I was at the Twilight New Moon screening last night and I was sitting in a cinema with hundreds of very excited people, a majority of them girls from young teenagers to middle age women, already very eager for the film to start of this amazingly popular franchise.
But there is a delay as someone from behind the curtain announces that we are waiting for some special guests to arrive before the film starts and that leads for the blood thirsty audience to erupt into an orgy of excited screams and expectation that Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner are here, oh boy what have i let myself in for? here's my review with some spoilers.
And so the curtains draw back after a further delay, more over excited screams, and a man with microphone announces that Twilight star Michael Sheen is stuck in traffic and can't make it but new twilight actor Jamie Campbell Bower that plays Caius (Thanks to Sofia pointing this out to me, i had trouble hearing from the back through all the dam screams!) eagerly takes the limelight thanking everyone and introduces the film, more screams.
The film starts, supplementary screams (a pattern is emerging which continues throughout the film at any appearance of Edward and Jacob, slightly annoying) and what unfolds is the continuing story of forbidden love between Bella and Edward that is put on ice by the arrival of Jacob sporting 30 ponds of extra muscle to confirm his role in the film.
I need to admit something here, I am a 31 year old man with no previous experience of anything Twilight and was extremely surprised by the excitement that surrounded me and the passion the people had for the story and the characters and I can fully understand how this film is such a phenomenal success.
The actors own their characters entirely and the story has, from what I've been told, a strong source material to draw from and so what I saw on screen was always going to please the fans in every way. Jacob, now a beefed up sex icon, pleased the ladies every time he appeared and probably stole the film from Edward as the werewolf clan member who became Bella's love Interest after Edward chooses to leave Forks with the Cullen family in a bid to protect Bella from harm.
Edward's plan backfires as the evil and revengeful vampire Victoria is seeking to kill Bella as revenge to Edward for killing her lover in Twilight but the werewolf clan hunt and keep Bella safe from the red headed vampire, this part was only touched upon and Victoria's vendetta will be expanded upon in the third film were she will build an army to fight the Cullen family where Victoria has been recast to be played by Bryce Dallas.
The story of the werewolves is explained and of the treaty they have with the Cullen vampire family that protects the humans in the town of Forks and so Bella is drawn to another supernatural family and eventually falls for Jacob after a long series of bonding sessions, boy does she pick her men with a closet full of secrets.
The film reaches a climax where Edward believes Bella is dead and chooses to sacrifice his life to the Volturi who reside in Volterra Italy, they are vampires who impose the laws of the vampire world that are led by Aro, played by Michael 'i can act as anybody' Sheen, and Bella eventually has to choose between Jacob and her true love Edward, only one winner really and she heads off to Italy to save him in.
I won't spoil it but i suppose most of the readers of the book know the ending by now, it seemed to satisfy the crowd a lot with probably the biggest screams and cheers of all and so now the build up to Twilight Eclipse Begins.
The film is not to my liking but it's not trying to appeal to someone like me. It's well acted, well cast and the story is perfect for the people it is aimed for and that's enough for it to work and continue to be the huge success that it is and according to a few people i overheard speaking on the way out is no where as good as the first film but i doubt that it will matter, there is nothing like this that appeals to this generation more than The Twilight Saga and it will enjoy another couple of years of further success as it completes it's journey.
The fights are fast and solid although sparse, Kristen Stewart was again a very strong presence on screen but the special FX were a bit ropey, especially the werewolves. But overall for a film about supernatural characters like vampires and werewolves the underlining story is still a love story and probably it's defining legacy and one that seems to hit most with the majority of teenage fans in the cinema that will no doubt return for more in 2010 for Twilight Eclipse. Watch this space for more news.
I was at the Twilight New Moon screening last night and I was sitting in a cinema with hundreds of very excited people, a majority of them girls from young teenagers to middle age women, already very eager for the film to start of this amazingly popular franchise.
The film starts, supplementary screams (a pattern is emerging which continues throughout the film at any appearance of Edward and Jacob, slightly annoying) and what unfolds is the continuing story of forbidden love between Bella and Edward that is put on ice by the arrival of Jacob sporting 30 ponds of extra muscle to confirm his role in the film.
