I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone, but the third installment of the Twilight Saga will be hitting theaters in just a few short weeks.  Now, upon hearing this news you will do one of two things: 1) squeal with delight saying “OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD” or 2) let out a deep meaningful sign accompanied by a huge exaggerated eye roll that will most likely cause permanent retinal damage.  Either way, the fact remains that the film will be released and it’s going to make a boat load of cash.

I will admit, maybe a bit shamefully that I was at one time on the Twilight bandwagon. I read all four books back to back in a matter of days.  Well, consumed them would be a better description.  I had the first one finished before I saw the first movie and it continued on from there.  I did however draw the line at the films and the books.  I don’t own an Edward life size stand up or anything like that. Seriously, I don’t.

When I started to read the books, I was pretty engrossed, much to the chagrin of my roommates.  But I charged ahead, like an addict looking for that next fix.  About a year after finishing all 4 books, and seeing the first film, I went back to re-read them again before the second film came out.  I know.  You don’t have to say it.  I really don’t know what I was thinking.  As I read through them a second time, I realized that I was reading them in a completely different mindset.  Instead of reading them with stars in my eyes and songs of unrequited love in my heart, my inner sarcastic cynic came out with a vengeance.  Needless to say the romantic was thrown a beating from the cynic. It was a rumble in the jungle and the cynic won.

The second time around was more painful than anything else. Instead of fawning over Edward or Jacob, I really just wanted to reach into the books and slap Bella.  For some reason I guess I didn’t notice on the first time around just how much she talks about how beautiful Edward is.  Ok! I get it! He’s so beautiful it hurts blah blah blah. It’s enough to make a girl pull out her hair or at the very least end up with a mild case of depression.

I went to see New Moon and while I wasn’t as enamored with it as the first one, I still enjoyed it for what it was.  There was a time where after the first one was released that there was no question I would go see every segment in the theater as soon as I could get there.  I just don’t feel the same now.  Perhaps the second read through was the culprit.  Perhaps my vision had cleared and I was no longer dazzled by Edward and his sparkly skin (which, by the way, I ALWAYS found to be utterly ridiculous).

My obsession has since turned to indifference in that I won’t break my neck in order to get to the theater.  If I see it, I see it, if I don’t, I saved $8.  But listen here Stephanie Meyer….I’m on to you.  This new book you released about an inconsequential character from Eclipse is just silly.  If a prequel is in the works at any time, my head is going to explode like that scene from Scanners.

I look back on my relationship with the Twilight Saga and I just have to shake my head.  It’s a lot like 80′s fashion.  Sure, you wore those head bands, the side pony, the legwarmers, jelly shoes and black rubber bracelets, but that doesn’t mean you need to your friends to post those pictures on Facebook as a reminder.

I guess what it really boils down to is this: I don’t think I was ever a great fit for it.  For me it was a phase.  A fleeting urge to ride that pop culture phenomenon .  I don’t begrudge those who love it however.  Go have your Twilight parties and midnight screenings.  I have a 12 year old in my house who would totally do all of those things if she could.  Of course I’ll take her to see Eclipse as well as Breaking Dawn.  But I don’t foresee myself reading the saga for a 3rd time.  Twice was enough and I don’t have enough patience to get through them again.  So go forth you crazy Twi-hards!  I’ll be sitting here patiently waiting for the release of the next film in a franchise that will never get old.  Bring on the next Harry Potter!

When we ran our competition to win a life-size card board cut out of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner from the Twilight: New Moon DVD, I thought that was bad enough, but our friends over at LoveFilm have gone one better and have created what can only be described as nuts!

They’ve created an Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) chocolate bust. Not only have they videoed the thing being made but they’re also giving you the chance to win it!

This was so crazy that it deserved a post so check out their time lapse video and then enter for your chance to win this crazy prize!

You have to give credit to the PR guys on this one as it’s pure genius and made me laugh out loud when I watched it and I think you’ll like it too! As most of you will know, Twilight: New Moon is a story about vampires, werewolves & humans with Robert Pattinson providing the vampire, Taylor Lautner the Werewolf and Kristen Stewart the human.

Well, the humans can buy New Moon on DVD (here) the vampires fortunately don’t exist and surely it’s only fair that the wolves get to see the movie give the opportunity?! Well the ones at Longleat Safari Park were given exactly that opportunity when distribution company E1 entertainment rolled a 16sqm screen into one of the country’s only wolf enclosures, with the unique screening deemed ‘a howling success’ by the pack of 13 Canadian wolves at the park in Wiltshire.

Ian Turner, Deputy Head Warden at Longleat commented, “We’ve certainly never had a request like this before, so we were very intrigued to find out how the wolves would react to seeing their counterparts on screen.  While they weren’t so interested in the romance – the scenes of the wolves certainly got their attention and prompted a series of howls as the film went on.”

E1 Entertainment Senior Product Manager Martin Gough added, “Whilst Twilight was all about the vampires, New Moon develops a new love interest for Bella and in doing so introduces a range of characters that are all werewolves.  Whilst we’re used to deafening screams for Robert Pattinson, it’s a nice change to hear howls of approval for the rest of the cast, including the screen wolves themselves.”

I hope you enjoy the below and that it makes you laugh as much as I did!

As I start my review I have to remind myself that I am a big Twilight fan, perhaps not going so far as to call myself a Twihard, but I did really enjoy the Twilight Saga. After watching Twilight which I really loved, perhaps a 7/10, I was looking forward to seeing New Moon. I was excited to go to the cinema and see it, and am sad to say I was disappointed. I decided to give it a second watch (New Moon, out on DVD 22^nd March 2010) but was incredibly bored.

Twilight: New Moon stars Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning and is directed by Chris Weitz.

New Moon revolves around the self-absorbed Bella, whose character is in love with Edward, the whispering Vampire. It starts very slowly, and I’m afraid to say the pace doesn’t really improve throughout. I was really disappointed with the film overall, but have done my best to try and find some redeeming points. The film is set in Forks, a wet and cold town in North Western America. The contrast between this and the set used for the Volturi in Italy is stark. The costume and set design here are fantastic, and the drama increases as Bella and Edward have to interact with some more dynamic characters such as Aro (played by Michael Sheen), and Jane (Dakota Fanning). These two are excellent in the film, sparsely seen unfortunately, but their acting is superb. Sheen is exactly as I would have imagined in the book, down to  facial expressions and use of voice. The same cannot be said of Robert Pattinson, who is not as alluring as he is as Edward in Twilight, he actually comes across as quite serious and dull.

An interesting contrast between the intense and ridiculously serious relationship between Edward and Bella, is that between Jacob and Bella. New Moon is all about the drama of Edward leaving Bella as he fears for her safety all the while she is around him, and Bella almost dying of pain because she can no longer be with her beloved. Jacob provides some interesting relief in this movie, he is an attractive young guy, who happens to grow into his role as part of the local werewolf clan during the film, but also (sadly for him!) happens to be in love with Bella. They grow closer as he tries to help her get over the ‘pale-faced’ one, and you see him grow more mature.

There are some good scenes in the film, from the Cullen house where clumsy Bella cuts herself to the transformation of Jacob into a werewolf to the cool yellow Porsche and the Volturi fighting scenes near the end of the film.

Overall I would give this film a 3/10 which is extremely disappointing. Not much happens in the film and you get to the point where you wish Bella would just disappear because she is so boring, selfish and childish. The DVD offers some interest in the Extras, there are some deleted scenes, interviews with the main cast, Behind the scenes and a sneak peak at Twilight Eclipse which actually looks interesting.

Twilight: New Moon is released on DVD and Blu Ray today.

On Monday, shops across the UK will no doubt sell out of Twilight: New Moon which goes on sale. You can expect our review of the second movie in the Twilight Saga in the next day or so but in the mean time, check out this new clip and the footage which the New Moon DVD / Blu Ray contains early.

In this new clip, we meet new characters for the third movie but fear not, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart plus all your other favourites still feature!

Twilight: Eclipse is scheduled for release 9th July and is directed by David Slade. I guess from now until then, there’s no stopping the Twilight train!

You can buy Twilight: New Moon here.

One day, the train that is Twilight will stop but for the time being, momentum for the vampire / werewolf movie shows no signs of slowing down!

The new trailer for Twilight: Eclipse was released last week and in the wake of that, MTV have released three new clips from the DVD extras for Twilight: New Moon which is being released on DVD / Blu Ray March 22nd (next Monday).

If you haven’t already entered, we have the chance for three lucky people to win a life-size cut out of Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart here.

These three new clips which I’ve embedded below show Bella’s passage through costume, the first day of filming and the stunt work in New Moon.

To celebrate the DVD and Blu-ray release of everyone’s favourite vampire love story New Moon on March 22^nd, we’ve joined forces with E1 Home Entertainment to give three lucky winners the chance to win a life-size standee of Bella (Kristen Stewart), Edward (Robert Pattinson) or Jacob (Taylor Lautner)!

Synopsis: In the second chapter of the Twilight saga, trouble ridden teen Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is left devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.

For your chance to win a Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner or Kristen Stewart standee just answer this question using the form below to enter:

Which of these New Moon characters is not a vampire?

1. Aro
2. Sam
3. Alice

For more information on New Moon DVD visit: www.newmoon-themovie.co.uk or display your loyalty on the New Moon Facebook pages at www.facebook.com/TeamEdward and www.facebook.com/TeamJacob .

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only.
• No alternative prize is available if unsuitable
• Only one entry per household will be counted.
• The competition will close Monday 22nd March at 23.59 GMT.
• The winners will be picked at random from entries received.

The usual T&Cs can be found here.

TM & ©2010 Summit Entertainment, LLC.  All Rights Reserved

Wonderful, amazing, super news everyone!! (hmmm) Summit Entertainment have just announced the release date and DVD extras for their biggest export in the form of Twilight: New Moon which stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart (up for a BAFTA for Best Rising Star Nominee), Taylor Lautner, Michael Sheen and many more! They’ve also released the DVD / Blu Ray covers for said movie which will be in shops / on the internet to buy from 22nd March.

I quite literally can’t contain my excitement! OK, I might be lying about that but i know they’ll be millions of you out there who read this that can’t wait to get their hands on the 2nd installment of the Twilight Saga to watch Taylor Lautner take his top of again and again in super slow mo!

I’ve pasted the DVD extras etc below which you can peruse at your leisure. You’ll be pleased to hear that the third movie, Twilight: Eclipse isn’t a million miles away with a release date of 9th July.

Bear in mind this is US info. I’ll get the UK stuff asap:

The Sequel to the #1 selling DVD of 2009 arrives on a Two-Disc Special Edition DVD and Special Edition Blu-Ray Featuring a Six-Part Behind the Scenes Documentary, Music Videos and More

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON

Available March 20, 2010

Los Angeles, California, January 15, 2010- One of the most talked about films of 2009, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, will be released on a Two-Disc Special Edition DVD and Special Edition Blu-ray on March 20, 2010 – a Saturday street date that will allow for fans across the nation to celebrate at retailer’s midnight release parties before taking home the film at 12:01 a.m.

Already a worldwide literary phenomenon, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, a post modern Romeo and Juliet story filled with action, suspense and the supernatural, took in an estimated $300 million domestic at the theatrical box office and had the third largest opening weekend box office in movie history at $142 million.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Two-Disc Special Edition DVD has a suggested retail price of $32.99, while the Special Edition Blu-ray is set at $34.99. Both are packed with bonus features that are sure to please even the most-hard core fans, including a revealing Audio Commentary with Director Chris Weitz and editor Peter Lambert; a riveting 6-part documentary that takes you behind the scenes; exclusive band rehearsal footage with Muse; and music videos from Death Cab for Cutie, Anya Marina and Mute Math.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen and Anna Kendrick. Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone and Kellan Lutz return to their roles in the Cullen family.

SYNOPSIS

In the second chapter of Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling Twilight series, the romance between mortal Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) grows more intense as ancient secrets threaten to destroy them. When Edward leaves in order to keep Bella safe, she tests fate in increasingly reckless ways in order to glimpse her love once more. But when she’s saved from the brink by her friend, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), Bella will uncover mysteries of the supernatural world that will put her in more peril than ever before.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentary by director Chris Weitz and editor Peter Lambert

Six-Part Documentary takes you behind the scenes of the film

Rehearsal Footage with Muse, who is featured on the hit soundtrack

Three Music Videos from Death Cab for Cutie, Anya Marina and Mute Math

And more!

Street Date:                             March 20, 2010

Order Due Date:                       January 19, 2010

Pre-sell Date:                           January 26, 2010

Feature Run Time:                   130 minutes

MPAA Rating (USA):                 PG-13

Genre:                                     Vampire/Romance

DVD SRP:                                 $32.99

DVD Cat # / UPC:                      66113353 / 025192058158

Blu-Ray SRP:                           $34.99

Blu-Ray Cat # / UPC:                66113354 / 025192058165

DVD Audio:                              English Dolby Digital 5.1; English Dolby Surround 2.0; Español Dolby Digital 5.1

Blu-Ray Audio:                         English DTS -HD Master Audio / English Dolby Surround 2.0 / Español Dolby Digital 5

DVD/BD Subtitles:                    English SDH & Español Subtitles

DVD/BD Aspect Ratio:             16×9 (2:40) Letterbox

About Summit Entertainment, LLC

Summit Entertainment, LLC is a worldwide theatrical motion picture development, financing, production and distribution studio. The studio handles all aspects of marketing and distribution for both its own internally developed motion pictures as well as acquired pictures.  Summit Entertainment, LLC also represents international sales for both its own slate and third party product.  Summit Entertainment, LLC plans to release 10 to 12 films annually.

While perusing around YouTube I came across this trailer by a guy called “vadoskincheg”.  It’s three minutes of pure awesomeness.  He created a mash up of 50 movies and cut it together to make a one trailer.  Using clips from all sorts of different films like Sherlock Holmes, Terminator Salvation, New Moon, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Transformers, 2012, Pineapple Express and many many others, this guy was actually able to make it flow.  When I saw Pineapple Express, I thought that was a sort of one-of-these-kids-is-doing-their-own-thing-one-of-these-kids-does-not-belong type of thing, but it totally works!  Even the music fits!

Take  a couple of minutes and check it out. Totally worth it and see if you can keep up on all of the movies represented.  Let us know your thoughts afterwards!

Last week i wrote an article questioning why movies with low average review ratings, like New Moon, break box office records regardless. It got me thinking about the whole concept of rating a movie, and whether ‘marks out of ten’ was really still a useful film criticism tool.

Here at HUG, like many modern movie blogs, we tend not to give numerical ratings. The reason, on my part at least, is because criticizing a work of art that has taken hundreds of people many many months to create is pretentious enough. To then go on to attribute it an arbitrary numerical value seems crass. Now, i appreciate the reasons why a grading is given. Some people don’t want to trawl through lines and lines of text to decipher whether a film is worth watching. A large percentage of casual movie goers just look at the number of stars at the bottom, and go by that. This isn’t necessarily wrong, it offers a tidy summary of the quality of the movie.

The problem, of course, is that a review is an opinion. By merely going by a number on a page, you’re putting your faith in the opinion of someone you don’t know, with no idea if they have similar tastes. New Moon is a good example. Many reviews have marked it down saying it sticks too closely to the source novel, instead of adapting the story more to the needs of a well structured movie. The Twilight fans however have pointed to that as one of the reasons they DO like it. They love the book, and they want a faithful copy of that source.

Watchmen suffered similarly in reviews, with critics suggesting it shouldn’t have been a direct translation. Yes, it would have been more accessible to non-fans if this had been the case, but the people that love the graphic novel would have been outraged. With these two properties, the fans went to see the films anyway, so maybe 2012 is a better example.

I look at a review, it gives 2012 two out of five stars. I decide not to see it. If i’d read the full review, it would have been bemoaning the lack of intelligent storyline and nuanced acting, decrying it’s over the top action and CGI effects. I might like over the top action and effects, but i’ve missed out now.

How about five out of ten rated films? Surrogates is about as average a movie you can get, nothing particularly good but nothing spectacularly bad either. 9 has some great elements, the animation is spectacular and the action beautifully choreographed, but the plot development and storyline are seriously flawed. Both five out ten, but for wildly different reasons. Avatar hits in two weeks. There are two elements to be considered, the usual storyline considerations, and whether the new 3D effects are a huge leap forward. The story could be good, but the tech disappointing. Are we going to give two separate ratings?

I know what you’re thinking. ‘People should read the text as well as the score if they really want a review of the film’. And yes, they should. But too often they don’t, or won’t. You present an easy option, and people get lazy. A bigger problem is that sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic collate ratings and provide an overall average. This results in news stories like ‘New Moon Averages Just 38%’. This colours people’s perceptions of a movie before they even get near a review, so quite often they won’t bother reading one. I accept that yes, if people are happy to go solely by a number that’s their prerogative, and if they really care they should check out the full write up.

My biggest problem with a rating system is that you can never give a movie full marks. The reasons are two-fold. Firstly, full marks suggest perfection. Who has the stones to call any film perfect? Ask yourself, which movies would you give ten out of ten? The Godfather? The Shawshank Redemption? Dark Knight? There are some amazing films, but could we honestly call any of them perfect?

The other reason why you can never give a film top marks is that no matter how brilliant it is, there’s the possibility a superior movie could be released the following week. How can you give a far superior piece the same rating? In a hypothetical situation, imagine The Godfather is released, and you give it ten out of ten. Then, like Che, Part II is released the next month. How do you rate it?

It makes a mockery of the numerical grading system. As journalists, we have a responsibility to tell the full story, not stamp a piece with a potentially misleading one digit summary. At the same time, the reader has their own responsibility to use all available data to make an informed decision. If they don’t, they could be missing out on a movie they’d love.

Bazmann ““ You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

A week ago, The Twilight Saga: New Moon opened in theatres all over the world. Based on the best selling book of the same name, and sequel to a popular and lucrative first movie, it was always going to open big. What in fact happened, was that it registered the third highest US movie opening ever, with around $150M in it’s opening weekend domestically, behind Spiderman 3 and Dark Knight.

It currently holds a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the number one review collection website. So how can a film that has been rated so badly amongst film critics have made so much money already? Does no-one even read reviews anymore?

This situation isn’t unusual in the Hollywood movie industry, and this year in particular has seen a lot of big turkeys make a lot of big money. It didn’t start off too badly. Watchmen cost a lot of money to make, and whilst i loved the movie, I’m well aware of it’s myriad of problems. Aptly, it was a box office flop ($105M). Next big budget popcorn flick was Star Trek. This gained a significant number of good reviews, and the box office gross was a fair reflection of this ($260M). That’s when it started to all go downhill.

In a matter of months, X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($180M), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($400M) and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($150M) were all released. All three movies were, in the main, lambasted by critics and yet, between them grossed nearly $750M. In between all this, a few lower budget movies, all deserving of Academy Award consideration, barely made their money back.

The trend continued, with by-the-numbers trash like The Final Destination hitting the box office heights, whilst better movies like The Informant were ignored. The only movies to really buck the trend were Inglourious Basterds, and surprise hit District 9, which grossed an impressive $115M, against a budget of $30M, becoming many people’s film of the year in the process. This month it’s the throwaway 2012 and aforementioned New Moon, and next month may be James Cameron’s Avatar.

So why are movies that are, frankly, bad, so wholly out-grossing such well made works? There’s a few reasons. One of the biggest, obviously, is marketing. The highest budget movies get the highest budget campaigns. The posters are everywhere, TV spots run for weeks in advance. Trailers are expertly cut together, and there’s no denying big action pictures make for far more compelling, excitement inducing promos. This means many viewers have already made their minds up to see a movie long before it’s release.

As far as reviews go, a lot of studios have discovered a trick, which is to not screen movies for the press in advance. This has happened for a few of the big films this year, and it means the first few days of release see people buying their tickets blind, until word of mouth begins to kick in. Something else that I’ve noticed over the last few years is that movie reviews in national tabloid newspapers often go against the common opinion. Big budget movies that are truly awful often get four or five stars out of five, and it got so bad i stopped reading reviews in newspapers. For a lot of people, however, these reviews would be the only ones they do read. And of course, the truth about reviews is that the majority of the movie-going public DONT read them, they go to a film based on the trailer, the actors, quite often just on the posters on display when they arrive at the cinema house.

Of course, there’s something that all the big movies I mentioned above have in common – they are all part of franchises. Whether it be sequel, reboot, adaptation or even based on a toy, trading on a previous movie or product that has quality and/or popularity is the fast track to good box office. We (the boys) loved Transformers twenty-something years ago, so of course we want to see them ‘for real’. The Terminator is a compelling story, and a movie about the much discussed human/machine war, done the right way, would be really cool. The kids of today love The Twilight Saga novels, they loved the first movie, and they love Edward and Jacob, so of course New Moon was going to make a fortune. They know New Moon has had terrible reviews, they don’t care. They are going to see it anyway (twice), and they are going to love it.

The main reason, you see, why big budget, dumb movies will always make the most money is simple. The majority of the movie going public don’t take the art of film as seriously as I do. They are spending money that they have worked hard to earn, and they want to be entertained. The masses aren’t overly concerned with coherent narrative storyline, great cinematography, or nuanced acting performances. The Twilight fans want to see the stories they love put up on screen, and they are grateful they have been given that opportunity. They are lucky that the books they love have been adapted into film, and even luckier that they are not dissapointed at the end result.

At the end of the day, like any business, it’s all about supply and demand. The major studios know for the most part what is demanded by the mainstream, and they supply it. Movies like Moon, The Hurt Locker and Sugar don’t make money because there is not enough interest in them, and i think myself lucky they get made at all. Leave the New Moon lovers alone, it’s their pocket money, they can spend it however they like. And remember, there’s another two movies to come…

Bazmann – You can now follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

Despite setting a new record for the highest US opening day gross in cinematic history with an impressive $72.7 million, The Twilight Saga: New Moon was only able to finish third in the rankings for biggest opening weekends. It managed to take a total of $140.7 million, which has only ever been bettered by Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million) and The Dark Knight ($158.4 million).

In the USA New Moon is now expected to surpass Twilight’s entire domestic gross of $191.5 million by the end of the week, and with worldwide ticket sales totaling around $260 million it won’t be too long before New Moon overtakes it predecessor’s international gross of $351.5 million.

Top 10 at the US weekend box office:

• The Twilight Saga: New Moon ““ $140.7M
• The Blind Side ““ $34.5M
• 2012 ““ $26.5M
• Planet 51 ““ $12.6M
• A Christmas Carol ““ $12.2M
• Precious ““ $11M
• The Men Who Stare at Goats ““ $2.77M
• Couples Retreat ““ $1.95M
• The Fourth Kind ““ $1.73M
• Law Abiding Citizen ““ $1.61M

This New Moon review is a little different to the rest – I have done it purely from a fan’s point of view. Because, to be honest, the film itself is pretty bad, but from an obsessive lover of Twilight’s perspective its utterly amazing.

It’s a little different from the book, but not in a bad way. The book was probably the weakest of the 4, but it’s been taken to another place in the film. It’s got a lot more tension in this – And not the sexual kind, although that is not lacking. There’s a lot more aggression and fighting which is brilliantly done, and the fight scenes are pretty realistic looking. And in terms of the casting, just like the first one, every character seems to resemble the one in the book perfectly. We’re introduced to Michael Sheen who plays Aro, Dakota Fanning who plays the pretty evil Jane, and the rest of the Volturi gang. Their red eyes and evil glares take you back to the books, along with most of the other scenes in this film.

I found in the first Twilight film you lost a sense of how great the book was, but within the scenes of this you get given an image of what you could actually see when you were reading the books. Of course, you’re only ever going to understand the fascination with these films if you’ve read the books; they’re still the true winners of this series.

The sense of community you get in the cinema with this film is actually quite bizarre. Everybody seeing it in the first week has clearly been waiting for it to come to the cinemas, so expect screams, laughter and excitement when you’re sitting there. It’s brilliant really, you can see how popular these films and characters really are, and how much of an effect films have over an audience. There was one point where Jacob whips his top off and I said “I’m not ready for this” because it was too much for my poor heart to cope with.

So overall, if you are a Twilight fan see this film! You could easily sit and watch this over and over again. You’ll fall in love with at least one of the characters, and get taken back to the books once more. It’s fun, cool and totally cheesy.

With New Moon, the second installment of the Twilight saga, on its way to our cinema screens (you may have seen that HeyUGuys has gone a little Twilight-crazy over the last few weeks…) HUG writer Kelly Alyse has taken a look at the first movie Twilight to see why we’ve become so obsessed by the story of this unusual couple.

For a start they are the essence of cool. When you watch Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in an interview, they’re very laid back and calm. But their relationship in the film is anything but. Director Catherine Hardwicke needed to cast the perfect couple, and you’re intrigued by them from the very first instant you see them.

On first setting eyes on Edward Bella asks the question “˜Who’s he?’, from that  moment we also want to know the answer. Hardwicke uses a close-up of Bella’s face, as the music becomes a lot more intense when Edward walks into the room. The tension builds as there is a mid-shot of Edward’s pale yet perfect body, then there is a tracking shot of Edward’s face to see every reaction possible. We’re not given a moment to rest and there is a gently released close-up on each of their faces. It’s a good job they’re pretty with all these close-ups…

The couple are also placed in a lot of dimly lit situations, which are normally quite romantic; as in the restaurant or on the stand filled with fairy lights at the prom. It creates an idealistic view that every girl wants ““ to be wined and dined by a mysterious, romantic man (well, vampire…). There is a particular scene which is completely captivating, the famous first kiss scene in Bella’s bedroom. The camera remains static on a close-up two shot of both their faces. They gradually begin to get closer, and without any music to distract you from the situation you’re only focused around the action about to take place. When their lips finally meet it is passionate and exciting. But suddenly we’re taken away from it by Edward flying backwards. It basically just leaves you wanting more.

The banter between the two is great. “˜Your mood swings are kinda giving me whiplash’ or “˜so the lion fell in love with the lamb’ are just two of the great quotes this film has created. And with the passionate tone apparently continuing through the second installment, we’re bound to be quoting this film for another year until we’re given Eclipse, the penultimate movie in the series.

I was at the Twilight New Moon screening last night and I was sitting in a cinema with hundreds of very excited people, a majority of them girls from young teenagers to middle age women, already very eager for the film to start of this amazingly popular franchise.

But there is a delay as someone from behind the curtain announces that we are waiting for some special guests to arrive before the film starts and that leads for the blood thirsty audience to erupt into an orgy of excited screams and expectation that Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner are here, oh boy what have i let myself in for? here's my review with some spoilers.

And so the curtains draw back after a further delay, more over excited screams, and a man with microphone announces that Twilight star Michael Sheen is stuck in traffic and can't make it but new twilight actor Jamie Campbell Bower that plays Caius (Thanks to Sofia pointing this out to me, i had trouble hearing from the back through all the dam screams!) eagerly takes the limelight thanking everyone and introduces the film, more screams. 

The film starts, supplementary screams (a pattern is emerging which continues throughout the film at any appearance of Edward and Jacob, slightly annoying) and what unfolds is the continuing story of forbidden love between Bella and Edward that is put on ice by the arrival of Jacob sporting 30 ponds of extra muscle to confirm his role in the film. 

I need to admit something here, I am a 31 year old man with no previous experience of anything Twilight and was extremely surprised by the excitement that surrounded me and the passion the people had for the story and the characters and I can fully understand how this film is such a phenomenal success. 

The actors own their characters entirely and the story has, from what I've been told, a strong source material to draw from and so what I saw on screen was always going to please the fans in every way. Jacob, now a beefed up sex icon, pleased the ladies every time he appeared and probably stole the film from Edward as the werewolf clan member who became Bella's love Interest after Edward chooses to leave Forks with the Cullen family in a bid to protect Bella from harm.

Edward's plan backfires as the evil and revengeful vampire Victoria is seeking to kill Bella as revenge to Edward for killing her lover in Twilight but the werewolf clan hunt and keep Bella safe from the red headed vampire, this part was only touched upon and Victoria's vendetta will be expanded upon in the third film were she will build an army to fight the Cullen family where Victoria has been recast to be played by Bryce Dallas.

The story of the werewolves is explained and of the treaty they have with the Cullen vampire family that protects the humans in the town of Forks and so Bella is drawn to another supernatural family and eventually falls for Jacob after a long series of bonding sessions, boy does she pick her men with a closet full of secrets.

The film reaches a climax where Edward believes Bella is dead and chooses to sacrifice his life to the Volturi who reside in Volterra Italy, they are vampires who impose the laws of the vampire world that are led by Aro, played by Michael 'i can act as anybody' Sheen, and Bella eventually has to choose between Jacob and her true love Edward, only one winner really and she heads off to Italy to save him in. 

I won't spoil it but i suppose most of the readers of the book know the ending by now, it seemed to satisfy the crowd a lot with probably the biggest screams and cheers of all and so now the build up to Twilight Eclipse Begins.

The film is not to my liking but it's not trying to appeal to someone like me. It's well acted, well cast and the story is perfect for the people it is aimed for and that's enough for it to work and continue to be the huge success that it is and according to a few people i overheard speaking on the way out is no where as good as the first film but i doubt that it will matter, there is nothing like this that appeals to this generation more than The Twilight Saga and it will enjoy another couple of years of further success as it completes it's journey.

The fights are fast and solid although sparse, Kristen Stewart was again a very strong presence on screen but the special FX were a bit ropey, especially the werewolves. But overall for a film about supernatural characters like vampires and werewolves the underlining story is still a love story and probably it's defining legacy and one that seems to hit most with the majority of teenage fans in the cinema that will no doubt return for more in 2010 for Twilight Eclipse. Watch this space for more news.

OK, please forgive us Twilight haters, but we’re trying to get into the spirit of what could be the biggest film of 2010 (until Avatar comes along?) in the form of Twilight New Moon which is unleashed onto the public this Friday, 20th November.

To celebrate this momentous week (!) we have some audio interviews (embedded below) with the three main leads in the movie, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. Enjoy and when you watch the film on Friday or over the weekend, make sure you come back and tell us what you thought.

The hype has been going on since HeyUGuys started a year ago and we’ve done our best to embrace it! To get in the Twilight mood, Jon has created a lovely Twilight banner which I’ve also put at the top of this post for when the time comes that I have to take it down!

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/twilight_new_moon/lautner_mono.mp3"] Taylor Lautner Interview: [/gplayer]

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/twilight_new_moon/stewart_mono.mp3"] Kristen Stewart Interview: [/gplayer]

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/twilight_new_moon/pattinson_mono.mp3"] Robert Pattinson Interview: [/gplayer]

All interviews conducted by James Kleinmann.

We’ve got a few photos from the LA Premiere of Twilight New Moon here which you can check out below and click to enlarge. All images have come from Socialite Life which you can visit to view the full set.

The photos centre around the three main characters of the second installment of the movie, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. As you can see, we have embraced the New Moon spirit by changing our HeyUGuys banner above to reflect the New Moon release this Friday.

New Moon also stars Ashley Greene, Rachelle Lefevre, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Michael Sheen, Dakota Fanning, is directed by Chris Weitz.

Four years ago, the first of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga novels was published. Four novels and one smash hit movie later, and Twilight has become a global phenomena every bit as huge as Harry Potter. Next week sees the release of the second movie in the Twilight Saga, New Moon. Based on the novel of the same name, also the second in the series, the story this time focuses on werewolves, in the shape of the Quileute tribe.

 At the end of the first film, Edward and Bella Swan returned to Forks, Washington together. As New Moon begins, Edward and his family leave town in an attempt to keep Bella safe. Feeling hurt and confused, Bella takes to an old motorcycle and hits the road. Bella has discovered that she can have visions of her love Edward whenever she get’s an adrenaline rush, so she goes out in search of danger. Actress Kristen Stewart returns as Bella. She has recently been quoted in the press bemoaning the amount of attention her personal life has attracted. Linked with Edward Cullen actor Robert Pattison during filming of the first film, there have been rumours this time around that she has been getting up close and personal with co-star and on screen love interest Taylor Lautner. This rivalry echoes the rivalry of the upcoming storyline of the movie, and serves as great publicity for it’s release.

 Lautner of course returns as old friend Jacob Black. Bella and Jacob strike up a deep friendship, and he swears to protect her. It turns out he is a werewolf, a member of the Quileute tribe. Seeing as there is a great rivalry between werewolves and vampires, Bella finds her loyalties are severely tested. There was some doubt as to whether Lautner would be allowed to return for New Moon. The producers felt that with his diminutive frame, Lautner wouldn’t be able to live up to the increased physical presence required, so were keen to recast the part. The young actor was determined to keep hold of the role, and hit the gym big time. Gaining thirty pounds of muscle, he secured the part. His new look is testament to his determination and hard work.

 Not returning this time around however is director Catherine Hardwicke, due to scheduling difficulties. This time around, Chris Weitz is at the helm. No stranger to movies adapted from books, his previous work has included About a Boy, based on Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name, and the first movie from the His Dark Materials series, The Golden Compass.

 In the source novel, Edward doesn’t play a very big part. Robert Pattison fans can be cheered however, at the news that the writers have added plenty of extra scenes for Edward, mostly in the form of Bella’s visions and dreams. Pattison also struggled with all the attention he received as a result of the last film, so may be happier that he is playing a lesser role in this one. Believing that Bella is dead, a distraught Edward travels to Italy to commit suicide. He hopes he can anger the peace loving Volturi, led by Michael Sheen, by revealing the existence of vampires, leading them to destroy him.

 Whilst the first Twilight movie was shot on a relatively low budget, the expanded locations and more epic nature of the second part has meant a cost increase. With the huge profit made from the last film, and the hype machine in overload this time around, the producers won’t be worried. With just last weeks opening 2012 as meaningful competition, and increased interest from both fans and non-fans alike, New Moon is set to smash the box office benchmark set by the previous film. Whilst those who hadn’t read the books didn’t know anything about the series last year, the huge attention drawn by the cast and the rabid fans will draw in many many more movie goers, to see what the fuss is all about.

With a production budget of just over $35m, the original Twilight made a worldwide gross of $385m. New Moon will probably garner close to $500m. After it’s release, fans can look forward to next year’s Eclipse, expected in July, where Jacob and Edward’s rivalry really hots up, as vampires and werewolves unite against a common enemy. Then the final story in the series, 2011′s Breaking Dawn, will round out the Twilight Saga.

 To get fans excited about the release of New Moon, a wealth of images and clips have been released in the last few months. We have featured many of these here on HUG, and you can find -

Posters 1 2 3 4 5

Images 1 2 3

Clips 1 2 3 4 5

And even listen to the soundtrack here

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is released in cinemas next Friday 20th November in the US and UK

Bazmann – You can now follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

Italian Twilight fan-site, TwilightsItalia.com have released some great new stills from the movie that we’re all desperate to see (!), Twilight New Moon. The images shows images of Bella (Kristen Stewart), Aro (Michael Sheen), Carlisle (Peter Facinelli), Edward (Robert Pattinson) and director, Chris Weitz.

The new stills are nice to see as pretty much everything we’ve seen in recent times has been rehashed from other images that we’ve seen before. Click the images below to enlarge.

Twilight New Moon is released 20th November and also stars Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene and Dakota Fanning.

OK, don’t ever say that I haven’t embraced the Twilight love after this! It borders on hilarious but after just finding out that there is no UK Premiere for Twilight, I needed a fix! With Halloween here tomorrow, this is the perfect time to don your Twilight persona!

We’ve just been sent a load of ‘goodies’ for the upcoming movie, Twilight New Moon which stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. In amongst said ‘goodies’, we have masks for the three main characters (as demoed by me in the post photo!), bunting that you can hang around your bedrooms, bookmarks, party invites and door hangers!

What more could you want?! I’ve tried to categorise all the items below so please pass onto your friends and get downloading. If you want to send us photos of you wearing your masks, please do and we’ll create a post specially for all you mad Twilight fans out there! While you’re here, you can also pick your side between Jacob and Edward by using the widget below.

Twilight New Moon is released 20th November.