Twilight Playlist Countdown to Breaking Dawn Week 2 Wrap-up

Here are my spoilery thoughts on all things New Moon.

The Book: The thing I liked the most about New Moon when I read it the first time was how realistically Stephenie portrayed a teenage break-up.  Call me over-dramatic, but when I broke up for the first time as a teenager, I didn’t like listening to music or watching romantic comedies, either.  It felt like they were all fake and that love didn’t exist.  Looking back, it’s obvious that I was melodramatic, but that’s how teenagers ARE.

Reading this for the third time, I started to notice that Bella doesn’t seem to have much self-esteem.  Maybe she doesn’t know herself well enough to be in love. Also, I wanted to shake Bella when she is staying away from Jake to keep him safe and she can’t see that Edward is doing the same for her.

It’s just a thought, but I kind of think that Jacob is just a re-bound and maybe they aren’t really in love.  Bella seems kind of needy.

I didn’t like Jacob in the book and so the middle of it dragged a lot for me.  Thankfully, all that long stuff in the middle has a nice music montage in the film that gets it over with really fast. Also, her “epiphany” at the end bugs me.  It felt rushed, fake and cheesy.  Ironically, New Moon is my least favorite book and my favorite movie.  The movie is so much better than the book.

The Movie: I love the movie.  If I’m in a Twilight mood, I will almost always pull out New Moon to watch.  The pacing is great, the cinematography is beautiful.  It’s got the Romeo and Juliet thing going on except they don’t die.  The music is awesome and it’s utterly romantic.

The audio commentary, from what I remember, felt a lot like listening to a class on film-making.  It wasn’t very entertaining until the movie got to the parts with Jacob.  Then they started analyzing all the things that Jacob did wrong and it was hilarious.

UPDATE: Okay, I had to watch the audio commentary again so I could write down EXACTLY where they analyze Jacob.  Here are the approximate times for my favorite parts.

14:55 – Bella get’s the world’s worst papercut

40:00 – Poor Jacob always says the wrong thing.

46:45 – He should kiss her!

51:00 – Jacob times it badly

1:16:00 – Come in for a cup of tea, Jacob.  See what happens!

1:25:00 – Jacob making the right move for once.

1:30:00 – Jacob’s best move and his worst.

“This is Edward Cullen.  I’m away from the phone at the moment or I’ve crushed it in despair.” (HAHAHAHAHA)

1:57:00 – Crushing Jacob once more

The Playlist: I loved a lot of the songs on the alternate playlist. “Hate Me” by Blue October is the best love song ever written.  No matter how mant times I listen to it, it always makes me cry.  It talks about the most unselfish and tragic love that I’ve ever heard, not to mention that it must be exactly what Edward is feeling.

When I read the lyrics to a lot of the songs, I was surprised by how well they mirrored what the characters were thinking.  “Hyper Music” by Muse says “I don’t want you and I never did.” Ugh. So heartbreaking and it’s exactly how Bella feels.

The Soundtrack: I love the whole thing.  Every song.  Each song is well placed and reminds me of the movie.  “Rosyln” is my favorite.  So beautiful and so sad.

Husband’s thoughts: My hubby, Justin, just finished watching the movie with me.  Here are some of the things we talked about.

HUBBY: This part is sad (when Bella sits in the room and the names of the months go by).  She doesn’t move, she doesn’t change her clothes.  She has nothing. ME: Her hair looks kind of greasy.  HUBBY: Well, she doesn’t shower.  She’s depressed.

HUBBY: “Look at me, Bella! I cut my hair!” (Justin mocking Jacob.  Justin doesn’t like Jacob.  He thinks he’s mean.)

HUBBY: The music where Bella and Edward kiss under the clock tower sounds like they are going to go all the way. ME: They are going to make alien babies right now.

HUBBY: The movie is kind of sad but part of me wishes that she weren’t attracted to super-humans. It would solve a lot of her problems, actually.  It seems like a better solution than marrying a vampire.

HUBBY: When Jacob gets mad at the end, maybe it’s because he’s around a vampire and werewolves get like that around vampires (This is an interesting theory).  Maybe Jacob isn’t really that bad. (Huh, go figure.  I’ve lost my Anti-Team Jacob teammate)