Twilight: Dueling critics debate. Day Five

In anticipation of the release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Time Out Chicago’s Hank Sartin and Time Out New York’s Joshua Rothkopf have been exchanging emails discussing and debating the cultural phenomenon that is Twilight. Last night they saw the film, and today they do a post-screening exchange on the film's merits.

To: Joshua Rothkopf

From: Hank Sartin

Josh,

You were certainly right yesterday about one thing: the real auteurs—or at least the real source of energy—in Twilight Saga: New Moon are the audience members. It's rare that a studio logo gets an anticipatory gasp and keening sigh, but so it was last night when the Summit logo came up on the screen. And they certainly added some needed zing when things started to drag a bit in the middle, which for me was at the fiftieth email from Bella to vamp Alice, a device that surely works better on the page than on the screen. The audience's pleased but slightly self-aware laugh at how often and easily the film gets Taylor Lautner out of his shirt made me feel like I wasn't wrong to find it a little comical.

Nope, I haven't read New Moon. Made it through Twilight, thought in a vague way that I ought to read the second book before the film came out, and never did anything about it. And last night I didn't feel too bad. I imagine the book does a better job of explaining how exactly Jacob is so in thrall to Sam and his pack of werewolves-without-a-cause. And maybe the book makes more sense of the fact that after months of his daughter waking up screaming from horrible nightmares, Bella's dad doesn't insist on the services of a good psychotherapist. Most parents would wonder if she'd been raped based on the deep psychosis she seems to enter. But I'm with you when it comes to reading source material: when you can, fair enough, but in general, if appreciating the film demands it, there's something wrong.

For me, the film feels a bit monotonous. Bella is depressed. Edward is gone. Bella hangs out with Jacob and is marginally less depressed, which does make one wonder at Jacob's nakedly randy obsession with her (refreshing as it is compared to Edward's "I daren't touch you" cool flame of a love). For me, the energy jump in the film finally comes when Michael Sheen starts swanning around just acting the pants off all these monster-wannabe whippersnappers. The scenes with the Volturi are amusingly purple.

But overall, I'll counter your 'sequels are often better' thesis with a counter: when the film is part of a planned trilogy or tetralogy, the second film is doing a lot of bridgework, but doesn't get you to the farther shore. Think of how frustrated we were at the end of The Empire Strikes Back (back when that was its full title) to find so many plot threads left hanging. I felt that way about New Moon. Werewolves introduced. Check. Love triangle established. Check. Threat from Volturi made clear. Check. But so much is left up in the air in that last scene. I'm sure that's okay with the fan base, who know damn well what comes next, but for the casual filmgoer, it's like walking into the middle of a film and then walking out again before the plot resolves. Mostly what we get is the mopey middle.

Hank

To: Hank Sartin

From: Joshua Rothkopf

And now the screaming starts. My crowd was totally, completely owned by this movie. Serious shrieks. (I added one myself, in a quiet moment, just for fun.) This biggest ones came at that first slo-mo shot of Pattinson and also Taylor's initial T-shirt shedding scene—and, of course, right at the dream-come-true line of dialogue right before the cliffhanger blackout. (No spoilers here!)

Not to sound like an I-toldja-so, but this movie was way better than the first one. Come on. The cinematography is greatly improved, especially that near-poetic rotation around the mopey Bella as the seasons changed. Kristen Stewart was given a lot more to do, and amply carried some difficult dramatic tensions. (I also loved her offhanded way with teen speak, especially this: "Jake's...kind of a werewolf.")

I guess the biggest surprises for me were these: how long Pattinson is absent from the movie (an hour-long stretch of middle) and the almost-racist tensions between vampy Alice and wolfy Jacob ("Put the dog out"). You must admit that this film was much more interesting that the last one—and I agree with you about the Michael Sheen scenes being purple. Again, that's not in the negative column for me, especially when you also have crazy-eyes Dakota Fanning hurting people with her mind.

The close-up nuzzling scenes were the best: Twilight really is a unique cinema phenomenon, a full-blooded return to high melodrama. And as a casual viewer myself, I feel there's more of a draw here than you imply.