Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Twilight Saga: New Moon on DVD

"Half of the time, I'm just overjoyed to be a part of this. The other half I'm nervous that I'm going to be hunted down and killed by a pack of teenage girls."
- New Moon director Chris Weitz
The second installment in the Twilight series just arrived on DVD this month. Vampire heartthrob Edward (Robert Pattinson) thinks that his mortal teenage girlfriend Bella (Kristen Stewart) is safer without him so he breaks up with her, vowing he will never see her again. Bella's good friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) helps lift her out of her depression. But even though being with Jacob helps ease her heartbreak, Bella still will not let go of Edward. After discovering she is able to see an apparition of Edward whenever she participates in risky activities, Bella engages in dangerous behaviors such as riding on a stranger's motorcycle and cliff jumping. When Edward believes Bella to be dead he goes to Italy because he wants the Volturri (law-upholding vampires) to kill him. Bella then rushes to Italy, hoping she can stop this from occurring.

This is a two-DVD set, and the six-part documentary is worth a view. All sorts of details about the making of the movie are discussed, including how new director Weitz works (Catherine Hardwicke directed the first film). At one point actor Michael Sheen (Aro) describes Weitz as a cross between a vampire and a werewolf. The documentary allows you to stand on the sidelines during the first day of shooting, while stunts are being shot with stand-ins, on location in Italy, and even in the editing room. I thought it was interesting to watch how they shot the scene where Jacob turns into a wolf. To the surprise of the stunt crew Taylor Launter insisted on doing his own stunts and did them just as well as a stunt person. Another part of the documentary reveals how the production designers wanted to have an "emotional texture" to the look of the film. We also get to see how the special effects team got Robert Pattinson's skin to sparkle like diamonds and how they created the wolves.

Even if you've seen New Moon already, I recommend checking out the special features on this DVD.
Find it in the catalog! 

How many days until the midnight opening of Eclipse on June 30?