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Twilight: New Moon Review

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by Vanessa Paredes

It’s here. The highly anticipated, overly hyped, oh so talked about film: New Moon. The second installment of the Twilight Saga hit the big screen this November and you can bet your life savings that the lines were outrageous and theaters were sold out all over the nation. Fully equipped with a new director (Chris Weitz), New Moon definitely out staged the production of Twilight, but not by a long shot. If one thing is for certain though, it’s that Edward Cullen is about to blend into the shadows and a new obsession will arise; his name is Jacob Black.

In New Moon, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) couldn’t be more awkward with each other, and there is a reason behind it. Edward plans to leave forks and Bella behind. He does so early into the film, and the “break up” shakes up the story line, bringing forward Jacob black (Taylor Lautner) to our attention.  Once Bella really starts warming up to her new “friend” another fantastical secret is unraveled. Vampires are not the only non-humans roaming around Forks; Jacob and his “clan” take the form of wolves in order to “protect” the town from vampires, or at least the evil kind. Naturally, Jacob falls in love with Bella while Edward is absent, and this creates a chaotic love triangle that will be a major theme in the movies to come. Just when it seems like Bella is finally warming up to the idea of liking Jacob back, Edward is forcefully engrained back on to her feeble mind when he makes a phone call to the Swan residence for the first time after his disappearance.

Bella gets on a plane to Italy faster than you can say vampires are not real, in attempts to save her soul mate from killing himself. Edward had been misinformed that Bella had passed away, and finds only one solution: plead with the Volturi (Organized coven of vampires) to take his life, which is no easy task, being a vampire and all. The Volturi consisted of the best actors in the film, including big shots such as Dakota Fanning playing Jane, and Michael Sheen as Aro. How the movie ends is yours to figure out.

New Moon shouldn’t break a sweat impressing the teenage female population. Weitz incorporates all the right elements, and some of the scenes are beautifully done. Although the movie does lack decent actors, because let’s face it, Robert Pattinson can’t act to save his life, the movie-goers will still sink their teeth into this vampire fantasy flick. In addition the film was successful in staying true to the book, which will hopefully keep the Twi-hard’s complaints to a minimum.  So get those movie tickets and enjoy the era’s newest craze.

New Moon Soundtrack Review

by Diana Ciuca

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The album begins with the quintessential Death Cab for Cutie song, with the electric piano and occasional wavering in and out of loud and soft harmony. The symbol of the equinox in the song displays some astrological influence upon the entire album. So far, I’m hoping that this is a themed album; fingers crossed.


Luckily, or not, the next few songs tend to stick to a similar principle. Truly, the only theme to this album can be summed up in three words: soft, indie, dreamy. After some ups and downs in tempos, beats, and instrumentation (guitars, drums, and piano), the only conclusion that can be drawn is that this is a genre piece.

The album advocates the beauty of the indie (sub/counter) culture that has motivated hipsters to invade American Apparel and also the local Salvation Army/Goodwill in search of “hot buys.” They are the picture-hoarding, iPod wearing, Twilight-reading youngsters who are fluent in the language of music and, thankfully, that of texting. By putting all these songs together, I feel like their (the individual song’s and the hip, excitable, teen’s) originality is forsaken; Nevertheless, each song, on their own, is truly a work of art – as are most indie pieces. As Andy Warhol said, “Art is what you can get away with.” Certainly, we have gotten away with much avante-gardness in the past, and this album, as fresh or unique as you want it to be, is no different. Most critics see this as a medley of wonderful musicians.

Still, I can’t help but question what is so great about these musical sensations? Usually it is the voice, or the smooth guitar, or the sound effects. This album has so much of those techniques that it almost becomes overwhelming. In conclusion, the New Moon soundtrack is like food. Sure, I love peperoni pizza, chocolate ice cream, steak, salsa, and salad. But, if you were to throw them all on one plate, I might not enjoy it as much.


The album ends with the quintessential Classical music piece, with the alternating piano and occasion speeding up and down of the tempo. The symbol of the new moon in the title displays some astrological influence upon the entire album – given that it is the title.
Sounds like you’ve heard that sentence before? It sounds like I’ve heard all these songs before, too.


A review of the movie Twilight by Jillian Powers

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Twilight the movie was definitely a big surprise for not only me, but anyone who has ever read the book. They nailed the characters perfectly, everyone that was cast did a great job at portraying their part. Kristen Stewart was great at hitting the dreary sarcastic monotone personality of Bella Swan, as well as the mature and normal look Bella was described as. Robert Pattinson did a good job at being Edward Cullen, his facial expressions were perfect and the soothingly handsome voice must have been hard to hit with his accent. So good for him. Melissa Rosenberg on the other hand, disappointed me greatly.

As a dedicated Twilight fan, I was very suprised to see the changes made to the script compared to those of the book. The story plot was mixed up, diced up, and messed up.  Some vitally adored scenes in the book, were changed around to result in something less than satisfying. For example, the meadow scene was excruciating to watch in the movie, because it was not only an insult to the book. It lacked importance it should have shown to anyone who hadn’t read the book. I read that Meyer even fought to keep the ever so famous phrase, “So the lion feel in love with the lamb” in the movie at all. Seeing it the way it was shown did not measure up to most expectations I had for the scene.

On a lighter note, the cinematography for the play was done beautifully. Kudos to Catherine Hardwicke! She did a great job at directing this movie, and for that I’m grateful. Otherwise my midnight trip to the premier would have been an utter waste. The beautiful places it was shot at were my favorite part of her work. The soundtrack could have used a few more mainstream artists aside from Paramore though. I loved “Decode”,   “I Caught Myself”  and “Leave Out All The Rest” but some of the other songs must have been hard for people to enjoy. It was an eccentric choice to feature Iron & Wine, and The Black Ghosts . “Bella’s Lullaby” was written beautifully, go Carter Burwell!

Overall this was a great movie, not as great as the book though. I hope the screenwriter for New Moon does a better job, they need to step it up with keeping things on track with the book.

Jillian Powers

Wauconda IL