe that she sits in a chair for three months simply staring out the window. After she breaks out of her haze she rediscovers her friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), newly buff and suddenly appealing. How shallow are the morals that are enforced in this movie.
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