The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Directed by Chris Weitz

(PG-13)

**

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A teenage girl takes up with a hunky werewolf while pining for a hunky vampire.

The films made from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books are certainly “demographically savvy,” said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. The heroine, Bella, is a plucky teen. Her main squeeze, the brooding Edward, is a vampire who virtuously refuses to suck her blood. That’s a pretty obvious metaphor for abstinence, but at least in 2007’s Twilight, Kristen Stewart’s Bella had a “palpable hunger” for Robert Pattinson’s Edward, which added suspense. Unfortunately, in this sequel Edward is quickly exiled to another continent. Bella’s new “heartthrob” is a buff, boring werewolf played by Taylor Lautner, said Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com. Mainly, he and his clan spend the movie running around “in bare chests and cutoff pants.” Meyer’s plot makes little sense, and director Chris Weitz has bled away the “juicy, go-for-broke” melodrama that made the first movie fun. Yes, New Moon panders shamelessly to its young female audience, said Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. But at least that’s a change from most Hollywood fare, which panders to adolescent boys. “Let’s just say it: It’s great” that there’s finally a movie that lets girls squeal while guys take their tops off.