Victoria Sun
Staff Writer

To all the girls out there: do you remember a time when you swooned over Robert Pattinson in Twilight? You may not admit to doing it, but you know that your heart fluttered at least once. Well, my friend, those days are over – Taylor Lautner is the dashing heart and soul of New Moon, and I, especially after seeing it twice, definitely wouldn’t have it any other way.
Kristen Stewart plays Bella Swan: a girl in a deep depression after her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattionson) leaves her. Bella’s best friend, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) helps bring her out of this depression, and the two end up bonding in unanticipated ways. (For a more in-depth summary, see last issue’s article, “New Movie, New Moon, New Fans?” or simply check out the Web.)
New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass), opened on November 20, 2009 to staggering numbers. It set two impressive new records, grossing $72.7 million on opening day and $26.3 million from midnight showings alone. Before the Thanksgiving break began, New Moon’s worldwide earnings stood at about $311.1 million, and, undoubtedly, those numbers have skyrocketed as a result of the vacation.
Unfortunately, not all of the critics believe that this good fortune is deserved. New Moon received a score of only 30% on RottenTomatoes.com, a much worse rating than its predecessor’s – Twilight – 49%. Richard Roeper even described it as a “plodding, achingly slow, 130-minute chapter in the saga.” Surprisingly, though, some reviewers gave major kudos to Stewart, an actress normally ridiculed for her extremely static facial expressions. Says Jordan Mintzer (Variety), Stewart “gives both weight and depth to dialogue…that would sound like typical chick-lit blather in the mouth of a less engaging actress, and she makes Bella’s psychological wounds seem like the real deal”. Of course, her performance isn’t flawless. I couldn’t help but laugh – during not just the first, but the second time around, as well – throughout what I’ve dubbed the ‘Pig Squeal’ scene, when Bella’s devastation manifests itself in her nightmares. Bella’s shrieks, which sound more like sounds of a baby-piggy rather than depressed-human, can be seen in some of the New Moon trailers.
Stewart’s pitiful crying wasn’t the only unintentionally laughable moment in the movie. There was also a scene – stuck between two emotionally engaging ones – involving the most awkward elevator ride in history. The characters’ emotions quickly range from panic, to joy, to love, to fright, to… an elevator ride complete with really bad operatic music. What?!
In addition, the action sequences seem to be a lot less frequent in this, the second installment of the Twilight saga. I recently watched the movie with my friend’s eleven-year-old kid brother, and afterwards, he seemed immensely disappointed in the lack of warring vampires. New Moon is most definitely more of a romance than an action-adventure.
Not everything was bad, though. As stated before, Taylor Lautner’s performance alone is enough reason to spend nine dollars and see New Moon on the big screen. Lautner is entirely believable as the werewolf friend yearning for much more than friendship. He brings to life the one-sided relationship between Bella and Jacob. His love for her is rightfully heart wrenching to watch.
In the Twilight universe, there are two opposing forces: the fans who think that Bella belongs with Edward, and the fans who believe she should ditch Edward and love Jacob, instead. When I read the books, I was a die-hard ‘Team Edward’ fan… but Taylor Lautner’s performance might be convincing enough to turn even the hardest of hearts into a ‘Team Jacob’ supporter.