Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is still in love with vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) in New Moon. (E1 Entertainment)

The characters in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga all have their burdens to bear, but some suffer more grievously than others.

Take, for instance, our human heroine, Bella, played on screen by Kristen Stewart. Based on the evidence in the first two film adaptations of Meyer’s supernaturally themed bestsellers, Bella remains cursed with an affliction that prevents her from uttering even the most mundane line without nervous hesitation. Then there’s her vampire boyfriend, Edward (Robert Pattinson), who is not only doomed to walk the earth forever, but doomed to walk it entirely in slow motion as the wind ruffles his hair.

New Moon has all the things the Twilight fanbase could want: Bella and Edward gazing into each other’s eyes, anguished cries, goofy-looking action sequences, shirtless beefcake and, of course, lots of pining.

Perhaps the least fortunate of all is Jacob (Taylor Lautner), Bella’s friend and would-be paramour, who was of minor significance in the first film, Twilight (2008), but comes to the fore now in New Moon. The poor lad must cope with the twin discoveries that he is a werewolf and, judging by the innumerable displays of Lautner’s buff physique, that he has become allergic to shirts.

Such burdens are a very serious matter in the universe that Meyer has created. The release of the first Twilight film last November transformed the Arizonan author’s young-adult novels into a multi-format pop-cultural phenomenon.

Rest assured that New Moon has no shortage of the things that the Twilight fanbase have come to expect: plenty of shots of Bella and Edward gazing into each other’s eyes, an equal number of anguished cries, the occasional goofy-looking action sequence, plenty of examples of shirtless beefcake and, of course, more pining.

New Moon begins with Bella and Edward basking in happiness in the otherwise gloomy Washington state town where they live (it’s actually British Columbia). The lovers are separated, however, when Edward abruptly announces that he and the rest of his pale-faced vampire family are leaving. Devastated, Bella starts behaving like a serious candidate for antidepressants. She commits reckless acts that invite the apparitions of Edward, which may or may not be products of her imagination.

Her friendship with the cute, non-threatening Jacob helps draw Bella out of her shell, at least until he starts growing hair in strange places — all over, really — and hanging out with other shirtless guys from the reservation. “It’s not a lifestyle choice,” he tells Bella about his new werewolf orientation. “I was born with it.”

Bella's friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) displays some supernatural tendencies of his own. (E1 Entertainment)

Even so, Jacob maintains his loyalty to Bella by protecting her from Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre), the vengeful vamp whose mate Edward killed in Twilight. When she learns that Edward is in danger, Bella must choose between the two not-quite-men in her life. Mistakenly believing that Bella has died in one of her attempts to summon his phantom, Edward plans to kill himself by incurring the wrath of the vampire royalty known as the Volturi.

This piece of plotting comes straight out of Romeo and Juliet, which director Chris Weitz makes all too clear when he shows us a copy of the play on Bella’s pillow. Little else in New Moon could be mistaken for Shakespeare, though the snappier moments suggest there’s room in Meyer’s universe for more levity, like when Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) camps it up as the head of the Volturi. “Valour is alive after all,” he announces upon seeing the reunited Bella and Edward. “Isn’t that wonderful? I love a happy ending.” Anna Kendrick (soon to be seen opposite George Clooney in Up in the Air) also provides some spark as Bella’s human pal Jessica, who gets to deliver a very funny rant about zombie movies being too hard on people who like to shop.

Replacing Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, Weitz brings a greater slickness to the proceedings, especially in the dreamy, music-video-style montage sequences that deploy the eeriest songs on the already chart-topping soundtrack: Bon Iver and St. Vincent’s Rosyln and Thom Yorke’s Hearing Damage.

Unfortunately, Weitz doesn’t have Hardwicke’s knack for capturing those moments of hushed intimacy and barely sublimated lust that give Meyer’s teen melodrama its power. The need to keep Bella and Edward apart for most of the movie proves too great an obstacle. However perfect Lautner’s abs may be, he’s no substitute for Pattinson when it comes to brooding, heavy-lidded hunkiness. The scenes between Bella and Jacob have so little charge that the action drags badly through New Moon’s long middle stretch.

The shift between Twilight and New Moon points to one familiar truth: that the excitement of new love is very different than the demands of keeping the fire burning. That’s why New Moon ends up being both a qualitatively better film, yet potentially less satisfying as a fantasy for those eager to share in Bella's and Edward’s swooning.

New Moon opens Nov. 20.

Jason Anderson is a writer based in Toronto.