New Moon~ The Movie

My husband is a flippin' comedian.
For my birthday he got me bookcases, 24 season 7 on DVD, and New Moon on DVD. Although I had told him I really just wanted video of him going up to the cashier and buying New Moon (maybe having 24 in his hands offset the embarrassment of buying a teenie romantic thriller), he failed to record the event.
Again, I think they did a tremendous job with the adaptation. Was it exact? NO. But it couldn't be. But Rosenberg was faithful again, finding the essence of the story and the characters, preserving the emotions from the book.
The first thing that struck me was the difference in color. Twilight was all cool blues and New Moon has more of a Rembrandt feel to it. Which was fine, the story's in a different place now. But what bothered me, and I don't know if it could be helped but everyone looked five years older. And I still hate Jasper's look and blatant over-doneness. That's probably not a word, but I'm using it anyway.
My absolute favorite part of the movie was Edward's appearance in the school parking lot, the morning of Bella's birthday. The laughter exploded from me as the music rose and, in slow motion and in step with the beat, Edward Cullen strode toward Bella Swan. It was so 80's, I just lost it. My husband, swallowing his manly pride, looked up to see what was so hilarious and I backed it up so he could partake of the hilarity. We had a good laugh.
What was with the extreme close-up of the Jacob-the-wolf's eye with Bella's reflection? That was so throwback and sentimentally squishy, stomach churning and somewhat depressing. And the first wolf scene was just corny and yea....
I found myself wondering if Chris Weitz, the director, had started his career off in music videos, what with the increased artsiness of New Moon. And I have to give props, where props are due...the scene where Bella is seated at her computer and it cross dissolves and she's sitting on the couch...that was awesome and took a lot of planning and skill to execute so well. This praise also extends to the garage scene with Jacob. It was not only brilliant editing and directing but also writing. It was a great way to show the passage of time (much better than spinning around a rocking chair) and to show the building of Bella and Jacob's friendship.
But it was all almost lost on me when Bella dived from the cliff and she's sinking and there's Edward, it was very Beatles'ish and belonged in a music video, not this movie.
My favorite character.....toss up. Either Jacob (yes, I am a member of team Jacob...although I do appreciate Edward's morals, Edward's just so boring and he's a vampire!) or Charlie. I love Billy Burke's portrayal of Bella's father. Excellent! He always makes me laugh.
Overall, New Moon was certainly an improvement over Twilight. Everyone seems to have grown as actors, there was more emotion and suspense, better pacing...but a lot of that has to do with Meyer's increased skills as a writer. I can see why teen girls get all overheated watching it. But I must say, I am looking forward to watching the documentary on Forks. That looks infinitely more interesting than either New Moon or Twilight.