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Acceptable escapism for those old enough to see it yet still young enough to shriek at undead dreamboats.Anna Smith, Time Out New YorkCarried by Kristen Stewart’s compellingly dark performance, but also by helmer Chris Weitz’s robust visuals.Jordan Mintzer, VarietyMade primarily for the fans, New Moon is not much better than the first film, though dealing with elements of two mythologies (vampires and werewolves) makes the romantic tale more interesting.Emanuel Levy, emanuellevy.comThe Twilight Saga: New Moon takes the tepid achievement of Twilight, guts it, and leaves it for undead.Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-TimesThough an improvement over the first Twilight film, this sequel drags and sputters, even in scenes meant to be infused with passion.

Theresa Riley stayed up late Thursday night to catch The Twilight Saga: New Moon on its opening night. Here’s what she thought of it.

METRO VANCOUVER — I arrived at the theatre at 9:15 p.m. Thursday to watch the 10 p.m. screening of New Moon. Surprisingly, there were only about eight people outside the theatre. I knew it was a school night, but I still thought it would be a bit more crowded. . .

Once inside, I found out that the show was actually sold out. The theatre was already almost completely full. Apparently, everyone had gotten there about an hour early. My friend and I decided that if we wanted to sit together we would have to sit in the front row. I wasn’t going to complain; the front row is all the better for staring.

A little after 10 p.m., the movie began.

The first thing that I noticed when it started was how accurately the movie portrayed Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) dream sequence from the beginning of the book. The second thing I noticed: Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).

The acting in New Moon was much better than in Twilight. The actors’ facial expressions made everyone laugh, and the delivery of one line actually made me do a spit take. (I’m not kidding.) The depth of the scene when Edward leaves Bella even made the girl next to me cry. Then she started laughing at herself and looked really embarrassed.

Of course, there was much cheering when Jacob (Taylor Lautner) took his shirt off for the first time, and many girls sighed every time he showed up shirtless, which happened frequently throughout the movie. You could easily tell when his shirt was off simply for this purpose.

In the short term, however, Edward is as good as his word and “New Moon” suffers as a result. Constrained by the plot of the novel, the film keeps the two lovers apart for quite a spell, robbing the project of the crazy-in-love energy that made “Twilight,” the first entry in the series, such a guilty pleasure.

“New Moon,” which has been grandly titled “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in honor of that first episode’s huge success, marks the franchise’s entrance into the self-protective, don’t rock the boat phase of its existence, which is inevitable but a bit of a shame.

In place of “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke, a filmmaker of intense, sometimes overwhelming and out of control emotionality who seemed to feel these teenage characters in her bones, “New Moon” has gone with the more polished Chris Weitz.

A smooth professional whose credits include such adaptations as “The Golden Compass” and “About a Boy,” Weitz makes the vampire trains of Melissa Rosenberg’s capable script run on time, but he almost seems too rational a director for this kind of project. This lack of animating madness combined with the novel’s demands give much of “New Moon” a marking time quality

Yes, I know, “New Moon’s” emotional energy is supposed to come through Bella’s putative attachment to newly buff best friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). But though audiences gasp when Jacob uses his shirt to staunch Bella’s blood (don’t ask) and reveals a torso that would make Charles Atlas swoon, the connection between these two is so self-evidently non-romantic that it turns out not to be much of a diversion.

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