The Twilight Saga: New Moon Has A Lot Of Shirtless Werewolf

The Twilight Saga: New Moon stays true to author Stephenie Meyer's second installment while connecting seamlessly to the first Twilight movie.

Director Chris Weitz (About A Boy, The Golden Compass) also succeeds in fulfilling the high expectations of Twi-hards everywhere. However, Weitz may have spoiled fans a little too much. Weitz feeds viewers with so many bits of shirtless Jacob Black eye-candy that the ensuing swoon makes it hard to remember any faults within the film.

Mirroring Meyer's book, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) becomes closer to Jacob, (Taylor Lautner) when her true love, vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), makes the difficult decision to abandon her so she can live a normal, human life, free from the life-threatening events that accompany a dangerous romance. But her chance at having a normal life is impossible when she discovers Jacob is a werewolf.

Lautner gained an extra 30 pounds of muscle for the sequel, and it's no wonder his buff bod gets all the attention in the film. But Lautner's transformation tends to work against him with too many cheesy shirtless scenes that detract from his acting abilities, which are actually quite strong. There's no doubt Lautner fully envelops Jacob's character through his carefully concealed fear of losing his human self when he becomes werewolf, and his tender yet guarded confessions of love for Bella. There definitely could've been more room for a deeper concentration on Jacob's character and his place within his Quileute tribe of werewolves over the focus on Jacob's aesthetic appeal.

The big budget for the second movie becomes obvious with computer-animated werewolves and gorgeous cinematography for some of the action scenes. It's also evident Weitz wanted New Moon to flow from director Catherine Hardwicke's adaptation of Twilight. The majority of the cast is the same, including Bella's friends, who are able to ground the film in some reality.

Jessica (Anna Kendrick) gives the viewer some much needed comedic relief from the deeply-passionate monster drama, light-heartedly reminding Bella of the more trivial problems of the teenage world she still inhabits.

The lush scenery of Forks, Wash. is true to the first movie, but Weitz enhances its beauty even further. When the evil vampire Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre) attempts to outrun the werewolves, the suspense of the scene and the beauty of the landscape come together as the wolves weave in and out of trees in slow motion, while Victoria's flaming red hair seems to float as she tries to escape their grasp. Thom Yorke's light and airy "Hearing Damage" is a perfect backdrop to this scene, as it both reflects the delicate beauty of the forest, while juxtaposing the intensity of the scene. Carefully orchestrated scenes like this one help save the film from its tendency to fall into total cheesiness.

It's a given that Twilight fans will see this movie, bad review or not. But for all those Twi-haters, give New Moon a chance and you may see this pop culture phenomenon in a new light.