Sci-Fi Fodder

"New Moon" - Not For Me

November 18, 2009 3:17 PM  |  Comments:

It's pretty incredible. "New Moon"-mania is everywhere. You can't turn on the TV or read a magazine without Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner staring back at you. All indications are that this will be an all-around better movie than "Twilight".

So, why am I not excited in the least?

Well, I thought about it. I finally figured out the reason - and it was not what you might have expected. For example, my indifferent feelings on "Twilight"/"New Moon" are NOT because:

  • The Vampires are not *right*, i.e they don't match up to what I consider Vampire lore.
  • The Werewolves are not *right* (see above)
  • My dislike of Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner or Kristen Stewart (ok..I do kinda dig her)
  • My feeling that Stephenie Meyer couldn't hold J.K. Rowlings jockstrap (if she had one to hold)

Even though I have reservations about the above items, none of them fully account for my aversion to "New Moon". The real reason is a bit more complicated.

The appeal of "Buffy", "Angel", "Blade", and heck, even "Underworld" was that you were immersed in a world where the supernatural existed and was thriving. The romance aspects were there, the character relationships were there, but the story rode on the fact that this world was different than the one we live in. These shows are dramas, with the supernaturality (to coin a word) baked into every fabric and relationship within the series. The Vampire, the Werewolf, the consistency of lore, the relationships of the characters viewed through the lens of the lore - these are the shards that come together to make interesting stories.

"Twilight" and "New Moon" (and, to a similar extent, "The Vampire Diaries") do not work that way. They are romance novels - in a setting. The unfortunate part, for me, is that they setting and environment are not actually all that important. It seems that the vampires could be aliens, shapeshifters or cute little poodles - it wouldn't matter, as long as the public happened to have a fascination with that particular entity and the actor was good-looking. If you look through the lens...well, what you see is what you get. A very simple romance.

"New Moon" debuts in theaters on Friday, November 20th. If I am way off-base and "New Moon" is somehow good, let me know!