I’m a stickler for book to movie adaptations. In my entire life, I don’t think I have ever been completely happy with the way a book was transformed into a movie. “White Oleander” lost a lot of story, ”The Hours” was a million times better than the movie, and the most recent Harry Potter adaptation…well you know that I was left feeling completely unfulfilled. Even the “Twilight” movie was horrendous. It’s true, the book to film adaptation has always left me wanting more…that is until now.

I got a VERY special invitation from my good friend, and costume coordinator of NEW MOON, Kurtis to come and see the crew screening of the second film in the Twilight saga. Needless to say I freaked out. Knowing how much of a huge fan I was, I’m sure he figured I would probably appreciate it more than anyone on the planet. Now before you think I would give this movie a perfect review just because I love the books – think again. The first movie was real bad…for real. I went to film school for two years, and I made short films better than Twilight. The effects were terrible, the shooting style was lame; it was just an atrocious movie. I’m sure Summit thought the same thing, given that they axed director Catherine Hardwicke (thank god) and replaced her with the insanely talented Christ Weitz. Chris was even there tonight to thank everyone for their hard work, and introduced the movie which I thought was very classy of him, but I digress.  

I walked into this film knowing that I would probably like it, and had really high expectations from all the trailers and the fact that they KNEW they had to step it up on round two. What I didn’t know, is how much I would absolutely adore this flawless film.

In the first scene, you can already see the talent radiating from this director and his team. The scene in the meadow is absolutely breathtaking, and it just got better from there. Every major plot point from the book is brought to the screen flawlessly so I don’t need to go into detail about what happens. Instead, I’m going to talk about my favorite parts in the movie.

The fight scene between Paul and Taylor: One of the biggest concerns from all Twi-Hards would be how are they going to represent the wolves and their transformations. We didn’t get a good look at it until the first trailer came out. I swear I heard a collective sigh of relief from the world. What I didn’t know AGAIN, was that little clip in the trailer is NOTHING compared to the whole scene. The CGI of the transformation of the wolves, and the fight between Paul and Taylor is outstanding. I clutched my pearls (and Kurtis had a good laugh) and was at the edge of my seat. Concern #1 was taken care of.

Jessica: In the first film, Bella’s friends were lame. Jessica was a tool and really bothered me. In this movie, she offers some incredible comic relief. Trust me.

Imagining Edward: After Edward leaves Bella, the only time she “sees” him is when his life is in danger. She hallucinates, and the phantom Edward gives her the advice she needs to protect herself. In the book, he makes a couple appearances, but in the movie they really threw him in there, which I thought was amazing.

Months passing: In the novel, Stephanie Meyer represents the months passing after Edward leaves by writing the name fn the month on a blank page. In the film, Chris Weitz did something similar, and did it beautifully. Bella was sitting in her room, and a camera just circled her slowly. Whenever coming to the window, the weather would change. Well done.

The Volturi – The Volturi are thought of as vampire royalty, and the ones who govern the vampire world. They aren’t really bag guys, but are the represented as such I guess you could say. These are where the powerhouse actors I think are.

In the New Moon film, the cast of the Volturi includes Michael Sheen as Aro; Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius; Christopher Heyerdahl as Marcus; Dakota Fanning as Jane; Cameron Bright as Alec; Charlie Bewley as Demetri; Daniel Cudmore as Felix; and Noot Seear as Heidi.

The minute they come on screen, you could feel how powerful they are. There is a fight scene here that doesn’t happen in the book, and again it was done really REALLY beautifully. The greatest I think is Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen in this group for sure. Dakota represented Jane just how I pictured her to be, and Michael Sheen is one of my favourite actors and he can do no wrong.

Is this movie perfect? No. Kristen Stewart, even though I didn’t hate her as much, seemed like she delivered her lines 1 second too late. Robert Pattinson’s brooding really bugged me, I mean honestly how depressed can you be all the time? And Taylor Lautner just looks twelve for real. His body is perfect, but it’s just so strange seeing such a boy with such a man’s body. There I critiqued the holy trinity of Twilight as much as I could.

If you are lucky enough to get a ticket to see this movie this weekend, you better go. It’s two hours of pure movie magic. I felt so completely fulfilled with this movie that I’m not as impatient for the next one to come out because I’m SO good with this one. Don’t get me wrong, I am STOKED to see what they do with the next installment, some of my favourite characters come out in the next one. But for right now rest assured that Chris Weitz and crew have done us all proud.

4/5 stars….easily.

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• Book Review: Some Girls Bite
• Sookie Stackhouse or Bella Swan? Whose Team Are You On?
• Twilight Update: New Moon Posters

(5 votes, average: 3.40 out of 5)