New Moon

There's a moment in the Twilight Saga's second installment, New Moon, when the heroine, Bella Swan, realizes that the boy she is attracted to is a werewolf. She is not completely flummoxed--after all, her first and abiding love is a vampire. Clearly this young lady has a problem finding boys without major baggage. One wonders if she takes a moment and wonders, where are all the normal boys?

After the soggy, listless first film in the Twilight series, I passed on seeing the second one in theaters, but to keep my finger on the pulse of America I took a look at the DVD. It's not that good, but it kept me interested, mostly due to director Chris Weitz' superior visual style (superior to Catherine Hardwicke, director of the first film, that is). There's more characters and an expanding plot, which takes the story from the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, to an Italian villa where the ruling aristocracy of vampires holds court. It's all very silly--Michael Sheen, who played a similar character in Underworld, hams it up as chief vampire (why do all vampire ruling bodies look like aging rock stars in renaissance clothing?), but if I were a teenager I might enjoy it a little more.

The heart of the story is Bella (played by Kristen Stewart, who does display more range of emotion this time out--she even laughs once) and her love quandary. Edward, her dreamboat vampire from the first film, has to leave with his family. He's afraid he endangers her (his foster brother goes berserk when Bella gets a paper-cut) so the whole clan packs up and leaves. Bella goes into a funk that even outdoes most teenager girls, staring out the window for months, distancing herself from her friends. But a local Indian boy, Jacob (Taylor Lautner) gets her involved in a project rebuilding motorcycles, and she comes out of her depression a bit, though she still sees Edward in her mind whenever she puts herself in a dangerous situation. A parallel to Romeo and Juliet, which is referenced throughout the film, comes up when Edward thinks Bella is dead, which makes him want to kill himself.

Lautner, unlike Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward, has a spark and charisma that makes him interesting to watch. But things get complicated when he starts turning into a giant wolf, which apparently many men in his tribe are want to do. Werewolves and vampires, it turns out, are natural enemies, though the wolves and the Cullen family have a truce. Bella finds herself in the middle of it.

I'm sure fans of the book series liked this fine, and it appears to be a faithful adaptation, as there are several specific details that didn't need to be there and it's over-long (although I did like Dakota Fanning as a sinister vampire). There are all sorts of greater questions raised by certain plot elements, such as when Jacob announces that being a werewolf is how he was born, which sounds like something a gay teen would say, and Bella's insistence that she be turned into a vampire so she can be with Edward forever smacks of anti-feminist rhetoric. Edward finally gives in on this point at the end of the film but only if Bella will marry him. Vampires are so old-fashioned!