The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Two-Disc Special Edition) [Dvd] (2010); Billy Burke

I never made it to the cinema to see this so was counting down the days till it's release. I did enjoy it though was really dissapointed that Catherine Hardwicke didn't direct, I loved Twilight, the mood of it, the way it was filmed and the intensity between Edward and Bella, The Cullens had a mysterious aura about them and I felt though closer to the book New Moon was lacking in this, the difference in the lighting I didn't like and some key bits were just skimmed over. When Carlisle explains how Edward feels about his soul in the extended/deleted scenes that should have been left in and when Edward calls to speak to Charlie, they should have focused on his reaction more, he thinks his destiny, his reason to 'live' is dead and he got about 4 seconds screen time. The way that Edward is dressed is a total u turn, from the James Deanesque to a a bit too fuddy duddy and Jasper, what happened to the hair and clothes!!The image you have in your head of them doesn't quite transfer over as well as Twilight did. The soundtrack was good although Bellas lullaby was nowhere to be heard, I mean come on!! Possibility was an amazing song and summed up Bellas devastation brilliantly, some of the ascending classical music at key bits was a bit too Hollywood and not in keeping with what I expected, I sound like I hated it but I actually really liked it, just dissapointed in some of it. I went through a range of emotions from tears, when Edward dumps her and when she saves him in italy ("I can let you go now") oh man gets me every time; to cheers, they make it home alive, although the journey on the plane could have afforded a small scene. I can't believe ive not mentioned Jacob, the main focus of this film yet, the friendship between him and Bella is lovely though sometimes you think Bella is bloody selfish and lets him dangle! Taylor is really good as Jacob though a bit more time devoted to his struggle in being a Wolf would have been good.Love the wolf pack, Paul especially and would have liked to have seen a bit more of them. They made the film for me, the part at Emilys house was really good, funny. I overall would recommend New Moon it is a good film and Michael Sheen is fab as Aro, charming but so bloody (no pun intended) creepy when he needs to be, just dissapointed that Edward got such a whipping from Felix in Volterra, where in the book was that? Hated the cringeworthy vision that Alice has of Bella, that could have been better. Liked all the extras on the 2 discs, especially 'Edward/Jacob fast forward' and the Eclipse sneak peak, which looks good although the new Victoria looks awful! Heres hoping that all the Cullens get the chance to shine or rather sparkle in the next installment. Bring back Cathy for Breaking Dawn. xx

This is the second film based on the books by Stephanie Meyer -  New Moon  - and it is definitely the Team Jacob film with Edward and the Cullen's appearing significantly less in this film than in the previous ones.Continuing on where the first film ended follows the romantic entanglements of Bella Swan with vampire Edward Cullen. This film features more of Bella's relationship with local boy and childhood friend Jacob Black.Once again I have to confess that I came to the film without reading the book, in fact I watched Twilight and New Moon back to back in the hopes that it would help me understand what was going on. I have just finished Twilight and am about to start New Moon (the book) - Twilight having filled in so many gaps which the first film left me with I hope the New Moon will do the same.For example: I don't understand is why Jasper would kick off at a drop of blood when at the end of the first film pints were gushing from a severed artery and it had no effect what so ever - but I'm new to this series and from what I see I'm sure that someone from the great fan community will be able to explain the why.This is one of those times when it is extremely important you read the book in order to understand the characters and their backgrounds. So much is left out that for those, like me, who came to the series with no knowledge of the background the films can seem disjointed. Once the books have been consumed the whole story becomes clearer, therefore, I recommend to anyone who has not already read the books that you do so - it makes the films much, much clearer.I have to admit that I'm with the people who are questioning the change of Director between films - and it wasn't just the association with Twilight as I always question a change of director in a series of films. One thing Chris Weitz did was bring out the best in Kirsten Stewart (Bella) and Taylor Lautner (Jacob). Miss Stewart finally came across as something other than the vacuous, sulky teenage brat and was able to portray the deeper desire and obsession with Edward that was missing from the first film. Unfortunately for Mr Lautner his part in the first film was minimal and did not show off his great acting talent.Michael Sheen is superbly (and charmingly) creepy as the head of the elite Italian vampire family.I thank the people at Amazon for getting this out to me for Saturday before the official release at midnight on Sunday; I've spent the last 36 hours watching the film, film with commentary (how about commentary from the actors next time - note to Mr Weitz: keep your hands off other people's burgers)This was a great follow up to Twilight and I look forward to reading the next book and watching the next film.--- for information ----Language options - English onlySubtitles - English onlyRunning Time - 127 minutes