HTF Blu-ray Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Studio: Summit Entertainment

US DVD Release Date: March 20, 2010

Theatrical Release Year: 2009

Rated: PG-13 (for some violence and action)

Running Time: 130 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 widescreen

Audio: English (DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Subtitles: None

Movie: 2 out of 5

New Moon, the second film from the Twilight franchise (and based on the best-selling novels by Stephanie Meyer), is what the movie industry calls critic-proof. There is enough of a fan base to more or less guarantee that the film will be a financial success. With a domestic gross just short of $300 million, New Moon was a success.

That being said, I will make my observations of the film brief. New Moon is one of the slowest, dullest, and depressing movies I've seen in a long time. The film opens as Bella is reluctantly celebrating her 18th birthday, and after an altercation at the Cullen's residence when she gets a paper cut when opening a gift, Edward breaks up with her and the Cullens leave Forks, Washington. The audience is then subjected to watching Bella delve deeper and deeper into depression (by holing herself up in her bedroom for three months), self-destructive behavior (which give her visions of Edward), and fall in love with Jacob, only to be rejected by him when he finds out he's a werewolf. Nothing significant or exciting ever happens in the film, and director Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) keeps the pacing at such an agonizingly slow pace that even insomniacs would have trouble keeping their eyes open. In the hands of a more competent director, the story could have been made more visually exciting and told in under two hours.

On the plus side, the CGI creature effects by Tippett Studios are very impressive, especially the fur on the wolves. But visual effects alone are not enough to recommend a movie.

Video: 4 out of 5

Summit Entertainment brings New Moon to Blu-ray in a nice 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Like its predecessor, this is a darkly lit film, with lots of grays, blues, and blacks. Some scenes are so dark that you can barely see what is going on, but I attribute that more to the digital intermediate source than to the actual Blu-ray. Blacks are inky, with little to no crush visible. Flesh tones are consistent, and in the one sequence that was purposely brightly lit and dressed with vivid reds and yellows, there was no color bleed or banding. Lastly, compression artifacts were virtually non-existent.

Audio: 4.5 out of 5

The DTS HD Master Audio track is one of the few things in this movie that kept me awake. During the relatively few action sequences, the soundtrack comes to life and immerses you into the werewolf attacks, with snapping jaws coming at you from all sides and the LFE getting a good workout when bodies are slammed into walls, trees, or the ground. Dialogue is intelligible, and overall the track has a very good frequency range.

Special Features: 3 out of 5

Although this is a single-disc release, the label indicates that this is disc one. All of the special features are included on the same disc, and are in high definition unless otherwise noted.

Audio Commentary by Director Chris Weitz and Editor Peter Lambert: The two men go to great lengths to discuss the movie-making process, as well as shooting on location and working with the actors. It is an average commentary track where Weitz and Lambert sometimes assume the audience knows absolutely nothing about how movies are made. They also make mention of the existence of deleted scenes on this disc, which are only available on the Target exclusive 2-disc set.

The Journey Continues: The Making of Twilight Saga: New Moon (1:05:28): Presented in six parts, which can be viewed inclusive or individually, takes a look at making the movie. Part One covers the frenzy following the release of Twilight and what it was like to go back to work on New Moon. Part Two follows focuses on director Chris Weitz, where he talks about being hired to direct the second film in the franchise, and the cast discusses how wonderful it is to work with him. Part Three takes a look at the production and costume design used in the film. Part Four covers the actual production of the movie, featuring behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew. Part Five delves into the visual effects used in the movie. Part Six focuses on post production, including editing, recording the musical score, digital intermediate, and final sound mix.

Music Videos: Four music videos are included, all in standard definition widescreen.

Meet Me On The Equinox by Death Cab For Cutie (3:48)

Satellite Heart by Anya Marina (3:47)

Behind the Scenes Rehearsal of I Belong To You by Muse (1:32)

Spotlight by Mutemath (3:42)

BD-Live: This disc is BD-Live enabled, but the only material available at press time were trailers for other films by Summit Entertainment.

Overall: 2.5 out of 5

Good video, excellent audio, and a decent set of extras cannot save what is a bad, albeit critic-proof, movie. One can only hope that Eclipse, the next film in the series, fares better.