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Friday, November 20, 2009

NEW MOON Shines

I must say... I was impressed.

You knew I’d say that, didn’t you?

Here are the top 10 things that impressed me at the New Moon midnight show…

1. The FANS – early, eager, orderly, dutifully decked in Team Edward or Team Jacob garb.

2. The THEATRE – prepared, smart, grade-A facilitation – kudos Regal Pinnacle 18. You’ve both impressed and shocked me. We had our seats 4 ½ hours before show time. No sitting on the lobby floor for us, thank you very much.

3. WAIT-MANAGEMENT – iPhones, paperback novels, conversations in appropriate indoor voices, and a few responsible teenagers even did homework. What do ya know? There is hope for this generation!

4. The GENERATION GAP – not every patron had been born since 1995. The ones who had, though, were *gasp* well behaved. (Wait…what!?) And at 30-something, I was not alone in my age group, nor was I close to being oldest.

5. The GENDER RATIO – Of course, females clearly had the upper hand, but the men made a respectable showing. At about 15% of our 249-seat auditorium, the males I observed did not appear to have been shackled or drugged. Most of them even looked happy to be there.

6. The MovieSCRIPT – The movie is never as good as the book b/c it is impossible to fit everything in, and many times script-writers re-write our fave stories so drastically we don’t recognize them. New Moon’s writers have mastered this delicate art. It was like a Glee mash-up – fit in the important parts, made it sound/look beautiful.

7. The MovieCASTING – Taylor Lautner, who plays Jacob, really had to work hard and work out to keep his part from the first movie. He stepped up, did a great job. He deserved to stay. That boy is ripped! But they didn’t overplay his Michael Phelps abs (and biceps and pecs…) – oh, they played them, just not over played. Also, Martin Sheen as Aro was perfect. There’s no more perfect word than that – perfect.

8. The MovieSPECIAL EFFECTS – Edward’s sparkle did not look like glistening sweat – they amped it up just enough, the wolf-transformations were swwweeeet – but again, not over done, and there’s an awesome fight sequence with the Volturi.

9. The MovieTENSION BREAKERS – Direct novel quotes as well as added lines with just the right flavor in just the right spots drew just the right laughter. Charlie Swan continues to be a favorite of mine in that category.

10. The MovieTHE ENDING – I’M NOT GIVING IT AWAY, OF COURSE! WHAT KIND OF FAN DO YOU THINK I AM??? J

11. BONUSThe MovieTHE SCORE (by Alexandre Desplat)– SO amazing. Can’t wait to buy it. Comes out today, Fri. the 20th, but apparently WalMart doesn’t get it on to the shelves by 2:30am. What gives?

If you are a Twi-fan, you will love New Moon. If you are not, I couldn’t say. I wouldn’t claim industry awards or expect considerate critics – but who cares about them anyway? Not when we’re talking about such a fan-driven story. If the fans are happy, then New Moon succeeds.

The fans are happy.

(click for beginning of The Light in the Darkness: How Reading a Vampire Book Taught Me More About Faith - the New Moon section)

3 comments:

KM Wilsher said...

Great review. Sounds like the whole experience rocked! Wish we were there to go with you! Us TAZ would have loved to be with you!
I am excited to see it now.
Where is my team Jacob shirt ;)

Anonymous said...

Oh man. I can't wait to see it. Monday I am, I think.

Yeah, Jacob!!!!!!!!!!!!

Susanne Dietze said...

Excellent run-down! I loved the movie too. I was so happy to see that Edward's sparkle looked less like an illness and more like, well, a sparkle. Tho my husband noted they still put in sound fx to ensure that we understand the sparkliness :-)

And the wolves, oh wow. They did an awesome job with them.

Can't wait for Eclipse!