The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) Director: Chris Weitz

Thank God.

I love the Twilight books but absolutely HATED the first movie which was soulless and had dire direction. Thankfully, with a new director on board, New Moon rocks it and left me feeling like a bit of a squeeeeeeee teen fangbanger...correction - a wolfbanger...as this film is all about Jacob Black. Eeugh, zoophilia.

From the start, New Moon has the passion and teen longing that Twilight failed to deliver. Bella (Kristen Stewart) is deeply in love with vamp Edward Cullen (RPatz) but a little drop of blood on the Cullen carpet causes big trouble in little Forks, which sees the Cullen family leaving the town for good. Edward's departure throws a heartbroken Bella into depression - and we do feel her pain - which leads her to a closer friendship with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a boy holding a big, big secret and who spends most of his time with his 'crew' topless. Oh, those abs are worth a 5 star review alone.

When Bella indulges in a spot of cliff-diving, the Cullen's interpet this as her suicide and Edward runs off to Italy to provoke the scary Volturi, who OWN the vampire world or something. There's some real fun here with Michael Sheen playing Aro, head of the Volturi, and a chilling Dakota Fanning as Jane, who can torture people by the power of her thought alone. Thankfully, a haunting scene in the book - where the Volturi lead a group of tourists into their lair for 'lunch' - is kept in and we hear their screams. Fantastic.

New Moon shows much promise of things to come from the next two films in the Saga. It should satisfy any fan who has fallen in love with Bella, Edward and Jacob's love triangle. Pure and indulgent escapism.

4/5 popcorn bites