Movie review number one: Twilight saga: New Moon.

I was never a fan of the Twilight series. I've read it a bit for my literature class and honestly, I'm not that hooked like some of my friends or as much as I've hooked by Harry Potter series. But watching New Moon seems to be an obligation for me because it has created such a phenomenon worldwide. Aspired to become a movie critique, I made the decision to join it. Well, if you can't win them, join them..

Running for almost 3 hours, New Moon is the second adaptation of Stephanie Mayer's Twilight saga. It started with Bella having a dream on her birthday that she looks old while the 109 years old Edward still look glitter, shimmer and young. Thus we enter the world of Bella and here is her number one conflict, the age-look factor. Then we enter her conflict number two,
Edward leaves her because he claimed that she was not good enough for him. Caution, entering the second realm of Bella, you need either an electric watch or a patience friend to be able to wake you up because, here is where all the actions goes in the movie...never ending hours of Bella moping, gazing and reminiscing of how tragic and sad her life is. We will see her breath Edward, eat Edward, sleep Edward and Edward, Edward, Edward...forever.

But wait! Seeing this is a love story, there will be a character that cannot be absent in any story. The knight in shining armor. In the movie, the position was taken by Jacob Black, the Native American who longed for Bella. Then he does what other knights are expected to do. Always saves the girl at the most critical moment, gushing promises of 'I would never hurt you like he does' and trying to find every spare moment to steal a kiss from a girl. What difference does New Moon can offer than other teenage soapy love story? The combination of the teeth of vampire (which almost absent in this movie) and fluffy warewolf prancing around in forest, looking for vampire to slay.

Not only the storyline are too long, weaving and poorly developed...the script is also laughable that it almost gagged me in the thought of thinking of how the actors can deliver the lines. Here are some example: Imagine school ground: two teenagers talking and suddenly the guy said 'You're the only reason for me to able to breathe in the world'. OK, seriously this line is only permitted to be said by a mere hit puberty teenager under any of these circumstances: a) if the background or the scene is some World War and the boy was leaving for war. b) if either the boy or the girl was heavilly in alcohol or drug influence that by the next 5 minutes either of them had forgotten about it. The dialougue was corny, moapy and unreal and it almost can be seen as an insult for teenage romance. Not to mention, the line got its way to direct the psychology of the audience. Exhibit A: Bella said to Jacob, 'How come you're so buff, you're only 16'. Here, the line got a hint for us. For the rest of Jacob screentime in the movie, you're eyes should be fixed on the buff, because that's all he shows. Suddenly, he is seen throughout the movie, shirtless, jumping up and down and flexing his abs between the trees and woods. Is it good abs to be looked upon? Hell yeah! But is it enough to compensate for the other losses in the movie? Hell no...

All in all, New Moon is a tragic movie in a sense that it was lost, too long and unreal for the viewers to get connected. And the protagonist Bella is not a strong character that has a real issue like Harry, Alice or Dorothy. And it makes the viewers hard to connect to her partly due to her never ending mood swings and bad choices of action. I can understand if a fan of the series can appriciate it because it was quite faithful to be book and it complete the expectation, but for a non-fan like me, I'm not yet swayed into the direction. All in all, what I can say is I can understand why New Moon can become a phenomenon because it contains a lot of escapism that teenagers like, forbidden love, fantasy to be swept away and the third party guys but to put it into great works like Willy Wonka, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings is a bit strech and undeserved.

Overall score:

Story: 1.5 / 5
Acting: 2/ 5
Cinematography: 3/ 5
Script: 1/5
Direction: 1.5 / 5

Total: 9 / 25