There was a New Moon last night

If you've been under a rock or in a coma since 2005 you might not know about the whole Twilight phenomena. But if you read this blog, you know where I stand on the issue. Love Twilight, but not crazy about it.

Having said that New Moon came out yesterday and I couldn't be more thrilled with how it turned out. The movie was everything a mainstream film should be. Turns out it was a good choice to go with a new director. The movie was brighter visually which added to the darkness underneath the surface. Its way better than the first film Twilight. But you can't really compare the two since Twilight was an independent, and New Moon had some major money backing it.

In New Moon Edward leaves after a very bloody birthday celebration that almost left Bella the icing on the cake for Jasper. Who has that much blood from a paper cut? Anyway, the Cullens leave and Bella's depressed. Like really depressed, shell of her former self depressed. Who knew Bella's lack of personality could stretch that far. But that's just a means to an end...New Moon is centered around Bella's friendship with Jacob Black, Jacob's love for Bella and his turn from a normal, sweet natured 15-year-old boy to a *ahem* rather buff werewolf. Simple right? Not so much.
See, somewhere in between the zombie Bella, and clinging to Jake for the sake of her sanity Bella became a adrenaline junkie. This is all for the purpose of inducing hallucinations of Edward telling her to not be so stupid. There, not so simple anymore huh? Not to mention Victoria, the villain from Twilight's girlfriend, is back and making plans to rip Bella limb from limb.

Best scene if I had to choose would either be the motorcycle scene or when Bella runs through the water fountain to get to Edward before he exposes his oh so shiny skin to the humans in Italy (hows that for a suicide attempt?) for sheer book accurate awesome-ness.

Waiting until the last possible minute in the book as well as the movie, The Volturi are introduced to add further menace to the future storyline. Dakota Fanning as Jane was haunting, and Aro is just evil. While very calm and pleasant in outward appearance there was a sense of pure calculating evil just behind his crimson eyes. Well done Micheal Sheen for scaring the heck out of me!

Rating: Two enthusiastic thumbs way up!
Next up: Eclipse 2010!