Today I saw "New Moon" at my local movie theater. I had chosen the 12:30 pm matinee listed in the newspaper, but when I got there I saw that the showing was at 2 pm; I had to wait another 90 minutes for the theater to open. After I got my ticket, I went inside. The audience was small, roughly 25 people including myself, but it was no surprise to find that a good part of the audience was made up of teenaged girls.

The movie's opening scene was nicely done, a gold autumn full moon waning into a new moon and revealing the film's title. All the regulars from "Twilight" returned for "New Moon": Robert Pattinson (Edward), Kristen Stewart (Bella), Taylor Lautner (Jacob), Billy Burke (Bella's dad Charlie), Anna Kendrick (Jessica), Michael Welch (Mike), Justin Chon (Eric), Christian Serratos (Angela), Peter Facinelli (Carlisle), Elizabeth Reaser (Esme), Kellan Lutz (Emmett), Nikki Reed (Rosalie), Jackson Rathbone (Jasper), Ashley Greene (Alice), Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria), and Edi Gathegi (Laurent).

The film starts with Bella having a dream where she's 65 but Edward is still 17. Knowing she will age and Edward never will upsets Bella on what is supposed to be a happy day - her 18th birthday. The Cullens give her a party, during which she cuts her finger while opening a gift. The sight of her blood makes Jasper lunge at her, but Edward intervenes and the other vamps restrain Jasper. Later, Bella is stunned when Edward announces that he and his family are leaving Forks, never to return. She spirals into a crushing depression and reckless behavior that is lessened when she takes up with Jacob. She learns from him that Sam, a leader of a group of Quilete youths, is observing him. The next time she sees Jacob, his long hair is now short, he wears an ornate tattoo, and he brusquely tells her to stay away. She refuses and confronts the youths, who also wear the same short hair and tattoo. One of them, Paul, gets in her face and Bella slaps him, enraging him so much that he transforms into a giant gray wolf. He charges at her and Jacob comes between them, morphing into a equally big auburn wolf. It's at this moment that Bella sees why Jacob wanted her gone - he's a werewolf. In a reckless moment she dives off a cliff into a raging sea and is saved from drowning by Jacob. Their feelings for each other grow until Alice appears to announce that Edward, believing Bella dead, has gone to Volterra, Italy to be executed by the Volturi, an ancient vampire clan that lays down the law for other clans. Accompanied by Alice, Bella flies to Volterra to face the Volturi and convince them to spare Edward.

I liked "New Moon", but as I saw it, there were three problems. First, the sequences of Bella's depression slowed the film down to where it dragged. Second, and this is my biggest issue, were the performances of the two leads, with Kristen Stewart showing faint emotion except when she was yelling or screaming and Robert Pattinson showing nearly no emotion at all. But I blame the film's director Chris Weitz; the actors can make Edward Cullen and Bella Swan much more passionate if they're allowed to. I've started reading Stephenie Meyer's novels, and maybe it's how I personally interpret these two characters, but Edward and Bella don't come across as wooden figures in the books, so I don't see why Robert and Kristen should in the films. The third problem was the computer-generated wolves. Their size didn't bother me and the morphing scenes were great, but the wolves weren't all that convincing; they looked more like 3-D cartoon characters than real wolves. I hope this problem was fixed because I'd hate to see it repeated in "Eclipse", which will come out on June 30, 2010.

However, there were many things I enjoyed about "New Moon". It had more humor; the audience laughed at "You're good with weird" and "It would be good to not want to kill you all the time". (They apparently didn't get the "wolf's out of the bag" quip because I was the only one who laughed.) I found myself saying, "Go get 'em, boys!" as the wolfpack hunted Laurent and Victoria. The location shots were amazing; they actually went to Italy to do the Volturi sequences, so you really saw the difference between damp, gray Forks and bright, sunny Volterra. I also enjoyed the costumes; those hooded red capes were cool. Were the Volturi's 18th century outfits a nod to "Interview with the Vampire?" I couldn't help but think it was. That underground Volturi throne room was gorgeous. Too bad it was also a death trap for those unsuspecting tourists!