I did indeed mean ‘subtlety’ so I have now made the correction. Sorry if my error caused you any distress and I appreciate you pointing it out.

Cheers
Thomas

Also – I actually quite liked the movie. I didnt at all find it boring (as I honestly did the first one) and didnt find the dialogue as bad as you discribed it. The one hilarious bit was when Jacob takes off his shirt to stop Bella’s head bleeding – how on earth can you say the film doesnt have a sense of humour???

Interesting article but it does take the debate in a different direction to what I am talking about in my review, which is perfectly fine of course!

OK, sure, there is plenty of eye-candy for the straight girls and the queer guys but stuff like that rarely interests me as a critic. Nevertheless, the Salon article you linked to is a good analysis of the double standards in popular culture about objectifying male and female bodies and I do agree with its sentiments. I also agree with the sentiment in the final paragraph that a climate of equal degrees of objectification is far less preferable to a climate where there is no objectification at all.

(And as a side note – I honestly don’t think New Moon objectifies its males stars. The guys in the film are beautiful men who are presented on screen in an ultra appealing manner but they are also active and empowered characters. I’ll give New Moon points for that but then again presenting men on screen in a flattering manner is hardly radical filmmaking.)

I think it is great to have films that cater to female desires, although I think it is problematic assuming that all females are wired to have a similar set of fantasies. My issue with New Moon is that it is an incredibly bad film and providing a bit of titillation is not something that redeems it for the same reason that the pornographic presence of Meagan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen doesn’t prevent the fact that it is also a terrible film – actually her objectification in that film compounds the fact.

I’ve got no problem with films that cater to specific audiences and I agree that Hollywood has frequently let women down but is it too much to ask for decent quality escapist entertainment that isn’t tedious to sit through or an insult to our intelligence?

Thanks again for that link.

Cheers
Thomas

PS I re-watched a couple of episodes of Angel last night so I am now on Team Boreanaz and withdraw all previous doubts about his magnificence. Thank you for indulging my momentary lack of faith.

and hey, Boreanaz came along way with that Irish accent and he could teach Rpattz a thing about brooding.

I’m not sure I’m really brave enough to take on Boreanaz. I really like the guy: he has wonderful presence and against all the odds he made Angel into a really fun, likeable and kick-ass character that was able to sustain a spin-off series, which is incredibly rare. I’m just suggesting that as a actor he may be limited. Please don’t flame me.

Where is the measured reply to my comment?

I understand that the Twilight novels have a very loyal following but if a film can’t stand up on its own accord then it is a flawed film. The craft of creating a novel and a film is different and therefore the criteria for critiquing literature and cinema are different. Plus, there are many, many films that are novel adaptations and it is completely unreasonable to expect that audiences should always have to read the novel first in order to appreciate the film. I’m pleased to hear that the Bella character is a stronger character in the novels but I certainly didn’t get any indication of that from this new film. Perhaps the New Moon film is a bad adaptation? Maybe it replicated the narrative of the novel so literally that it failed to articulate its nuances?

I’m all for quality escapist entertainment when it is actually entertaining. I try to value every film for what it is and what it is trying to achieve and frankly I found New Moon to neither succeed as a romance film nor a horror/fantasy film. If you are sitting in an escapist film constantly wondering how much longer the film has to go until it ends then it is not really functioning very well as an escapist film. I found it tedious and embarrassingly self-important. I didn’t take it seriously at all and maybe I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t so humourless and straight-laced.

Anyway, do you really think this is the kind of film where people are going to care what the critics say? I reckon fans will go to see it regardless.

Cheers
Thomas

My father-in-law still grumbles about the 2hrs of his life he’ll never get back from the first movie. “It’s a vampire movie, how bad can it be…” Oh, how he rued that decision.

Actually, on second thoughts, there’s enough pain in watching this film to give you that feeling for years…

Also, the soundtrack is a classic example of deciding what songs would make a marketable compilation CD and then inserting those songs into the film so that said compilation could then be sold as the film’s soundtrack album. No real thought goes into how the music works with what is happening on screen.