New Moon: The Hits and the Misses, Moon’s review part 1

The claw is in the details

Dear New Moon, LTT-ers and anyone ever in the world involved with this,

After seeing New Moon for the third time (obviously I’m not a true fan as my viewing number is not in the teens at this point) I think I can safely start to review the film with a discerning eye. I’m finally past the freak out/totally in awe/blinded by the abs stage and ready to give this a whirl and put my thoughts on virtual paper.

I think the key phrase for New Moon is: “The devil’s in the details” and Chris Weitz must have made a deal with the devil, like Rob did, because he nails it. From the very first shot of Bella waking up next to the tattered copy of Romeo and Juliet with the cover that looks an awful lot like Voltera, I knew we were in for a great ride courtesy of someone who “got it.”

While on the whole I think New Moon is light years ahead of Twilight in terms of the overall product and as my brother (in the industry and knows a thing or two) says Twilight looks like “student film” where they cut a lot of corners by being lazy instead of creative whereas New Moon is actually a total product with a vision and a pay off. New Moon is definitely not without it’s faults, and you know us here at LTT we love a good fumble (Buttcrack Santa, Spider Monkey?) so…

Let’s examine some of the hits and misses of New Moon the movie…

This scene kills me EVERY time

Hit
Jacob/Taylor Lautner
This guy actually showed up and ACTED! He had emotions, they were complex and interesting. He emoted with his face and body and didn’t rely solely on blinking, stuttering or squinting to show how much pain you’re feeling to even be near your “la tua cantante.” Did I really just use that phrase? Apparently so. Just imagine it said in Aro/Micheal Sheen’s creepo voice. Not only did he emote well he made the audience laugh. Of the three times I’ve seen it men in the audience seem to react the best to Jacob, laughing at his jokes and generally just relating. My favorite line of his? “Don’t get me upset, this will get very ugly!” Bra-freakin-vo Taylor Lautner! Big Daddy, take this kid out for a McRib but hurry they’re only back for a limited time!
c

Let's see who can run the slowest and dazzle the mostest!! AND GO!

Miss
Future Bella as a vampire/Edward sequence
The slow-mo running, the khaki Anne of Avonlea outfits, the SLOW MOTION running?! Cheese with a capitol C. I get the reason behind the slow-mo which is better than Cathi’s half assed special effects way of making them run super fast but all 3 times I’ve seen it (yes, including opening night) people laughed.

More hits and misses more biker gangs more LSD trips more awesomeness after the cut!

Rereading New Moon Chapters 3-6

Dear LTT-ers,

I wrote last week about rereading New Moon to “prepare myself” to the premiere THIS WEEK (crazy we can say that now) and last time I wrote about Carlisle’s icicle hands but this time I think I wanna talk a little bit about fate.

After I finally made it through that wretched “The End” chapter, cried (yup, again) at “the months” and made it through “Waking Up” chapter we finally make it to “The Cheater” aka Bella wants to be Evil Knievel. I was anxious to get through it because I knew the next chapter was “Friends” and Jacob finally comes back into the picture to rescue us from this emo-fest we’ve been in for the last 4 chapters but I was struck by a simple sentence Stephenie wrote right as Bella sees the motorcycles in the Markses yard. She writes:

“Sometimes, kismet happens.”

And of course I got to thinking about kismet and how it plays out in not only the books but my life outside of the books. So if we believe Merriam-Webster and their slutty cousin Dictionary.com than Kismet means “fate or destiny” that this was meant to happen. Edward leaving Bella had to be part of the master plan, she needed to do some growing on her own apart from their all-encompassing relationship. And without Edward leaving Bella wouldn’t have turned into a reclusive hermet girl making Charlie yell at her to go out and see friends and Bella wouldn’t have been out driving aimlessly if he hadn’t. Bella finding those bikes was meant to be because it leads her to Jacob and rekindling their friendship that ultimately helps bring her out of the pits of depression and eventually becomes a more rounded, better equipped person for when Edward finally shows back up at the end of the story.

Then me being me I took it a step further thinking about kismet in my own life, it was kismet that my coworker lent me her Twilight book which I become addicted to which led me to seek out other people who had been reading them which led me to see a Facebook status post UC had written around the same time which made us strike up a Twilight conversation. And well if it wasn’t kismet that made us start Letters to Twilight and Letters to Rob than truly I don’t know what is because without these blogs tons of people who never knew each other people would never have met otherwise. It still blows my mind to think about all the people that not only UC and I have met but all the people around the world who have met each other because one day we decided, or perhaps it was fated that we start these blogs.

So yes, I really do believe that sometimes kismet happens. What about you?

MTB,
Moon

PS Speaking of people we’ve met because of these blogs, today a bunch of you are flying into LA for a week of New Moon mania and I can’t wait to see all your faces and hug your necks and say a little thanks for kismet

Take the jump so we can get a little business outta the way……