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Critics Consensus: New Moon Wanes

Plus, The Blind Side has its moments, and Planet 51 is lost in space.

This week at the movies, we've got hot teen vampires (The Twilight Saga: New Moon, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson); a football family (The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron); and some interplanetary mishaps (Planet 51, with voice work by Dwayne Johnson and Jessica Biel). What do the critics have to say?


28%
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Rotten

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Ok, Twihards, we all know you've already bought your tickets to New Moon, so you don't care about what the critics have to say. However, for the uninitiated, the scribes offer few saving graces to this second installment of the teenage vampire chronicle. Kristen Stewart is back as Bella Swan, but this time she's on the outs with blood-sucking Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). She falls into the arms of Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), who, needless to say, has some secrets of his own. The pundits say that diehards will swoon, but everyone else will be mystified, since New Moon is turgidly paced, unevenly acted, often unintentionally hilarious. (Check out all our New Moon-related features at RT'sTwilight Corner.)


66%
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Fresh

The Blind Side

Just when you think every last inspirational based-on-true-events sports story has been adapted for the screen, along comes The Blind Side. And though critics say it has plenty of problems, they also say it's well-crafted and sharply acted. Quinton Aaron stars as a troubled high school football star who's taken in by an affluent suburban family; naturally, lessons are learned on and off the field. Some pundits say Sandra Bullock is excellent as the family matriarch, and Aaron shines as well - both infuse a formulaic plot with plenty of humanity. However, others feel the film is overly schmaltzy and doesn't fully address the tricky racial issues at the heart of the story.


22%
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Rotten

Planet 51

It seems obvious, but we'll say it again: animated features need more than great visuals to work - they also need strong stories. Unfortunately, critics say Planet 51 is mighty short on plot, along with a whole lot of other virtues. Dwayne Johnson stars as an astronaut who lands on a faraway planet and soon discovers he's not alone: this strange world looks like 1950s America, only with little green men. The pundits say Planet 51 apes classic sci-fi flicks without adding much in the way of wit or satire; in addition, it's flatly-paced and has a strange, off-putting preoccupation with bodily functions.


Also opening this week in limited release:

Bigbrother

Bigbrother on 11-19-2009 05:50 PM

Unfortunate if this really isn't a significant improvement on the first. Previews made it seem like it was going to be significantly better. Hoping this is just Twilight backlash.

li l.

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tomwaitsjrHAPPYICONOCLAST

tomwaitsjrHAPPYICONOCLAST on 11-19-2009 05:51 PM

For some reason, naming it THE BLIND SIDE is OK, but naming it that, and having posters showing some giant guy's derriere is NOT OK.

Alexson Philip

Alexson Philip on 11-19-2009 06:18 PM

alright! i wanted twilight to get terrible reviews and it did, same for planet 51, overall thsi week films pretty much suk. well ill be off to be watching bad leituenant.

THECOWBELLHASSPOKEN

THECOWBELLHASSPOKEN on 11-19-2009 06:22 PM

twilight sucks good reviews, or bad. its freakin awful with some of the worst dialogue of all time.

Serum114

Serum114 on 11-19-2009 06:59 PM

Nothing Good.....(sigh)

Playboy Slim

Playboy Slim on 11-20-2009 02:44 PM

Yeah, no good wide releases. But, "Bad Lt.".

Break dancing souls. Nuff said.

Throw An Onion

Throw An Onion on 11-19-2009 07:12 PM

Twilight got bad reviews? Shocking! How could critics possibly be so biased! Just look past the ridiculous plot, bad acting, lack of real character development, serious lack of realism and you've got an oscar worthy film.

As for The Blind Side I didn't think this film looked all that interesting but seems like a decent family film. Looked too sappy for me but a good football film is always cool.

Also I'm almost positive Dwayne Johnson cannot make a good film anymore. Wait he was involved with Doom. Has he ever made a good film? Do we actually care? No.

This week is bad.

Wes Anderson please come to Texas and spread your genius.......

Throw An Onion

Throw An Onion on 11-19-2009 07:13 PM

Wow that really made zero sense.

Am I turning into some kind of idiot who drones on and on about things no one cares about?

Yes

Dear me I've got to go to rehab........

woundedmakers

woundedmakers on 11-19-2009 07:44 PM

Do we have to call them Twihards? Can't we just call them Twidiots?

DanielPeterTimothyRayXIX

DanielPeterTimothyRayXIX on 11-19-2009 07:51 PM

yes i think we should

AntonChigurh

AntonChigurh on 11-19-2009 08:12 PM

I'll be seeing 2 things this weekend: Jack and ****, and Jack just sold out.

JRM

JRM on 11-19-2009 09:01 PM

*Sigh* *Waits for Avatar*

Throw An Onion

Throw An Onion on 11-19-2009 10:07 PM

@JRM

Thank you for echoing pretty much everyone's opinion except for the huge amount of retarded twelve year olds......

Of course for me it's more The Lovely Bones but Avatar might be good too........

Mr. Bo Ziffer

Mr. Bo Ziffer on 11-19-2009 09:20 PM

In all honesty, I thought New Moon would get better reviews. Not that I wanted it too, but the first movie was TERRIBLE . . . really, really terrible, and it still managed 45% or something. I thought more Twihard critics would jump on the bandwagon. These reviews will be, unfortunately, completely ignored, as all of the teenage girls drag their poor boyfriends to watch this stuff.

JRM

JRM on 11-19-2009 09:50 PM

I agree. I knew it would be rotten, but 28!? That's rotten to the core.

August M.

August M. on 11-19-2009 10:01 PM

Yeah, but if you watch it with the rifftrax commentary with the DVD copy of the movie when it comes out it will be great!

That's how I was able to enjoy crap like Star Wars Prequels, Matrix sequels, Spider-Man 3, Transformers series, and of course Twilight.

Rifftrax.com

CalvinandHobbes23

CalvinandHobbes23 on 11-19-2009 10:05 PM

YAHAHAHAHAHA,
twilight sucks,
that's awesome can't wait 2 for twihards to realize that it does too . . .

Paints Hz Shirt Red

Paints Hz Shirt Red on 11-19-2009 11:01 PM

I dont think they would admit it anyway. So far it looks that way and i only think itll get worse. Ill be seeing it sometime this week since my wife is a jacob nut swinger.

JettaJameson

JettaJameson on 11-19-2009 10:20 PM

BigBrother said it. It's nothing more that Twilight backlash. For some reason, it's cool to hate Twilight. Sorry, geeks. Not every movie can have guys in tights fighting crime. Get over it.

nikkitrueblue

nikkitrueblue on 11-19-2009 10:46 PM

Im not a Twi-maniac but I have to say after seeing New Moon I loved it. Now was it anything like Twilight? No-and really if you are going to compare both of them together than well the movie might suck for you. I don't know it's a movie that does start out sad. Im not going to pretend that I enjoyed all the little "extra scenes" seeing as I loved the book much much more. I didn't like alot of the CGI effects esp. making Edward look as if he's a recovering Heroin addict because in the book-even with the circles under his eyes Bella says in the book that he is beautiful and that she had never really saw him until that moment. I say that the movie for the book it represents was great. Is it as wonderful as Twilight? Well no, not really because I liked the fact that other than his eyes and he sparkled in the sun; Edward and the Cullens looked pretty much like anyone else. I think Chris Weitz was maybe not the best choice but he was the one that was made reguardless. So New Moon as a whole was a great movie and not a waste of money! All the actors did awesome esp. Dakota Fanning.

melissa o.

melissa o. on 11-26-2009 10:19 AM

I have to agree 100% with nikkitrueblue.

I found the first movie somewhat interesting and generally i liked it.
When i watched New Moon i was disappointed, especially with the acting. It was so B grade.
Robbert Patterson (AKA Edward) DID look like he was recovering from a Heroin addiction. I was so shocked to see the way they portrayed him in the film. Too much with the eyes for a starter. The first movie, i thought the way they portrayed his character was fine and he did pull off the whole "Vampire" look. But in New Moon, it was just devastating to see him look so dreadful.
I can safely say, That's not how the Author of the Twilight saga books portrayed him to look like, irespectable of what anyone thinks.

In some shots the special effects were extremely poor, especially the wolf scenes, again very B grade.
Taylor lautner (AKA Jacob black) was terrible in his acting, VERY B GRADE there for sure.
There were very few actors and actresses that pulled off their part to a T. For the love of me, i wouldn't know their real names but actors and actresses who weren't the main characters did brilliantly in my opinion. In saying that, i mean to the best of their ability. You could see they were generally trying very hard to make their character shine.
Out of the Main characters i believe only Robbert Patterson pulled his off to the best of his ability, it's just a pity they made him look so poor on camera.
kristen stewart (AKA Bella Swan) was second in line of poor acting after Taylor lautner. Kristen as a main character, i expected more.
But we have all seen her in interviews with the press, it's clear stardom has got to the little princesses head, therefore believes she doesn't have to try anymore.
If you ask me, with the next movie coming out 2010 i'd scrap Kirsten and Taylor and replace them with an actor and actress who CAN pull off the character of Bella and Jacob.
Out of 10, i'd give New Moon a 2.

nikkitrueblue

nikkitrueblue on 11-19-2009 10:48 PM

Im not a Twi-maniac but I have to say after seeing New Moon I loved it. Now was it anything like Twilight? No-and really if you are going to compare both of them together than well the movie might suck for you. I don't know it's a movie that does start out sad. Im not going to pretend that I enjoyed all the little "extra scenes" seeing as I loved the book much much more. I didn't like alot of the CGI effects esp. making Edward look as if he's a recovering Heroin addict because in the book-even with the circles under his eyes Bella says in the book that he is beautiful and that she had never really saw him until that moment. I say that the movie for the book it represents was great. Is it as wonderful as Twilight? Well no, not really because I liked the fact that other than his eyes and he sparkled in the sun; Edward and the Cullens looked pretty much like anyone else. I think Chris Weitz was maybe not the best choice but he was the one that was made reguardless. So New Moon as a whole was a great movie and not a waste of money! All the actors did awesome esp. Dakota Fanning.

ktomas

ktomas on 11-19-2009 11:21 PM

PLANET 51 looked like crap the first time I saw the trailer. No shock there.

Equally not surprised that critics are still piling on TWILIGHT; but since they're not the target audience for this type of film, who really gives a crap what they think? As many of them already acknowledge, the sequel is automatically critic-proof anyway, like the TRANSFORMERS movies.

However, it seems like critics are giving THE BLIND SIDE a bit of a free pass, even though the plot's so obviously formulaic. So overall, it looks to me like this is a pretty disposable weekend for cinematic critical evaluation.

Salty Popcorn

Salty Popcorn on 11-19-2009 11:29 PM

Of course critics are going to hate it - it's not made for Oscar contention, to win awards anywhere or to be brilliant - it was made for fans and is the first film I have ever watched that was better than the book, it also shat all over the first film. I loved it. Read my review at Salty Popcorn dot com :)

August M.

August M. on 11-20-2009 08:50 AM

Lord of the Rings, Wizard of Oz, Godfather, Jaws, Gone with the Wind, Metropolis (1928), Ten Commandments, The Last Temptation of Christ, Blade Runner, and others say hi and read better books and watch better book adaptations that surpassed the book themselves.

Ruth K.

Ruth K. on 11-20-2009 02:44 AM

One more comment that makes the series important -- these days with Sarah Palin and other bloodthirsty hunters, are trying to murder the most majestic animals, the beautiful wolves of the Northwest and Alaska, this might bring some help on the side of the wolves.

Bigbrother

Bigbrother on 11-20-2009 06:05 AM

On the bright side, they're thriving in Yellowstone, but a good point I hadn't really thought of that. The producers should have put in a plug at the end of the movie. Would have been great PR and done a lot of good. The real problem though is in Russia where they're trying to basically exterminate the wolves as a species.

blattman

blattman on 11-20-2009 03:49 AM

I just came from a midnight showing of New Moon. The women sighed, the gay men swooned! Say what you will, but it sold out 17 theaters for the midnight show, and that was just one theater location. It will (has) made lots and lots of money, so more will be made. You can gripe all you want, but facts are facts.

The Stunner

The Stunner on 11-20-2009 04:38 AM

people have an irrational hatred towards twilight or sumin'? i don't like twilight but i also don't go bashing it around.

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