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.

Impatience: Red Box or Netflix?

Go ahead and laugh.

I'm trying to decided if it would be best to wait and get New Moon from Netflix or if it would be faster to try my luck with Red Box? And I will still have to mail back my current Netflix rentals and that would mean waiting for New Moon to arrive. Of course, more often than not, the videos I want from Red Box are gone by the time I get there and I wind up waiting anyway.

Strategy, folks. It's all about strategy.

My husband's laughing at me again.

Why?

1: Still haven't sent Twilight DVD back in. It's been weeks. It helps okay? On the days when the teenage novelist groove is hard to find, just takes poppin' in Twilight to get my muse infuriated.

2: I promptly bought Eclipse after finishing New Moon.

3. There's a bit of anticipation to see New Moon.

Despite warnings that he was going to be the end of my blogging career, he continues to laugh. Makes me so angry, which is why he does it. I am not in love with Bella and Edward. I actually find myself rooting for Jacob a bit. That's Meyer's fault, she put a lot more work in to make that relationship tantalizing and believable.

My main passion for them is curiosity about the author. Did she get better? Has she grown as a writer since the last novel?

I've only gotten through the first chapter of Eclipse and the growth is obvious. She's even gotten better about weaving in the mandatory recaps from the previous book. Now, the burning question is: How badly did they screw up the New Moon movie? Is it possible that they pulled off two amazingly faithful adaptations?

I still have some qualms with New Moon, beyond basic writing skills. Story issues. But I am getting cramped under my desk. Yes under my desk. Network cord isn't long enough. My real house has high-speed, wireless internet.