NEW MOON (Blu-ray)

Release date: March 22nd 2010
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 130 minutes

Director: Chris Weitz

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Elizabeth Reaser, Peter Facinelli

New Moon, the follow-up to 2008’s Twilight, is based on the second book in the series by Stephenie Meyer directed this time by Chris Weitz.

It’s been a few months after the events in the first movie. Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) are now officially an “item” and life couldn’t be better. The Cullen’s decide to throw her a birthday party for her 18th, but being as clumsy as she is, Bella ends up with a paper cut which almost leads to Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) making an evening snack of her.

Edward comes to realise that Bella’s life will always be in danger if he continues to be around her and decides its better if they no longer together. Devastated by this, Bella launches into months of heartache, waking up screaming and going through her daily life a ghost of her former self.

After leaping from a cliff into the ocean, Bella catches a glimpse of Edward and comes to realise that the closer she is to danger, she will always see him. Although she’s not sure if it’s really him or just her imagination, she is happy for the small apparition anyway. To find more danger she takes to hanging out with Jacob (Taylor Lautner) who’s going through his own set of changes. Jacob helps heal her wounded heart and something deeper develops between them. But Bella’s new-found comfort is short lived when Jacob’s commitments to the wolf pack become stronger.

As a result of her cliff diving, the Cullens presume that Bella is now dead and I typical Romeo & Juliet style Edward intends to end his existence. When Bella finds out she leaves on a mission to rescue him before he sparkles for the last time.

At over 2 hours long, New Moon, unlike its predecessor Twilight, drags in places where it’s heavy on the dialogue and light on the action. For most of the movie we see Bella’s friendship with Jacob blossom while she tries to get over the heartache of losing Edward, whereas in the book these moments comes across differently. When Bella realises that Edward will always appear when she is closest to danger she begins to live recklessly in an effort to draw him out although she is never certain if its just her imagining creating an apparition of him, she is happy to see his face; real or imagined.