'New Moon' Movie Review

Taking this near feeding frenzy as a sign that Bella isn't safe around them, the Cullens decide to pack up and move out of town. Heartbroken, she mopes -- even more than usual -- for months before discovering that she can "see" Edward by doing something dangerous. It seems that motorcycle riding or cliff diving conjures up Obi-Wan-like visions of him warning her to be careful, like a motherly ghost with dreamboat hair.

Bella seeks the aid of old pal Jacob (Taylor Lautner) to help her repair an old motorcycle that she can use for her hallucinatory thrills, and having had a crush on her for some time, Jacob readily agrees. During the weeks-long repair process, Bella grows closer to Jacob, in part because he's become physically buff since she last saw him and in part because, well, he's there.

It turns out that Jacob's physical metamorphosis -- including an increasingly volatile temper -- is emblematic of a bigger change: he's a werewolf. And, like her vampire ex-boyfriend, Jacob pushes her away when he fears for her safety.

Luckily for Bella, she still has her life-threatening stunts to fall back on, but when one results in her near-death, Edward misinterprets a long-distance message to mean that she's dead. With the wisdom of a teenager, he determines to end his life too by going to the Volturi, the Italian vampire royalty who oversee the actions of their kind worldwide. Can Bella clear things up before he pulls a Romeo? And who will she ultimately choose: Edward or Jacob?

Part of the success comes courtesy of a sense of humor largely absent in the first movie. Whereas Twilight, as the introductory film in the series, was more concerned with establishing the characters, New Moon has more freedom to play with relationships and dole out "in jokes." Rosenberg's dialogue has some refreshingly light moments that make Bella's perpetually gloomy character seem almost human, while Weitz's direction often seems tongue-in-cheek and self-consciously campy, packed with the rampant shirtlessness (and in one scene, near pantslessness) designed to make the theater erupt in squeals.

Another aspect that makes New Moon more enjoyable than Twilight is unintentional. The bland, emotionless Edward-Bella relationship that dominated the first film takes a back seat here to more intriguing storylines, from the werewolf pack recruiting Jacob to the Volturi introduction to the return of vampire baddies from the previous movie to a Jacob-Bella relationship that doesn't subject us to quite as much Harlequin melodrama.

That said, New Moon is shallow, unrepentantly silly and worst of all, it sends a dangerous message to young girls about self-esteem (or lack thereof), the control that boys have over their lives and the extreme lengths to which girls should go to win love.