Twilight: New Moon - A review for the uninitiated

For many people past the age of adolescence, the success of the Twilight series of supernatural romances was both surprising and a bit unsettling, what with their strongly devoted fan-base smitten with the tale of feisty teen Bella and her relationship with vampire Edward, as well as numerous detractors claiming that the books were anti-feminist, promoted abstinence and were badly written. However, the appeal of the series becomes very clear in watching this adaptation for the second book. By using a supernatural character as part of the central romance the film delivers a tale where the hyperbole of first love is actually genuine (although the Romeo and Juliet references that occur throughout the story seem somewhat obvious and clunky), and with the target audience of teenage girls being rather under-served by popular cinema, the character of Bella provides an interesting role-model, despite her over-dependence on Edward, and in this film her childhood friend Jacob (who has a secret of his own). Also, the fact that several key plot points revolve around good looking young men removing their shirts probably helps.
The film does suffer from being based on such a popular book as, like the first Harry Potter films, the filmmakers have left far too much in so as not to offend the fans, resulting in a film that’s a good half hour longer than it should be - especially considering the plot could easily be summed up in a sentence or two. Also with production company Summit capitalising on the franchise’s popularity by rushing the film into production, the special effects although well designed aren’t as polished as they could have been, which is a problem considering that the film is required to make a pack of werewolves seem like believable characters.

All that being said, there are still pleasures to be found in the film, and it proves itself a better starting point for the uninitiated than the book (although not as much as the first film in the series which although not as well filmed had a lot more of a plot and sense of fun to it), offering some bold film-making, stunning scenery, a young cast that manages for the most part to both be good-looking and talented, and an excellent soundtrack.