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| Teen Wolf: Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart in the second Twilight chapter, "New Moon." |
“Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” is the title of a
popular, romantic song from the 1950s. Had the tune been made today for Bella
Swan and Edward Cullen, the mismatched lovebirds of the “Twilight” franchise,
it would probably be renamed “Love Is a Many-Splintered Thing”—amended to
describe the cacophonous, painful sounds of smashing objects, crashing bodies
and breaking bones that have become a dominant motif in the series.
When we last left the pensive Bella (Kristen Stewart),
the diminutive teen was pulling shards of glass out of a broken leg after
getting caught in a vicious battle between rival vampires, including her
boyfriend, the blanche, brooding vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson).
In “New Moon,” the second film based on the young adult books
by Stephenie Meyer, it doesn’t take long before Bella is dealt even more spine-crunching
abuse, when an innocuous mishap at her birthday party—she leaks a few drops of
blood after a paper cut—draws the ravenous appetite of another vampire and
leads to her being violently whipped across the room.
After the latest fracas, Edward decides to move away without
his girl, perhaps because he finally realizes that Bella risks paralysis or
death if the couple remains together. Whatever the reason, it’s ultimately just
primer for another character, the grinning, hunky Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner),
to segue into the narrative, offering comfort and a well-muscled shoulder for
the grieving, heartbroken Bella to cry on.
But this is still Forks, Washington, where overcast
skies are interminable, sinister eyes glare out from the forest, and seemingly
normal teenagers aren’t what they seem. Jacob, the seemingly normal young
stranger—the new moon of the title—is really a werewolf. Eventually, he begins
to get jealous when Bella keeps pining for Edward, since werewolves and
vampires don’t get along.
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| Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) face a new threat in "New Moon." |
“Promise me you won't do anything reckless,” Edward tells
Bella before he leaves. Which is, in a movie like this, as good as giving
license to go carte blanche on the reckless-o-meter. Bella rides off with menacing
strangers, drives her speeding motorcycle head-first into boulders, and
plummets off a towering cliff into the churning Pacific—all just to see the ghostly
visage of the omnipresent Edward, beamed back to her “Star Trek” style.
Directed by Chris Weitz—a sometimes producer who takes
over the reins from Catherine Hardwicke—“New Moon” is careful not to deviate
from the spirit of the book and establishes a melancholy mood that swings
between overwrought and downright silly. The screenplay, again by Melissa
Rosenberg, does include some playfully funny one-liners that seem open to
self-parody.
“What is that awful wet dog smell,” a female vampire asks
Bella after Jacob slips out of the room. Another character asks Bella if she’s
freaked out by werewolves. “You’re not the first monsters I’ve met,” she says
wryly. And the century-old Edward to Bella after they inevitably reunite: “Leaving
you was the hardest thing I've done in a hundred years.” He should try sitting
through these movies.
Visually, “New Moon” is a campy circus of red, yellow
and orange-eyed vampires—as if the inspiration for creating them came from
looking at items in a fruit bowl—and giant, comically bizarre computer
generated wolves. Plagued by feverish nightmares throughout the film, you half
expect Bella, who needs a new hobby more than anything, to come to her senses
and declare that she's had enough and is trying out for the cheerleading team.
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