It's fangs for the memories in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, as the love between human teen Bella and her vampire beau Edward becomes even more of the mind than the body.
There's no sophomore slump here, quelling fan fears that a controversial switch of directors from Catherine Hardwicke to Chris Weitz might bite into the emotional continuity of this unorthodox romance.
The stakes are higher and the intensity deeper this time, despite a plot that approaches the ripest of melodrama – and which occasionally provokes unintended laughter, as does the terribly twee soundtrack.
Strong acting across the board and a convincing bond between the two main lovebirds override any objections to the script.
Picking up where franchise starter Twilight ended, and sure to earn as least as much box office gold when screenings begin at selected theatres Thursday (the full rollout is Friday), New Moon's main drama begins at the 18th birthday party for Bella (Kristen Stewart).
A seemingly innocuous accident provokes an unforeseen and potentially fatal response, prompting Edward (Robert Pattinson) to move his vampire kin out of the soggy town of Forks, Wash.
As in movie romances of old, serious gentleman Edward has the best of intentions, nobly choosing to separate from his undead heart's desire rather than facing the grim possibility of her destruction by forces beyond his control.
Just when it seemed that he and Bella might be able to cross the divide between the shadowy vampire realm and the fragile human domain, Edward is forced to confront the limitations not only of their risky love, but of his own weaknesses.
As he grows increasingly confused and depressed, Edward decamps from the northwestern U.S. for Europe, seeking a violent destiny of his own choosing.
The split is the catalyst both for heartbreak and the deepening of desire. An emotionally crushed Bella discovers she is able to connect with Edward on an astral plane whenever her heart rate is peaked by perilous pastimes, but another distraction weakens her focus and her resolve.
Her native American friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), briefly seen in Twilight, becomes entangled in both a love triangle and an progressively more volatile supernatural world, in which werewolves rise to do battle with the vampires.
Lautner obviously prepared for his beefed-up role, since he now sports pecs that the Wolfman himself would envy.
New Moon is not all love and hisses. Although tangled romance is more the emphasis this time out – Romeo and Juliet allusions are driven home like a stake through the heart – there are action set pieces designed to thrill genre movie lovers.
They'll likely scare the daylights out of everyone else. The CGI creatures aren't always first-rate, but they get the job done.
Edward's trip to Europe brings him to a postcard-perfect Italy and into the dangerous company of an ancient coven of vampires called the Volturi, led by a suavely evil royal bloodsucker named Aro (Michael Sheen). When Aro discovers what Edward has been up to with the humans, he is not amused.
But the scariest figure may be, no joke, young Dakota Fanning, who is no longer a kid. She's Jane, a ruby-eyed Volturi guard who uses illusions of pain as an instrument of torture.
With the exception of a new fight scene created for the movie, Weitz (The Golden Compass) and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg remain for the most part very faithful to the story by Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer, whose best-selling novels started this latest vampire craze.
They well serve an evolving and involving love saga that gives us a lot more to chew on than the typical teen romance.
This article is from www.thestar.com
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