New Moon on a big screen

Wow. It left me speechless.

Overall impression: I love this movie. Makeup is better (except Jasper's), special effects are dazzling (although that whole Edward glows thing still is cheesy; do they not get it?), KStew's acting is much-improved, Taycob's acting has grown along with his...his.....excuse me, where was I? Oh yeah. The kid can act, and act well. He actually had me feeling sorry for him when Bella turned away from him to run to Italy to save Edward, who was about to commit vampire suicide by dazzling a bunch of people, the very same Edward who'd broken her heart by telling her that she doesn't belong in his world and then walking off into the woods leaving her behind to wander hopelessly until she falls onto the mossy moldy-leaf floor of the forest and curls into the fetal position.

That Edward.

Kristen did a passably good job of portraying a totally dead-inside jilted teenage girl. Actually, photos from the movie show a truly empty, heartbroken Bella better, but she did well in the movie. I wasn't terribly impressed the first time around (Twilight the movie) although I didn't think she was as bad as most (women) (teens) thought; Bella isn't that deep a character. This time, she looks like she has a huge hole in her chest from Edward's leaving.

Somewhere (some magazine cover) I saw that Robward said something along the lines that, in these movies, his hair does 75% of the acting job. He's right. His hair is just scrumptious, although in this movie it's a little shorter and less tousled. It's still doing some great acting. I think that probably another 20% of the job is done by his square jaw and those thin, crooked-smile lips. Basically, all he has to do is stand in front of the camera, smile or scowl, and he's deserving of an Academy Award.

The vampires aren't as chalky-white as they were in Twilight, although their makeup still looks awfully thick. Robward looks a lot more natural; even Carlisle doesn't look like he walked through a storm of talcum powder, although he still looks exceeding unnatural, even for a vampire. Maybe I have a big more liking for his character this time around since I've seen him on that Showtime series a few times. Can't remember the name, but he plays a sex-crazed doctor who can't keep his hands to himself.

But Jasper: for the love of God, makeup artists, tone down the hair. It's far too poofy; it practically has a life of its own. And those lips, always pursed, always looking as if he has some big stick shoved up his butt and is afraid to smile for fear of dropping it.

Alice is a doll, always fun to watch. Rosalie is still a bitch, although we find out a little more about why she's a bitch.

But why was the movie so bright? I know that there weren't many vamps around, so they don't have to have such dull days so they can come outside, but New Moon is the darkest book of the series. Bella's depression, Edward's pain at leaving her (the bloodsucking scum), Jacob's pain at becoming a werewolf without any forewarning, his pain at having to stay away from Bella in order to protect her from himself, his pain because Bella just sees him as a friend. Not even a friend with benefits. It's dark. It's brooding.

Now, it's not all sunny and summery by any means, it's just not as dark visually as the first one was.

It was such a treat to see New Moon on a huge screen. I rarely go to the movies; the last one was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I don't even remember how long ago that was. I saw Twilight first on our tv then on my laptop; the whole thing is definitely a lot more effective and enjoyable when the characters are larger than life.

I went with my niece, Kara, and her friend. We did the whole movie thing; $6 popcorn with "butter" that leaked out the bottom of the container and $4 bottles of water. Water. I should've brought a bigger purse and taken in some small bottles of wine. It would have been less expensive that way. Kara and Virginia are Team Jacob, while I'm Team Edward, so we disagreed about some fundamentals (cold made-up abs vs 108 degree real abs), but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Yes. Werewolves' temps run around 108. And vamps are cold and hard as stone. Didn't you know that? Did you want to know?