When director Chris Weitz took on The Twilight Saga : New Moon, he took on a juggernaut.

Pattison: 'D'Arcy', 'Heathcliff' and 'Romeo' rolled into one. Oh, and pale.

The first film in the franchise, Twilight, grossed over $380 million worldwide.

New Moon has already smashed box office records set by ‘Harry Potter and The Dark Knight.

Indie director Catherine Hardwicke steered the first in Stephenie Meyer’s ‘girl meets vampire’ series.

Weitz (Golden Compass, About a Boy) had a tough act to follow, and a special challenge in bringing Stephenie Meyer’s second book to life.
New Moon is the part of the story where ‘vampire dumps girl’ (albeit for noble reasons) so in some ways it was always going to be a bit of a downer.

For one thing, the on screen chemistry between ordinary girl Bella (Kristen Stewart) and gorgeous vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) that fueled Twilight is necessarily missing when Edward takes off for most of the movie.

The film beefs up (literally) when teenage American Indian cum werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) steps in to befriend Bella.

Lautner had made it his mission to buff himself within an inch of his life for this role.

Judging by the squeals from the packs of younger girls in the screening I went to, his efforts didn’t go unnoticed.

Bookending Bella’s friendship/ ‘will she won’t she’ romance with the teen wolf is Pattinson’s turn as her true love Edward.

With a cocktail of tragic intensity, brooding self doubt, and yes, suicidal tendencies, Pattinson once again taps into the romantic archetypes that inspired Meyer’s fantasy in the first place.

He’s a modern movie D’Arcy, Heathcliff and Romeo rolled into one.

In press conferences leading up to New Moon’s premier, Weitz made the point that females have been a neglected audience in the prevailing boys’ wham bam movie culture.

The success of the franchise shows just how huge and fervent that female audience is.

Don’t fob us off with Aniston rom com – we want impossible love and loss, sexy heroes who ache with passion and heroines willing to die for it.

There are just as many Twilight moms swelling the book and movie sales as there are teenagers.

Meyer herself was 29 when she had the dream that led her to write Twilight and her fantasy approximates that of many women.

In New Moon, the special effects with CGI wolves and vivid fight sequences with vampire royalty are good fun, the Canadian locations beautiful and the high school kids bring light relief, but really it’s all icing on the cake.

That cake is the passion fix that will ensure every one of the books and movies continue to sell out and confound more cynical critics.

Can’t wait for part 3 ‘Eclipse’!

11 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Randi Shaw says:

      07:17am | 24/11/09

      this movie is so overated it is slow, boring at times ,not worth all the hype

    • Steve says:

      08:26am | 24/11/09

      I wouldnt waste my time or money watching this movie, it is an insult to the traditoanl vampire movies.

      It panders to the teenage female, who wouldnt know what acting is about

    • Zeta says:

      08:30am | 24/11/09

      If they let Zeta direct a Twilight film -

      1. Edward would be unable to control his vampiric urges, and within the first few minutes of the film, would unceremoniously rip out Bella’s throat, slake his thirst with her blood before moving on to consume whole towns of depressed middle American teens. There would be no sparkling.

      2. David Bowie would be King of the Vampires, would live in a cathedral crafted from still living human flesh in Antartica, attended to by a court of extravagantly dressed back up dancers from a Lady GaGa film clip.

      3. Peter Murphy of Bauhaus fame would produce the entire soundtrack, which would consist mostly of howling, and the occassional scream.

      4. Edward would come to the attention of the vampires from Kathryn Bigalow’s 80s classic Near Dark, and Lance Henrikson would eventually kill him while Bill Paxton does a jig.

      5. The werewolves would be unthinking, homicidal monsters that stalk the wilderness looking for meat. To keep them away from major population centres, the US Government would secretly kidnap failed American Idol contestents and parachute them into the forest to keep the werewolve’s appetites in check.

      That’s all you’d really need to improve Twilight. I think I’m the guy for the job.

    • Kristin says:

      08:59am | 24/11/09

      I think the Twilight franchise is great. I’m sick of hearing people whinge that it is badly written or slow or anything else. The fact is that teens have voted by making the books such a huge success. And I know that personally I am very grateful to Stephanie Myer.
      My sister (15) had never read a full book willingly until this series and after finishing the books (in record time) she now has the reading bug and is constantly searching for new books to feed her ‘vamp-habit’ which is leading her to move on to a wide selection of authors and even the classics… Bram Stoker can attribute quite a comeback thanks to this trend. When it all comes down to it like JK Rowling and many before her Stephanie Myer is getting teens who would otherwise be planted in front of Gossip Girl reading - that has to be a good thing.

    • Zeta says:

      09:11am | 24/11/09

      @ Kristin - Others things teenagers like that are still bad:

      15 year old Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber.
      Any variation on Idol television.
      Alcopops.
      Unprotected sex.
      Graffiti.
      My Chemical Romance, also, anything suffixed with the word ‘scene’.
      Being moody.
      The latest products from Apple.

      They’re not exactly paragons of culture are they. And Stoker was still a purveyor of penny dreadfuls. It’s not like they’re getting into Proust, is it.

    • Jimbo Jones says:

      09:13am | 24/11/09

      I thought Twilight was a rip off of the much better Buffy but to be honest with you but I don’t mind it (Joss Whedon should sue though). The ‘male’ (of which I actually am one) response to the series is whacko, it’s like ‘the boys’ are miffed that a ‘girl movie’ has stepped into the ‘male event movie territory’ that is usually occupied by films like ‘Wolverine’ (Wolverine, frankly is a girls film too, it really really, really is… ‘Apocalypse Now’ - now there’s a ‘males’ movie, if such a thing ever were really to exist which frankly it don’t).  Females curiously debate whether Bella is a ‘good role model’ - as a male I never really considered Kyle Reese was a ‘good role model’ but I thought the way he saved Sarah Connor made him a pretty decent kind of bloke (Terminator to the one or two people who still haven’t seen it… c’mon, you oughtta be ashamed if you didn’t get that reference).  I s’pose the ladies only have a choice between the ‘banalities of Sex and the City’ (for the ‘older’ ladies) or the edgier ‘youth oriented’ Twilight (and the above mentioned Gossip Girl - which falls into ‘younger Sex and City’ territory).  There’s no harm in Twilight, it’s a bit of fluff and fun, I’ll probably wait for the DVD to see it (as a rental) but it’s a hire I’ll be looking forward to.  My two cents.

    • Jessica says:

      11:18am | 24/11/09

      I think what everyone is forgetting is that it is a LOVE STORY between a vampire and a human not a violent “rip your throat out” movie.
      If you don’t like twilight yay for you then build a bridge and get over it!!
      Let the girls and guys enjoy their movie/books.

    • BPobjie says:

      12:59pm | 24/11/09

      Actually, it’s a love story between a teenage girl and a 100-year-old man. We got a word for that kind of elderly pervert ‘round these parts…

    • Chuck says:

      02:06pm | 24/11/09

      Zeta,
      I’d pay to see your movie.

    • Tim says:

      02:11pm | 24/11/09

      Jessica,
      i think what your forgetting is that Vampires are meant to eat people, not fall in love with them.
      If you want to make a vampire movie, at least let the poor vampires chow down on some people, preferably stupid angsty teenage girls.
      Oh and throw in a car chase, i like car chases.

    • H of SA says:

      05:20pm | 24/11/09

      @ Zeta.

      I can actually scarily see Bowie in just the role you cast….creepy and bankable.

 

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