Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon," also known as "Twilight: The Squeakquel," is actually pretty good -- a tick better than the first "Twilight," which wasn't bad, either.

These are hardly superlatives on the order of "shattering" and "beautiful," but compared with the film versions of "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons," the only two movies ever made with less sex than the first two "Twilight" installments, they're matchless.

The first "Twilight," a lower-budget and scruffier affair directed by Catherine Hardwicke, may have been lame in the visual magic department, but its stars and their smoldering separate-beds bedroom eyes did a valiantly angst-y job in launching a major franchise. The second film in the series is bigger, better in the effects and more vibrant visually, which is crucial -- the heroine, Bella, is an Olympic-level mope, and if "New Moon" matched this character's mood with the visual palette of the first film, we'd all be dead.

Wisely "New Moon" brings back screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who continues to prove she has a much better way with English than the author of the books, Stephenie Meyer. The director this time is Chris Weitz, who handles this tosh with the commitment it requires. When last we left Bella and her vampire boyfriend, Edward, they'd come through a serious test or three of their endless love. "New Moon" separates the pair fairly early on, with Edward nervous about Bella's safety around his kind. With the boy with the fwoopy hair off to sunny Italy to deal with the Volturi (Michael Sheen plays the primo eterno-vampire), Bella pines and pines again, and retreats into herself. Then she is pulled out of her funk -- halfway, anyway; it's a big funk -- by her pal Jacob, who is sweet and hunky but who is a werewolf, and there's the treaty with the vampires, which ... well, either you already know all this or you will never, ever care.

Torn between two hunky supernatural theoretical boyfriends and feeling like an emo fool, Bella and "New Moon" wrestle with all sorts of metaphoric issues. Vampirism and werewolfery are just two more high school cliques to navigate. Guys with anger-management trouble, hormonal urges that cannot be satisfied, a succession of pristinely objectified boys -- no wonder there are a few female teenage fans.

Why does "New Moon" basically work, even with its grave self-seriousness? A few reasons. Weitz lets the material breathe, and his actors interact. The film does not try to eat you alive. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are interesting to watch, even if Pattinson's makeup makes him look like a mime. And they're strong enough to compensate for the comparatively amateurish Taylor Lautner, portraying the perpetually shirtless wolf boy, whose subtext remains the same scene to scene: Have you seen my abs lately?

Composer Alexandre Desplat (one of the best working in movies today) supports the constant, abstinence-only yearning with an exceptionally subtle score. In Meyer's prose, thankfully toned down for the movie, every other sentence is "His golden eyes smoldered" and "He continued to kiss my hair, my forehead, my wrists ... but never my lips, and that was good." Stewart and Pattinson get all that across without having to say any of it. Weitz and Rosenberg may let the rhythm slacken in the final half-hour, but that is unlikely to matter to any of the people who, with this film's closing line, could be heard squeaking in anticipation of the third "Twilight," movie, due in 2010.

 

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"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" Movie Trailer

In the second installment of Stephenie Meyers phenomenally successful TWILIGHT series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as BELLA SWAN (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the mysteries of the supernatural world she yearns to become part of—only to find herself in greater peril than ever before.

 

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some violence and action).

Running time: 2:10.

Cast: Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan); Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen); Taylor Lautner (Jacob); Ashley Greene (Alice); Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria); Dakota Fanning (Jane).

Credits: Directed by Chris Weitz; written by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer; produced by Wyck Godfrey and Karen Rosenfelt. A Summit Entertainment release.

 

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In the second installment of Stephenie Meyers phenomenally successful TWILIGHT series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as BELLA SWAN (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the mysteries of the supernatural world she yearns to become part of—only to find herself in greater peril than ever before.

Following Bellas ill-fated 18th birthday party, EDWARD CULLEN (Robert Pattinson) and his family abandon the town of Forks, Washington, in an effort to protect her from the dangers inherent in their world. As the heartbroken Bella sleepwalks through her senior year of high school, numb and alone, she discovers Edwards image comes to her whenever she puts herself in jeopardy. Her desire to be with him at any cost leads her to take greater and greater risks.

With the help of her childhood friend JACOB BLACK (Taylor Lautner), Bella refurbishes an old motorbike to carry her on her adventures. Bellas frozen heart is gradually thawed by her budding relationship with Jacob, a member of the mysterious Quileute tribe, who has a supernatural secret of his own.

When a chance encounter brings Bella face to face with a former nemesis, only the intervention of a pack of supernaturally large wolves saves her from a grisly fate, and the encounter makes it frighteningly clear that Bella is still in grave danger. In a race against the clock, Bella learns the secret of the Quileutes and Edwards true motivation for leaving her. She also faces the prospect of a potentially deadly reunion with her beloved that is a far cry from the one shed hoped for. With more of the passion, action and suspense that made TWILIGHT a worldwide phenomenon, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is a spellbinding follow-up to the box office hit.