The fact that, like its predecessor, New Moon is not a particularly well-made movie, or a particularly inventive or imaginative tale (author Meyer being little more than Dan Brown in a buttoned-up dress), means that Pattinson and Stewart (a very fine young actress) have to try that little bit harder to make some diamonds from all this coal.
They're aided in their task this time by a very beefed-up Taylor Lautner, playing the good friend to Stewart's heartbroken Bella when her vampire sweetheart Edward (Pattinson) reckons they're better off apart. As love triangles go, this one has an extra layer of obstacles to get through. Such as Edward being a vampire, whilst Bella is a boring old human. Oh, and Lautner's Jacob is a werewolf. Think of the children! At least they won't have to take any kind of paternity test.
THE VERDICT: Fandemonium is, of course, a wonderful thing to behold, raising handsome young artists - from Elvis to Leo, from The Beatles to, eh, Jedward – to the status of near-deities. And it's certainly the undying lust of many a young woman out there for Robert Thomas Pattinson that has helped both the first, and now the second adaptation, of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight books break a few box-office records. So, does it bite? Or suck?
Director Chris Weitz (About A Boy, American Pie) does a decent enough job, given that he had only 10 months to get a special-effects-laden and cliched tale up on screen, but this already feels like a franchise that will make a ferocious amount of money (the third, Eclipse, is in post-production, and due out in June), and will largely be remembered in years to come for the amount of money it made. And how much space Edward took up on young girls' bedroom walls.
RATING: 2/5
Review by Paul Byrne