Friday, December 4, 2009

Weitz Brings New Moon to Life

New Moon StillBefore all of you Twihards start hating let me begin by saying that I am Team Edward. Okay so a little over a year ago I was introduced to the Twilight Saga by a very good friend of mine and got sucked in (like most of us) right away.

I am not an avid reader, I never was however, I read the Saga all 2,444 pages in a little over two weeks. Needless to say it took over my life.

Out of all four novels New Moon happened to be my least favorite, thus fore I was excited about the movie just not ecstatic. (I don’t know how I will control my anxiety come June.) Despite this I found the movie more enjoyable and true to the book then the first installment Twilight.

For some reason I felt like the color and mood Catherine Hardwicke set in Twilight was very dream-like. It was as if I was watching a dream where all the colors blended together in a sort of grey blue-ish affect.

The camera was not held steady and firm and as an audience I felt as I was sort of just floating through the movie from above. A dream is a dream it’s not reality, the next day you think about them try to put the pieces together and it just doesn’t make sense.

New Moon was the opposite.

Chris Weitz put the audience in New Moon, right in the middle of the action. When Bella jumped off that cliff we jumped with her, we weren’t floating up above in a sea of colors, we the audience was falling with her.

In Twilight there were a lot of little scenes that were left out of the movie and fans were certainly disappointed that some didn’t make the cut. My favorite in particular was the scene towards the begging of the book when heir biology class experiments with blood typing and Bella has to leave the classroom, for the sight of blood makes her nauseas.

No this is not a critical scene at all, however it is ironic and it adds some comic relief to a very stuffy beginning of the movie. I was disappointed that it was left out come on, a vampire dating a human who is queasy at the sight of blood?

That’s just one, after reading many blogs after the movie came out their were a lot of other scenes that Twihards were upset didn’t make the final cut. In my opinion and so far after reading the blogs I don’t feel like that is the case with New Moon.

Wetiz knew he couldn’t add it all, it would be impossible but he did add things here and there without words ever being spoken that the readers saw and knew what it was.

We don’t need to see Bella physically reading Romeo and Juliet, when she wakes up on her birthday in the movie with the book on her pillow we know she has been reading it.

It was the little things Weitz did here and there that made New Moon a better movie then Twilight.

Unlike Bella’s trip to Arizona which lasted a whole 10 seconds in Twilight (and about 40 pages in the book) her journey to Italy with Alice in New Moon was more true to form. She didn’t get there in a blink of an eye.

Even the music I felt set a better mood in New Moon then it did in Twilight. There were less words and more music in New Moon, more word-less symphonies that helped set the tone of the scene.

A scene that was added to the movie where Victoria is being chased around the woods by the werewolves was very mellow and surreal thanks to Yorke’s Hearing Damage playing in the background.

All I can say now is, I hope Weitz’s schedule is clear for Breaking Dawn.

{by Kristina D.}

6 comments:

  1. Great blog!
    LOVED NM myself! can't wait to see what effects their going to bring to the table for Eclipse!

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  2. I have to say, I totally agree! don't get me wrong, I liked Twilight the film, but it held none of the brooding magic of the book and as you say, missed out on many of the key points!
    New Moon is far superior!
    I can't wait for Eclipse and hope that David Slade does it justice, it's not my favourite book of the Saga, but still bloody brilliant!!!!

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  3. Wow, you took the words out of my mouth. i thought the exact same thing. and i am team edward the wholeee way. The twilight movie was a big disappointment to me. i wanted to be as excited as i was about the book. great article :)

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  4. I agree totally....a couple of my fav twilight parts never made it to the movie..I loved the part when he asks her to distract him she says "I'm going to run over Tyler with my truck on monday."....not to mention the part where Jasper is making her calm in the hotel room and says "You're wrong you know...you are worth it."...that give the characters depth...comedy and understanding...new moon blew me away with how close it followed the book.

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  5. seconded!
    the most beloved quotes from the book were put into such nonsensical or awkward scenes in twilight, like edward's "you are my life now". i mean come on, saying this after the love of your life tells you for the first time that she loves you is one thing, and saying it in rushed 2 seconds through a car window is another. so many things were wasted thanks to catherine hardwicke in the first movie. like edward throwing a tantrum in the woods to show bella how fast, strong, etc. he is? that was ridiculous. edward was so calm and loving in the book. well there are too many things that were messed up in the first movie. thank god weitz saved it and showed the audience the real edward, or i would never have bothered to read the books.

    but still, i want something even better for bd :)

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