One of the benefits of writing these reviews without being beholden to a strict deadline is that I can distance the hype surrounding a movie from the movie itself. With the phenomenon that is the Twilight series (excuse me, the Twilight SAGA), waiting this long to see New Moon is highly necessary to attain some level of objectivity. So what happens when you subtract the crazed fangirls, the massive marketing machine and tabloid rumors from this pic?

You get a movie that wasn’t worth seeing in the theater.

The story is told decently enough. Bella and Edward have some semblance of normalcy in their relationship when suddenly he has to leave, driving Bella to depression, reckless acts and Jake, a local Native-American boy who turns out to be a werewolf. Meanwhile Edward, believing Bella to be dead is driven to a reckless act of his own which leads to a race to set things right. Romeo and Juliet is referenced very early on in the movie and even derided a little bit before the characters find themselves making similar choices that Shakespeare’s characters did. The parallel was a bit too obvious, and the previously mentioned distance between film and frenzy laid much of that obviousness open to sparkle. The twists and turns of the story are not hard to predict even if you haven’t read the books. Enough to keep me following the story, but not enough to make me invest in it.

Also, it’s not fair to point out the outlandishness of the vampire/werewolf/love story combination. Fantasy and sci-fi are designed to take feelings and issues and blow them out beyond normal boundaries to see them in a different light. However, one thing I noticed is the movies the characters watch are so far-fetched (a romantic comedy is called “Love Spelled Backwards is ‘Love’” and an action film is called “FacePunch”) that I pondered how cartoonish those movies had to be to make the Twilight world seem believable by comparison.

The direction on this film is an improvement over the last. Although montages are used to denote the passage of time more than once, there were actually done quite creatively. There were some excellent action sequences as well, especially the fights between vampires and between vampires and werewolves. The were very interesting and combined wirework and CG to show a supernatural conflict that was really enjoyable. Having said that, some shots, particularly some on the cliffdiving sequence felt a bit fake. I think even someone who isn’t versed in special effects could find those shots a bit fake in their composition. It would have been nice if care was taken to keep the quality of the effects consistent overall.

The acting was good overall, but I must say the Volturi (the highest authority of vampires) were a too over-the-top and ended up looking more cartoonish-B-movie-villains than creepy vamp-Illuminati. Except for Dakota Fanning. She seemed to get her part just right.

New Moon is a good rental, maybe even a decent purchase, but that’s about it. It’s a decent story and if you watch it at home and avoid the crowd of people getting worked up over Eclipse (Forgive me again, “THE TWILIGHT SAGA: Eclipse”).

When I got the tickets for Transformers 2 in IMAX, the only tickets I could get were for 8:45AM on a Saturday morning. Something clicked in me when that happened: I realized I was once again watching a Saturday morning cartoon. I immediately hit up the local 7-11 for a couple of mini-packs of “Lucky Charms” to sneak into the theater to complete the experience.

That was the attitude I had going in to see this film. I had seen the first Transformers movie and saw it for what it was. A big dumb action film. And that’s what I got. Big robots battling big robots on our world and causing big property-damaging explosions.

I’m actually trying to decide if the sequel raised the bar or if it was just more of the same. They blatantly return some things that changed in the original movie, from Bumblebee losing his voice and talking again in song samples, to Megatron coming back from the deep. All the original actors are. Megan Fox does her job very well, which is to look like Megan Fox. Shia LeBeouf plays his part well too which is a feat considering he has to play a kid who is somehow in a relationship with Megan Fox. For the rest of the cast, I actually found Julie White who plays Sam’s mother a bit of a comedic scene-stealer that had some pretty great bits at the beginning of the movie, putting her up there with John Turturro’s Agent Simmons and well beyond Rainn Wilson’s turn as an egotistical professor.

The voices of the Transformers are all excellent as well. The original Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen, returns and I can’t think of anyone else who could voice him. Hugo Weaving also returns as Megatron and he is quite good in this role, but the filmmakers correct the appalling error of leaving out the original Megatron, voiceover legend Frank Welker, by giving no less than three roles to play: Soundwave, Devastator and Reedman.

The action, being a Michael Bay film is well done. There’s some very cool robot fighting sequences (I hesitate to use the word small-scale. These are giant robots after all) These scenes were probably the scenes that took me back to a younger time and really fulfilled a dream of any kid who collected these toys. What kid didn’t take these robots and make them fight each other? Sure there’s big all-out battles with planes and weapons and gunfire, but those scenes with the robots just fighting and punching the hell out of each other were some of the most satisfying.

Plot? Easy enough to follow, but not intrusive enough to get in the way of the action. Ludicrous moments? For sure. There were some robot characters that were downright corny. Consistency? Probably the biggest inconsistency was that the IMAX showing had only some scenes filmed in full IMAX so that when it switches from those scenes to the letterboxed regular print, it’s a little jarring, but not a movie-killer.

I have really avoided reading any reviews on this movie in order to have a clean slate in my opinion, and the fact is, I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was fun. It took me back to Saturday morning watching cartoons. Totally worth seeing in IMAX. I’d pay to see it again, and I will definitely be looking the HD digital download when it’s released. This movie is firmly focused on what it is and does it well. If you have the same frame of mind, then this well worth watching. Just don’t forget the cereal.