Love It/Hate It: The Action-Packed 'New Moon' VMA Trailer
Filed under: Action, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Movie Marketing
Let's be honest. Some of you watched the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night. (OMG, did you see what Kanye did to poor Taylor Swift?? That rascal!) Although technically the VMAs are supposed to celebrate achievement in music videos – you know, those things MTV used to play all the time – the night belonged to one decidedly non-musical entity: Twilight. Stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner introduced a new extended trailer for The Twilight Saga: New Moon that just might have earned the Summit property something that previous teaser trailers haven't been able to nail: male interest. That's right, Twilight's gunning for you action fans - and from the looks of things, you might even like it.
I admit, that's a big "might." The Twilight franchise hasn't yet expanded beyond its key demographic of teenage girls and Twilight Moms, but as evidenced by Sunday's trailer, the November sequel aims to change all that.No more fussing with 14-second trailers to teaser trailers for theatrical trailers – Summit and new director Chris Weitz went for a good, old fashioned 2:30 minute reel that somehow crammed everything, and I mean everything, into one action-packed clip. It also conveniently hit every major plot point of Stephenie Meyer's second novel, like a New Moon version of Cliff Notes. Watch for yourself below.
As you can see, we get damn near the whole story, from beginning to (almost) end: Edward (Pattinson) tells Bella (Stewart) about the Volturi, then breaks up with her; Bella goes into a Depression with a Capital D; Bella puts herself in dangerous situations just to conjure Ghost Edward; Jacob (Lautner) pleads with Bella to stay, but she goes to Italy with Alice (Ashley Greene) anyway; Bella races across a fountain in Volterra to stop Edward from sparkling; Edward tells Volturi guard Felix (Daniel Cudmore) to go to hell. Meanwhile, Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre) bounces around the trees eluding police; Laurent (Edi Gathegi) backhands a giant wolf clear across a field; Bella hits one of the Wolf Pack Quileutes, who instantly phases in front of her; and back in the Volturi chamber, Jane (Dakota Fanning) gets sadistic and Edward gets the sparkles kicked out of him. FIN.
The new adrenaline-fueled angle works better for New Moon than its Comic-Con footage did (i.e. RPattz and Taylor Take Their Shirts Off). It's also more effective than the anemic trailer attached to Bandslam showings, which focused more on New Moon's romantic triangle and most certainly lacked appeal to (mostly male) non-fans. After those disappointing early teasers, this extended trailer seems to have reinvigorated hopes that New Moon might actually be, well, good.
So, Twilighters and non-Twilighters, what did you think of the VMA extended trailer for The Twilight Saga: New Moon? Did it get your blood flowing, or do you care just as much (or as little) as you did before?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-14-2009 @ 10:41AM
shannon said...
the movie looks like it will be amazing a little bit better than the first, in enjoyed all the books and if the movies continue to impress as so far they will be fantastic..
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9-14-2009 @ 10:52AM
Erica said...
The girl in me is disappointed that Summit/Weitz/etc feel the need to make something "better" than the already-very-good Harwicke/Rosenberg/Meyer project which became such a big "surprise" hit in the first place.
As to your comments regarding attracting male viewers: it's a shame that every single franchise feels it is requred to make this such a priority. In particular with TWILIGHT it is just cringe-worthy, watching the overtly masculine Hollywood machine take a film series based on books written by women and for women, fire its female director, and cram itself into the made-by-men-and-for-men model.
A damned shame for female horror/fantasy/romance fans the world over.
Sorry boys, but this one was supposed to be OURS.
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9-14-2009 @ 11:38AM
Reuben said...
I will never be a fan of Twilight (I leave that to my girlfriend) but I totally agree with you. Men should have little-to-nothing to do with these adaptations; they were not meant for us.
9-14-2009 @ 9:55PM
Aaron said...
Oh yes, I just love how you take such a feminist stance on this.
Let's just forget about the fact Bella has to be saved by a man NO MATTER WHAT situation she's in. Let's just forget the fact that Edward stalks and even says he wants to kill her, yet she stills fall for him "because he sparklez and is so DEEP!!!" (yeah right, apparently meyer doesn't understand the word mary sue, or PERSONALITY). And lets just forget the fact that when Edward leaves Bella she is helpless and distraught, and can only come back to her senses (well, what meyer considers senses) when Jacob rescues her and puts her in a borderline abusive relationship.
YEAH. SO OBVIOUSLY A MALE DIRECTOR IS NOW JUST GOING TO MAKE EVERYTHING SEXIST!
If anything, we may actually have a director who isn't a brainwashed fangirl, therefor he may try to make likeable characters with actual personalities. Although from the amount of shirtless pandering for bella, it certainly isn't look that way.
On another note, the visuals for the film look great, and Stewart, Fanning, and Lautner look good as well.
BTW Jen, this is GTS/AronDej. I'm using my real name :)
9-14-2009 @ 11:55AM
helen said...
As a huge fan of Pattinson's I have to say dont fool yourself that this film is for men. It isnt. Its a franchise geared to women and why the hell not. But there might at least be some action to stop guys falling asleep when their partners take them to the cinema. I'm far more interested in Pattinson's future work and really hope he gets the lead in Dune. Time to branch out and grab a male fanbase.
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9-14-2009 @ 11:59AM
warbringerdoom said...
Don't worry ladies the only males that will go see this are the 12 to 16 years old ones trying to impress some chick with their TWILIGHT vocab!! God lets hope thats all! Also if it was made just for chicks it wouldn't make any money and all the fangirls would be pissed that everyone talked even more smack about it. p.s. MTV should change its name to the TWILIGHT CHANNEL!!
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9-14-2009 @ 9:55PM
BLAIR said...
JUST CURIOUS, HAVE YOU READ THE BOOKS?
9-14-2009 @ 12:21PM
MYMHM said...
No worries.
Throwing some action beats into a film grounded in an angsty/chaste teen relationship isn't going to do much to expand the male demographic. Dude's will stay home and watch True Blood instead to get their whiny vamp fix.
But don't think this annoyance doesn't go both ways. Like us action movie fans DON'T get annoyed with every action flick HAVING to include some hackneyed romance or love interest to try and appeal to girlfriends. This Hollywoodification of films goes both ways ya know...
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9-14-2009 @ 2:02PM
MarkH said...
No, that looks awful too, but then I'm not even remotely its target demographic.
Serious question: in general, are SFX getting worse? Because there was some CGI in there that was just plain *awful*.
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9-14-2009 @ 2:15PM
Michael Byng said...
If I only saw the second half of this trailer...i MIGHT see it. But i cant ignore the badness of the first movie and first half of the trailer.
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9-14-2009 @ 2:26PM
BloodwerK said...
Sorry #2. I already like the first one...
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9-15-2009 @ 3:06AM
Drew said...
Who says only women are allowed to like Twilight? Just because the movies are romance, guys are allowed to like this too.
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9-14-2009 @ 9:54PM
morphs said...
I loved the trailer. The first trailers had me saying, "Ehh..." but this one has me excited.
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9-14-2009 @ 9:54PM
Desiree said...
Im excited as well! this trailer looks amazing. Definately not let down by this. I hate to say it but being a huge fan of the books, I really didnt like twilight as much as I thought I would. It was ok, I thought there was too much overacting and too little attention on important scenes and it just overly cheesy and comedic at parts that weren't suppose to be funny. To those that said no guys but teens and youngins will be seeing this, I hate to break it to you, but you're assumptions are wrong. I have multiple male friends who read this series after their girlfriend(s) and/or wives and are will be seeing New Moon as well. So peep down, New Moon attracts anyone who is interested in watching it, doesnt matter about their sex or age.
9-14-2009 @ 11:56PM
Sick of Hollywood Bastards said...
Hey Aaron, you're an idiot. Bella is not being constantly saved by a man. Bella goes to Italy to save who? Uh, yeah, Edward. Bella, goes to the ballet studio to save who? Uh, yeah, her mother and to sacrifice herself and keep him away from, uh, Edward and the Cullens as well as her father. She's the hero you idiot. And guess what, she will do it again in Eclipse with taking a rock to slice herself and then again in Breaking Dawn where the Volturi are scared of her powers. Uh, maybe if you pick up a book and read, you would find out that she's the heroine and not the one who needs to be saved. Idiot. READ. Even Rob admits he's the one who needs to be saved. Duh. I don't know why Summit needs to trend the story to get more guys in the theater? For what? They didn't make Transformers to get more females in. It's just sickening what you men will do. Twilight made almost a half billion dollars on a $37 million dollar budget. Females will pay to see a good movie. Just idiots.
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9-14-2009 @ 10:02PM
Jen Yamato said...
SoHB is right. While Bella is weak in some regards, she does act to save those she loves in every book.
The Twilight-Transformers comparison is interesting; if anything, I think it proved that women will also go see a male-oriented film because they're also interested in it. But I think the opposite is not true. And that's a problem for a studio that wants to grow its audience with every installment of an increasingly-mature story.
9-14-2009 @ 9:58PM
Jen Yamato said...
Blair, I have read the books. It was a whirlwind 5 days, reading all 4.5 cover to cover as fast as I could. My non-Twilight memories during that time are a blur. And as any once-skeptic, now-fan can attest, it's an obsession that you can't really fully understand until you go through it yourself.
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9-15-2009 @ 1:42PM
k said...
I was disappointed from the very first trailer of New Moon and each trailer since, revealing the big secret about Jacob. Yes, the majority of the people that will see the movie have read the book and already know the secret, however it would have been nice not to show us the scene where he reveals himself. I would have rather enjoyed seeing the moment for the first time in the theatre. And to leave the surprise for the movie for those who have not read the books so they could have enjoyed the big moment as we all did when reading the book.
One good thing I can say it that at least they left Kristen Stuarts stuttering out of the extended trailer. The trailer does look exciting and I can't wait to see the whole movie. I am looking forward to seeing what the new director has in store for Twilight fans.
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9-15-2009 @ 12:49PM
Kandi Bauer said...
Man the fight scean between Eward and Felix is going to Rock. I'm finally glad to see Daniel Cudmore as A Vampire I think the part of Felix fits him to a T. He could have been a great Emmett but when I read New Moon I was like hey Daniel Cudmore could bring this role to life and I am glad that got him in New Moon and Elcipse. Way to go Daniel.
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9-15-2009 @ 11:27AM
Erica said...
Guys -- I was not making comments about the men (and boys) who like Twilight stuff. My comments are about the men sitting in offices in Los Angeles (and the women whose paychecks these men sign), who are deciding how to make and market these movies.
It's about servicing the more-than-50% of the American population who is not male, also. We have money too. Though, admittedly, not usually as much. ;-)
Twilight is not about "action," special effects, fangs, or sparkly skin. It is more about internal states, emotions, ethics, and romance. It's about immortal love, passions of the heart, family. It's pretty much a no-brainer why women love it so much (even before RPattz got cast).
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