I went to see Twilight for the second time today, and now feel that I have my wish list for the movie version of the saga's second book, New Moon. In no particular order:
1. The angst - I've said before that New Moon is probably my least favorite of the books, and while that's still true, it's slowly but surely growing on me and I think that its truly epic teen angst is part of that. I mean, they actively compare themselves to Romeo and Juliet. It may not be especially admirable behavior, but it is realistically teen-like and melodramatically awesome. Seeing Twilight and reading interviews with Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson have made me actively excited about seeing the depressing melodrama of New Moon embodied on screen. They both seem like they have reservations about the objective quality of the stories but also like they are genuinely psyched to delve into the suicidal behavior of their characters in New Moon. Going into my second viewing of Twilight knowing that New Moon was a done deal, I felt an irrational sense of glee watching the hospital scene near the end of the film, particularly with Edward's anguished, broken "Where else am I gonna go?" in response to Bella losing her shit over the idea of leaving Forks. Those two will take the angsty lemons of New Moon as it exists in print and make them into sweet, overwrought, melodramatic lemonade.
2. The casting - I think that Twilight was perfectly cast, even with the seeming impossibilities dictated by the physical descriptions of characters offered by the source material. It is my sincere hope that this quality in casting will carry over into New Moon. Barring the mass influx of vampires in the last book of Breaking Dawn, practically every character who is important to the series is introduced by the end of New Moon - the wolf pack, the Volturi, and (briefly) Seth and Leah Clearwater. As someone who's academically interested in the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in popular culture, I'm jazzed about the opportunity for Native American actors offered by New Moon. Hopefully, they'll be a little lax with the whole seven-feet-tall thing and just focus on finding great actors for the various Quileutes we meet as the wolf pack are introduced. Additionally, as I've said before, I'm excited about seeing Jane (and the rest of the Volturi) embodied - it will be interesting to see whether the first film's success will bring in some big names for Aro, Marcus and Caius.
3. The soundtrack - So, the Twilight soundtrack is kind of my new most favorite thing in the whole wide world. In the past few week, I have listened to it enough times that it dominates the Top 25 on my iTunes practically in its entirety. I am fully obsessed with "Flightless Bird, American Mouth." Not only is the soundtrack a good compilation in and of itself, the songs were impeccably matched with scenes in the movie - "Supermassive Black Hole" and baseball? Amazing. I can only hope that the New Moon soundtrack is comparable. Suicidal angst offers a lot of options for quality songs both broad and nuanced, and if they stick with the formula of drawing from the favorites of Stephenie Meyer as well as those making the film, the New Moon soundtrack should be just as excellent as its predecessor.
4. The sourcing - Melissa Rosenberg's condensing of Twilight worked much better than I expected it to, and I think she'll do a great job with New Moon. Entirely based on my own personal opinion, there are a few things that I hope she draws out of Meyer's work and brings into the story - a) Fleshing out the first chapter - one of the things that is fascinating to me about the saga as a whole is the time gap in the narration between Twilight and New Moon. There's a good four to six months that the reader doesn't see when Edward and Bella are together with minimal drama. (I was going to say "no drama" but then I thought about it and realized that if their relationship were a solar system, the sun would be Drama.) Showing some of that summer, which Bella describes in the first chapter, with the debates about attending college and vampire transformation, would show some of the depth of their relationship and counteract the time in the middle when he's gone. b) Bringing in Jacob's sense of humor - I read or watched an interview with Rosenberg where she stated that she has now read the series through Breaking Dawn, and I can only hope that she will thus introduce into New Moon one of the best aspects of Breaking Dawn, Jacob's general hilarity. The book from his point of view made me enjoy his character in a way which I previously did not, and making him a truly dynamic character would do wonders for New Moon. And c) Using Stephenie's extras - the New Moon extra posted on Stephenie Meyer's website from Edward's point of view is one of my favorite things that she's written - the angst and conflict expressed in it are about ten times more depressing than anything Bella says in New Moon and it's pretty revelatory in terms of his thoughts and actions, even though it's brief. I think that the mutuality of their unhealthy attachment to one another can be lost in Bella's point of view, so I would love to see some of his wallowing in abject misery.
5. The effects - It's not exactly news that the special effects in Twilight were...subpar. Fans who followed the development of the film knew that the low budget was what we got along with story fidelity, so it wasn't disappointing, necessarily, just kind of lame. However, the gobs of money currently being taken in by the first film should mean good things for New Moon, particularly since they've got even more work to do. When I purchased my ticket yesterday, I thought to myself, "Don't think of it as a nine dollar movie ticket. Think of it as a nine dollar investment in the wolves not looking appallingly shitty." Between the wolves, who are supposed to be horse-sized, which is crazy, and the stunt work involved in Bella's death-wish fulfillment motorcycle rides and cliff-diving, they've got their work cut out for them. Let's hope the stellar box office will make up the difference between imagination and enactment.
6. Charlie Swan - For me, the unforeseen pleasant surprise of Twilight was Billy Burke as Charlie - he and Kristen Stewart played off of each other incredibly well to the point where I was imagining how they would perform some of the classic Bella-and-Charlie scenes of the rest of the series, particularly his awkward attempt at a sex talk in Eclipse and the engagement announcement in Breaking Dawn. New Moon builds emotionally on the father-daughter relationship foundation established in Twilight as Charlie gets up close and personal with Bella's Crazy in Edward's absence. The scene where he explains to Alice what happened during the four-month time jump is heart-rending, and one of my favorites in the book.
7. The birthday party - I've mentioned before (somewhere, I can't find it) that I love the suspenseful ending to the first chapter of New Moon. Objectively, you know that Bella's not going to get eaten, but you also know that the situation is going nowhere good. I think that Twilight did a good job of establishing the degree to which all of the Cullens have blood issues - Alice's difficulty with helping Bella after the fight in the ballet studio was an addition that worked well in the film. If the bloodletting and resultant tension are well done, it would make an unbelievable teaser trailer scene.
8. Alice and the Porsche - There's a reason my quote for Alice's Badass entry was from her car theft in New Moon - it's one of my favorite moments from my favorite character in the series. Generally speaking, I'm not wedded to Stephenie Meyer's dialogue (not like the "lion fell in love with the lamb" people for whom she apparently intervened) but I really want the "grand theft auto" line to make it into the movie. There's something about the image of the bright yellow sports car zooming through Italy that begs to be become part of the film.
9. The vote - The Cullens aren't in New Moon much, but I love the scenes when they are. Bella's decision to take her human vs. vampire fate to the family and ask them to make the call presents an opportunity for each character to express themselves and reinforces the degree to which she really has joined them as part of the unit. I have this kind of tribunal image in my mind of all of them gathered around the table and voting one by one. A personal fave, I guess.
10. Taylor Lautner's hair - Lots of Twilight reviews mentioned the middling quality of the movie's special effects, but few, if any, discussed the tragic wig situation impinging on Taylor Lautner's jailbait adorableosity. My one truly shallow hope for New Moon is that his hair-shearing-necessitating transformation from boy to wolf occurs early on in the film, so they can just let him be with his naturally short hair.
