Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Forks, Washington resident Bella Swan is reeling from the departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, and finds comfort in her friendship with Jacob Black, a werewolf. But before she knows it, she's thrust into a centuries-old conflict, and her desire to be with Edward at any cost leads her to take greater and greater risks.
New Moon is a largely inert middle chapter that struggles with its own premise — Edward is absent for much of the film, leaving the narrative to tread water around Bella's depression and her growing bond with Jacob. The plotting is thin and episodic, building to a rushed climax in Volterra that feels undercooked. Acting remains a weak point: Stewart's blank melancholy and Pattinson's brooding are one-note, though Lautner brings some physicality to Jacob. Visually, the film improves slightly on its predecessor with some attractive Pacific Northwest landscape work and the celebrated spinning-seasons shot of Bella's grief, earning a modest bump in cinematography. But the story is fundamentally derivative — a vampire-werewolf love triangle wrapped in YA formula — and the ending resolves little while setting up the next installment in the most perfunctory way possible.