Film review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 18:05

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (12A) Director: Chris Weitz Running time: 130 minutes * * *

IN THE first Twilight film we spent two hours watching Bella (Kristen Stewart) fall for Edward (Robert Pattinson), the vegetarian vampire who finds both Bella and her blood group delectable.

However, Bella is already brooding about their future. He's 109, she's 18, but while he stays forever youthful, she is conscious that she will age. Bella badly wants to be bitten so she can vamp with Edward's vampire forever, although when he suggests marriage she makes a big Tex Avery cartoon throat gulp, as if tying the knot, rather than joining the eternally damned, was a commitment too far.

In any case, after an unfortunate incident involving a birthday party with the whole bloodsucking family and a paper cut, Edward dumps her and quits town, leaving Bella catatonic with despair until she re-bonds with old childhood friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner), a Quileute Indian who tends to wander around shirtless in all weathers, displaying his new godlike buffness. He's also a werewolf, apparently the natural enemy of the vampire, with the further disadvantage to Bella that he smells of wet dog and has a werewolf's impulsive temper and claws…

So which hunky monster will Bella choose as her mate? I think Team Jacob shades it because in New Moon Edward turns out to be a sullen old soul with the narcissistic introspection of a 14-year-old. Even when watching a video of Romeo And Juliet with Bella, all he can do is grouch: "I wish I could die like that." You can't help thinking that having a vampire boyfriend must really suck the life out of a room.

So hurrah for werewolves built like large cuddly huskies, and for Michael Sheen in red contacts and a kabuki pallor as the gleefully threatening leader of the vampire government, the Volturi.

In some respects New Moon is an improvement on the first film: the effects are better staged, the villains more arch, and there are some jokey asides, and there's just enough bloodlust passion to keep the target audience hungry for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, in 12 moons' time.

On general release now

• This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 22 November 2009.