At the Movies With Peter Travers: “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”
Twilight Nation will storm theaters this weekend as The Twilight Saga: New Moon finally arrives, continuing the story of Bella, Edward, the werewolves and the drama in Forks, Washington. Regardless of how Peter Travers feels about New Moon in this week’s At the Movies, Rolling Stone‘s film critic knows he can’t stop the Twilight juggernaut from raking in the cash — the franchise is so powerful, he points out, rival studios were afraid to release movies against it.
Read our New Moon review here.
This movie “is for nine-year-old girls, and the nine-year-old girl inside of all of us,” Travers says in his New Moon review. But his nine-year-old girl is critical: he says young cast didn’t have enough time to adequately learn how to act between the first film and this sequel, so once again Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner pose while a movie goes on around them. At one point, Frost/Nixon actor Michael Sheen, playing a millennium-old vampire, appears onscreen and puts on an acting clinic, but other than that, this film is about one thing: Team Edward vs. Team Jacob.
Read our interview with New Moon director Chris Weitz.
Last movie it was all about Pattinson, but now Lautner’s Jacob Black steps into the spotlight as a werewolf who gets embroiled in the Bella love triangle. For guys who are reluctantly being forced to see this movie this weekend with their girlfriends, there is some good news: Director Chris Weitz serves up more action than the film’s predecessor. And for the ladies, it seems like Pattinson and Lautner are constantly engaged in a Shirt-Off Sweepstakes,” which Lautner eventually wins. But let’s face it: Travers could give this film a negative-three star review and it’ll still make more at the box office than most nations’ gross national product.