"New Moon" is too long, it's poorly acted, the story's clunky and the dialogue is laughable. Still, it's an improvement over the quality of the first film, "Twilight." It has more humor, a little more energy.

Except when Kristen Stewart is on-screen as Bella Swan, the lovelorn teenage girl desperately in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). As "New Moon" begins, they're together, but she's moping around because she wants him to "change" her, to turn her into a vampire.

Yes, it's a rather obvious metaphor. Subtlety is not exactly the strong suit of the series, and the script.

An ill-timed paper cut — yes, really — leads to the sudden departure of Edward and his family.

If Bella was mopey before, now she's practically despondent. She blows off her friends, which is a shame for her and worse for us, because Anna Kendrick's portrayal of the wisecracking Jessica, one of her pals, is the best thing about the movie. (Ashley Greene, as Edward's sister Alice, is a close second.)

Enter old family friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner), with whom Bella rekindles a friendship. She discovers that when she puts herself in danger, she can still see Edward, who shows up as a ghostly figure to warn her against whatever trouble she's about to walk into.

Jacob is all of a sudden incredibly muscular and strong. He loves Bella, of course, but his advances suddenly stop. He cuts his hair, gets a tattoo and runs around shirtless with a crowd he formerly shunned. What gives? Well, he's a werewolf. So there's that.

Jacob, too, must stay away from Bella to protect her; she is evidently doomed to a life of being dumped by supernatural creatures.

Bella and Edward can't be kept apart forever, of course. They're reunited when Edward goes before a sort of vampire council in Italy, led by Aro (Michael Sheen). It's all sort of silly. This bit of plot does allow Pattinson to take his shirt off, so you can compare and contrast with Lautner if you're still on the fence. Pattinson's actually not in the film that much, but he does his swoon-worthy best when he's around. Lautner, more compelling, has more interesting things to do.

Don't worry, you have time to decide. The end of the film is a set-up for the next one.