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This website isn’t aimed to this type of content but every once in a while, I’ll make an exception.

So, today November 18th, the Twilight saga New Moon came out in France and even if I had not slept for over 30 hours, I was not going to miss it. Right after my flight got there, I hopped in the shower and straight to the movies.

First thing to know is I like to watch my movies in their original versions. In France most movies are Dubbed (meaning a French actor voices the actors on screen) but UGC cinemas offer some movies in their original version with subtitles. I am lucky enough to have such a movie theater in my town. I cannot watch American or English movies in French anymore. Tv shows too. It is painful to see or hear the bad translations, bad dubbing and also choice of voices sometimes.

Let’s get back to New Moon. I am a big fan of the books and one thing that disappointed me in the first Twilight was the lack of content from the book, therefore I was really curious to see how this would be handled in number 2 since it was the same screenwriter. I’ll admit that on that side, I was a lot less disappointed. The story on the screen followed the book really well. However, a few times during the movie, the cuts were too brief and rough to actually make sense. Well, let me rephrase that. They do make sense if you read the book, but if you did not… I need to go check the movie out again with a notepad this time to write down when those moments happen, but one I do have in mind is at the end, when Bella and Edward are in her room, after they came back from Volterra. It all goes too fast, as if trying to fit as much in so little space and it really looks ugly.

Coming to the making of. That’s where my disappointment was the most important. After seeing all the trailers and clips, I expected crazy things on the screen but several times the picture of pixelised, you could see the added effect or background (in a lot of werwolves scenes and the cliff diving). I also found the music very quite and wrong.

What do I mean wrong? Well it sounded off. On that extend, I am not fully reviewing that fact as it could have been a problem coming from the room. I need to go see it again in another theater, which means in French and that is going to be torture, believe me. I would be curious to know if any other persons have had the same feeling in their theaters, so do not hesitate to comment at the bottom of this page.

Update 19th November: Went to check it out again as planned, in a different theater. The quality of the sound and the image was brilliant so there was definitely something off in the other theater. It did make a difference but some special effects still look … well, I’d rather say don’t look so good.

Acting wise. Kristen Stewart didn’t leave me with high expectations. I think that she is good but has a few things not going for her (to my opinion) such as the lip biting and the tough appearance and she’s surprised me a lot (in a positive way) in New Moon. I found her scenes with Taylor Lautner being the best and more real than with Robert Pattinson.

Taylor Lautner was, no questions asked, the best actor in that second movie and I feel that, as a making of, he was also better handled than any of the vampires. Boy did they look ugly?!! I found the make up way too much. Uneven also, as if they only whitened the faces. Which makes Edward look odd in some scenes. The worst one being in Volterra when Demetri and Felix arrive and interrupt Bella and Edward.

Robert Pattinson was good. I think that he was up to his performance in Twilight, neither worst, nor better, which is something I do enjoy in acting, the capacity to stay at a good level. He unfortunately did not get very fortunate in regards to good scenes and appearances. I’m lookig forward to Eclipse since he’ll be there the entire movie.

The Volturi. mmmhhhhhh, I’m very skeptical here, very. I found their little amount of dialogue very weak and non present. They didn’t give them the highness I expected. Cameron Bright, whom I absolutely adore in all his other movies, had 2 lines which he either missed entirely (I felt in a bad acting class) or the editing made it sound very wrong.

The whole Volturi scenes were missing the intensity of the music too. They barely looked scary or powerful.

The wolf pack was the second best I think. We don’t see them very often, same as the Volturi but when we see them, they’re gorgeous (the CGI wolves) and the actors, despite their little amount of dialogues, pull them off pretty well and naturally. The funny thing in there is that the Volturi, which is full of famous and experienced actors lacked quality, whereas the wolf pack, full of newbies, excelled. I liked it. I must say, I cannot wait to see what David Slade has pulled off for Eclipse as the werewolves are all over the story. I’d still say some CGI work could be done. That first shot of giant werewolf Sam in the woods before picking up Bella could have been better. I thought I was watching “the neverending story” monster getting out of his creek.

Finally, the last but not least (how cliché is this sentence? ) Sheriff Swam, aka Billy Burke. He was the man in Twilight, he was again in New moon. I should calculate his amount of time on screen because it is very little, but every single time, he pulls it off. Alright alright, I’ll give you that he does get the best lines but you have to be able to pull it off and he does.  Billy Burke, as we say in French, chapeau bas.

Oh wait, I forgot to speak about Chris Weitz direction. I thought there were really wonderful shots in their, for example, when the wolves chase Victoria. WOW, the red hair do have effect when Rachelle runs. And also the little headachy shots at the beginning, they’re tough but really beautiful.

Oh man, I forgot to mention the humans and the script. Boooo, I’m really not a reviewer, I like to give opinions but I’m all over the place. ok, the humans were really good. They had, like Billy Burke some of the best lines and they were able to pull them off too, all of them.

And the script, beside the fact that it jumps too roughly from a scene to the other and that some of them last a little too long when it’s really not so needed (I’m thinking of the lack of dialogues between Bella and Edwards in the woods during the break up for example), too little dialogue, missed a few things but scene too long. Too many blanks that were missing expression shots from both sides. Oh and WHAT THE HELL was that scene of Bella and Edward running in the woods?!! It was such a joke. I can’t believe the production let it be there. Arghhh.

So despite that, I laughed a lot and enjoyed the story, but not as much as the book. Oh, the finale. Well, let’s just say that it was totally expected and such a giant cliché. But the whole room went insane, clapping their hands and screaming. Personaly I wouldn’t have ended it like this. the end should have been dark.

To sum all that up, my overall opinion is it was a good movie, not as good as expected but still pleasant and enjoyable.

I”ll go watch it again, as soon as I move to London in January cause trust me, I’m never watching this is French ever again.

That’s all forks