I saw New Moon last night because, well, I love ridiculous pop culture phenomenons and movies that make so much money despite terrible reviews and bad writing that I had to go. (Also I read all the books so I felt obligated.) I am not really going to review this movie because if you read the books, you’ve seen the movie. If you didn’t, you won’t ever see it unless your girlfriend makes you go or its on T.V. in a few years. But since I wrote about the first one, I figured a second post was in order.

For those of you living under a rock (I feel like I wrote this exactly a year ago), New Moon is the second book of four by Stephanie Meyer which features a vampire and human who fall in love against all odds, battles ensue, werewolves show up, typical high school girl things. The first movie was more or less the worst thing to ever hit the big screen. The scriptwriter only read the first book and was sort of a joke, Summit, the production company hardly had any money and was new to the scene, and the special effects looked straight out of 1982. This time around, after making a lot of money from the first movie, they really stepped up their game. Summit now has money, the scriptwriter put time into working the book into movie form, and it doesn’t look like it was shot by a 12 year old. The acting is significantly better, the special effects put you in the world accurate to the book, the music was much improved (more on that later), and the story did not feel broken and confusing.

Here is the deal with these movies. They are going to make a crap load of money because the books did, just like Harry Potter. The metacritic reviews are somewhere in the 39% overall range, which by standards of films is probably accurate. But the reviewers are looking at it the wrong way. It is not a film, but rather a direct portrayal of the book for fan service only, and in that regard it is almost a perfect rendition. A lot of people like to argue that the Harry Potter movies are great, which is not true. Most of those reviewers have probably read the books because really, who hasn’t? I would actually argue that this movie was more entertaining, which is what this type of movie is supposed to be, than the last Harry Potter movie. The last Harry Potter movie was an all out CG fest with little fan service and bad dialogue transitions. I read the books and I was confused about what was going on.

I saw this movie with my girlfriend who has not read the book (that’s embarrassing) and when the movie was over she looked at me and said, “That was pretty good.” Which surprised me because she HATED the first movie. But like I said earlier, it is better in almost every way. What I really think made this movie better, was everything I mentioned above, but the spot on CG and music is what really brought it to life. The soundtrack is an incredible mash up of indie bands who made the music exclusively for the purpose of this movie. It really made me feel the sadness that ran through the whole movie. It feels more like Dark Was The Night (a recent release of hipster bands that I love) than a soundtrack for a teen book turned movie. If you don’t see the movie, at least pick up the soundtrack because it is that good.

I don’t have much else to say, but like I felt like I needed to say that despite reviews it can be an enjoyable experience. Go in knowing what you are going to get and you can have a good time with this movie.