REEL REVUE DOUBLE FEATURE: Twilight Saga: New Moon

Well for all the "Twi-Hard" fans, the second installment of the epic book series written by Stephanie Meyer released due to theaters in record numbers scoring the largest opening weekend in history.

Following the first film, Bella Swan narrowly escaped the clutches of the evil vampire James (Cam Gigandet) while finding love with vampire Edward Cullen. Bella and Edward's lives have been full of nothing but love and bliss until during the night of Bella's birthday, her new found friend and sister of Edward, Alice, decides to throw her lavish party, complete with balloons, ribbons and cake that could feed an army.

The party takes a turn for the worse as Bella accidentally cuts her finger while opening a present, resulting in Jasper Hale, the newest addition to the Cullen clan, succumbing to his blood lust and attacks Bella. Edward decides that while he and his family are around, Bella's life will always be at risk, against Bella's wishes Edward decides to leave Bella so that she could be safe but asks her to promise not to do anything reckless.

As Bella is dealing with the pain of a broken heart, she rekindles her relationship with childhood friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner, a member of the Quilite tribe who manages to bring some joy and meaning back into Bella's life.

Once their relationship becomes closer, Bella discovers Jacob has a secret of his own- he's a werewolf, a secret that temporarily deteriorates their freindship.

Despite her issues with Jacob, Bella struggles to get the love of her life, Edward out of her mind. With new dangers, new friends and new enemies, Bella finds herself choosing between holding on to the past or accepting a new future with Edward or Jacob.

First off, I felt this movie was directed better than the first film, except the scene transitions were a little haggard and certain points at times didn't seem to flow, the action sequences were a bit much but I thought the CGI effects of the werewolves was great, I did enjoy the comedic moments in the film though, it made the movie even better.

The performances were solid as the first film, Stewart and Pattinson's chemistry was strong, maybe how their relationship is in real life. The supporting cast, including Lautner and Greene's performances were strong as well.

I did note an interesting casting choice, that of Michael Sheen (who played Lucian, the leader of the Lycans in the three, soon to be four Underworld films) as Aro, the leader of the vampire royalty known as the Volturi.

In an odd casting call, Dakota Fanning as one of the young Volturi clan, maybe it's just me but she still looks too young to be cast in such adult roles like in this film or in "Push" from earlier this year.

Granted, I never read the books, nor will I ever read these books, but these films are good for the teenage based fans, for me personally I'm still into vampire films such as Blade and Underworld.

I do feel these films will propel these actors to huge roles including Pattinson who is set to star with Pierce Brosnan in "Remember Me", Stewart whose fresh off her role in "Adventureland" (the only good thing about this movie) and Anna Kendrick whose co-starring with George Clooney in the critically acclaimed "Up In The Air."

Nowadays, vampires are the craze based on Twilight, the HBO series "True Blood" (which has spawned a caffeinated beverage of the same name) and the new CW series "The Vampire Diaries," I would just rather wait for another film like a Blade or an Underworld (except for Rise of the Lycans, because without Kate Beckinsale, seeing that movie wasn't worth the ticket).

On a side note, clearly this movie was focus on the teenage female audience with countless scenes of guys shirtless, okay your buff, your ripped like Rambo, we get the point, at times I thought I was watching an ad for GQ or Muscle and Fitness.

Despite my mixed review, I wouldn't rank Twilight Saga: New Moon as one of the worst movies of the year, but still not one of my best movies of the year.

Next time on the Reel Revue, will be my review of "Pirate Radio" starring Bill Nighy and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

You've read my review, now check what some fellow critics thought of "Twilight Saga: New Moon"