I have to put up a quick note saying that "New Moon" has my tentative stamp of approveal (can't verify that until I can watch it with captions). My sister and I saw it in theatres today and I spent pretty much the whole movie going "this is so much better than Twilight! I love this!"
Costume, make-up, special effects, cinematography, casting... it was all at the level that it should have been in the first movie. The pacing was still a leeeetle off in some places, but the added action in this installment really helped. And the action is quite well done. I was impressed. They ironed out the kinks in the speed and they actually pretty much made giant wolves work.
Visually, this film is much easier to watch because (as many others have already stated) it is shot in a more traditional (read "less jerky") format, and skips the blue fliter that the first movie had. Also, the vampire's make-up no longer looks like make-up, and the costumes definetely got better. Some people have been giving the costumers a hard time about Alice's clothes, but my sister and I both agree that except one horrid coat in Italy, Alice dresses as chic and prettily as usual.
There are still a few "laugh at Edward" parts, but he was more believable this time around. And thankfully there were plenty of genuinelly supposed-to-be-funny parts that were no chore to laugh at. ;)
As far as appropriateness goes... pretty much on par with the first film. Actually probably a little less sensuality. Bella deals with extreme depression after Edward leaves, but this is not nearly as hard to watch as it was to read, and some nice bits of humor (as mentioned previously) give us plenty to enjoy, even while we understand Bella's heartache.
I think the scriptwriters did an excellent job of giving us the vital bits and trimming off the excess ones. Fans should be satisfied, and newcomers should enjoy it. (Guys will like this installment better than the last one!)
And the ending. was. perfect. :)
