I came across the GetFugu app from a press release where they announced a partnership with Summit Entertainment to add Twilight Saga: New Moon to the GetFugu service.

Basically with the GetFugu app, users can get information on content in a few different ways. If they say the search term, take a picture of it or find products that are close to you. For New Moon, fans can take a picture of the Twilight: New Moon movie poster and get movie trailers, movie information, and locate the closest theater to where they are that the film is playing.

“We are thrilled to work with Summit Entertainment and to be a marketing partner in this phenomenon, and help moviegoers continue their experience beyond the theater,” said Michael Jay Solomon, Chairman of GetFugu. “The ‘Twilight’ fans will certainly find our technology fun and exciting as they interact with their iPhones and experience real-time flow of information on their favorite movie series.”

While the Twilight stuff is all well and good, GetFugu is actually an interesting app that is available for free for the iPhone, Android and coming to the Blackberry in 2010.

Here are a couple of videos about the service:

While the app itself has some promise, it still seems to be missing MANY logos. I tried the See It portion first and took pictures of Hello Kitty, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Twilight logos. It didn’t recognize any of them. I took three pictures of a Gelson’s Super Market logo and on the third try it found a link to their website.

Using Say It did not show better results. Hello Kitty again brought up nothing. While Toys R Us, brought up Caroline Video game. I also said Pizza which is used in their video example and it came up with nothing the first time, the second time it used my current location to find pizza places near me. That is an example why this app is so cool, but it definitely needs work. Starbucks also works and takes you to their website. Although I’d rather have the map come up with nearest Starbucks. It looks like you can’t choose what options or how you would like t see the results. The last word I tested was Twilight to see if the new partnership is working. Right away I get New Moon information with a nice background. Get access to the trailer, store and Summit Entertainment.

If GetFugu can get their asset database together, this app can be very useful. But until GetFugu can build that, it’s more of a hassle than typing into Google. Soon GetFugu will be rolling out a service that lets users add logos and earn money. I’m not sure why it’s tied into a GetFugu debit card, but they definitely need the help.

My recommendation is that GetFugu is one to watch, but may be too frustrating to use currently.

New Moon is the second story in the Twilight Saga. For those of you that may not have read the books yet, the basic premise in New Moon is Bella doesn’t want to grow old, Edward is scared of hurting Bella, Edward leaves Bella (but comes to her when she’s doing something dangerous), Jacob steps in to romance Bella, in the meantime becomes a werewolf, and Bella rushes to Italy to save Edward.

There’s a bit more to the story than that, but that’s basic premise. I was able to see the movie during a matinee on Wednesday. The theater was completely full, but there wasn’t a single tween in sight. No, this was the moms time to gawk at the hot young boys in the movie.

I am a big fan of Twilight. I have read all the books. The books are basically uneducated fan fiction that I could have written in high school, but I appreciate them for what they are. A guilty pleasure. It helps that Robert Pattinson is gorgeous, but everything else constantly works against it.

Let’s start with the good:
I have to start the good off with a congrats to whomever is Taylor Lautner’s personal trainer. That trainer deserves a raise. He/she took a skinny kid in Twilight, whom many doubted could actually carry Jacob, into a hard bodied hunk that made me blush. When Jacob takes his shirt off for the first time the entire audience of women cheered. In one small gesture, they all switched teams. In a sense we should all feel bad since he’s major jail bait.

Which brings me to the acting…while many professional critics are panning the entire movie for lack of acting skills, I have to say that some people acted their booty off and tried to save this film. Ashley Greene, who plays Alice, is a delight to watch in this film. I wanted to see her even more. She has really captured who Alice is and it definitely comes across on screen. Taylor Lautner also made a very believable Jacob. While I’m not switching teams, he not only looked the part, but delivered his lines well and made the audience feel for him. At one point Bella turns away from an attempted kiss by Jacob and someone in the audience yelled, “I want my money back”. Yes, perhaps they haven’t read the book, or maybe they were just happy that at least one actor was showing emotion.

The members of the Wolfpack also are believable in their roles and the Cullen family do a good job of keeping in character.

The last good thing about New Moon is how the Volturri are introduced. The Volturri are like vampire royalty and decide how to hand out punishments to vampires. While we only got some background and a quick look at the Volturri, the characters seemed strong and interesting. Which was quite a change because so much of the movie is uninteresting.

That brings us to the bad…
Unfortunately there is more to hate with New Moon than there is to love. Starting with the way it was filmed. I am unable to understand why Summit Entertainment handed over the reigns to a director that is fairly new and has a list of bombs on his IMDB list. Chris Weitz previously directed The Golden Compass. In an interview on the red carpet, Chris Weitz admitted that he never read the book. His filming style consisted of extreme closeups on the characters’ faces. Because of Kristen’s bad acting (I’ll get to that), a close up only makes it worse. Chris also chose to include many flashbacks to Twilight. Which I’m pretty sure we didn’t need. I highly doubt anyone that goes to see New Moon hasn’t seen Twilight. The flashbacks felt like a waste of time and were totally out of place.

I’m not quite done with my displeasure of Mr. Weitz. He seemed to care so little about New Moon and it’s fans that there are not one, but many continuity problems during the film. The problems are obvious and by not catching them it displays a total lack of respect to the fans assuming that they’ll love anything given to them. IMDB has a good list of the continuity problems and lack of attention to detail. The one that bothered me throughout the film was Kristen’s hair color constantly changing. This is because of her work on her other film where Kristen cut and dyed her hair frequently. The film doesn’t handle it at all and instead we just see her hair constantly and inexplicably change.

I get that the two stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart may be romantically paired in real life, but a real life romance doesn’t always translate to the big screen. These two seemed bored with the movie and with each other. The lines were delivered flat and Robert looked to be forcing interest. A film doesn’t go over well when you’re two lead actors are barely…acting. I saw more acting from Robert Pattinson in the preview for Remember Me than in all of New Moon. The acting in the film is so bad, that most of the audience laughed themselves through the most serious scenes. When Bella tells Jacob that she’ll always choose Edward over him, she looks so painfully bored that you’d think she was choosing drapes.

I do have to confess that New Moon is my least favorite book. But going into the movie, I still had hopes that it would be done well. My original opinion is they should have combined books 2 & 3 together. The pace of New Moon is horrifically slow. While Taylor Lautner surprised me by actually becoming a believable Jacob, Rob and Kristen let down fans by portraying boring versions of Bella and Edward.

In the end, fans have flocked to see New Moon. As a huge fan of Twilight, I will not be purchasing New Moon on Blu-Ray/DVD. It’s my recommendation that we all forget New Moon even happened and start over with Eclipse. Hopefully the next director will have more respect for Twilight fans.

Twilight Saga: New Moon didn’t break Modern Warfare 2 records but it did set some records of it’s own. The three day estimate in sales is at $140.7 million making it the biggest opener of 2009.

We received information from Flixster that New Moon has a 93% positive response from moviegoers while only 29% of professional critics enjoy the movie. Quite a disparity.

I have not seen New Moon yet. I wanted to wait until the lines were over and see it while the kids are in school. I know people that have seen the movie twice already. On the news, there was a woman that has seen it 6 times in the theater.

On Rotten Tomatoes, New Moon is hovering around 29%. Could it be a case that the professional critics just don’t get it? Or are Twilight fans willing to put up with substandard acting for the sake of watching Bella and Edward together (or just watching Edward really)? If you saw New Moon over the weekend, what did you think? Did it stay close to the book? Did you find this to be true, “All three lovers are so joyless, it’s hard to imagine why any of them would want to spend eternity together. – Associated Press” ?

Regardless of what critics say, New Moon was a financial success and with work already being done on Eclipse, it’s safe to say the entire series will make it to the big screen.

Hi everyone! Welcome to the Thursday edition of the 5@5! I have the top five news items for you today plus, I had to fit a little Twilight: New Moon in since tonight is the opening! Also look for a re-enactment of my own in the cast. I think I’m a bit loopy from not eating yet. So I’m off to the store. In the meantime, enjoy and see you at 1vs 100!

xoxo
Trina

Okay you all know I’m a total spaz for Edward and all things Twilight. But I’m not going to rush to see New Moon until the crowds die down. So what to do? Watch this awesome parody created by the Sims team using Sims 3.

The parody video has Edward, Jacob and the werewolves and a surprise kiss that fanfic fans will enjoy. lol

CafePress is celebrating the release of Twilight Saga: New Moon buy giving away gifts using the link above. To receive a free gift enter the code: CPNEWMOONGIFT2 when prompted.

CafePress is partnering with Summit Entertainment to launch an online shop featuring merchandise made by fans for Twilight Saga: New Moon.

The one-of-kind items have sayings like OCD: Obsessive Cullen Disorder, Forget a prince on a horse, I want a Vampire in a Volvo, What do you mean Edward isn’t real?, I’m her Edward, I like my Men cold, dead and sparkley, and many more. I lost some time in just searching through all the unique designs of which there are 75,000 of them.

“Nothing says self-expression more than the uber-creative and thoroughly unique ‘Twilight Saga’ products on CafePress created by the fans themselves,” said CafePress Vice President of Marketing, Amy Maniatis. “It’s rare to see such an enthusiastically engaged group of fans and we think they’ll love the free gift* we have in store for them!”

Twilight Saga:New Moon opens on November 20 and Twilight Saga: Eclipse opens on June 30,2010.

The above image is from EverGlowMedia.net from the Press Junket that happened in LA recently to promote and talk about Twilight: New Moon. The cast was on hand to discuss the film and answer the Press’s serious questions like if Taylor Lautner is dating Taylor Swift. (rolls eyes)

I unfortunately was not in attendance but I have collected a few videos from Youtube about the presser. Hopefully we’ll be invited to future Twilight events since we do a fair amount of coverage.

Who is going to see New Moon with me after it comes out?

This actually brings a new level of cool to the Twilight series. Turns out that not only tween girls and slight embarrassed female adults are fans of Twilight. Metal Gear Solid creator, Hideo Kojima a “huge fan” of the series and will be judging a fan art contest themed around New Moon.

He will be judging along with Evangelion character designer/manga creator Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. The third judge is Ryuji Gotsubo, the creator of the Sasameke manga and the illustrator of the Japanese edition of the Twilight novels. The illustration contest is being held by Japanese art website pixiv.

“Sadamoto will award one winner with an autographed painting set. Kojima will award one autographed copy of his recent Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots game. Gotsubo is offering an autographed set of the first three Twilight tankōbon novel volumes, which cover the same material as the first American novel volume. The pixiv website’s premium members will also vote on 10 winners who will each receive two tickets for the film. The deadline for entry is November 15. The film will open in North America on November 20 and in Japan on November 28, according to ANN.com.”

There are plans for a Twilight graphic novel in the works drawn by Korean artist Young Kim. No word if Kojima is “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob”.

Nordstrom is offering fans a chance to meet selected cast members of The Twilight Saga: New Moon at select Nordstrom stores. Unfortunately not one is near me, but maybe you can go and report on it for us!

Fans can visit Nordstrom.com/newmoon for details and how to get VIP access on October 31 at 8am.

The cast members will be going to the following Nordstrom stores:

November 5- Topanga (Canoga Park, CA)**
November 8- Park Meadows (Lone Tree, CO)*
November 9- Natick Collection (Natick, MA)*
November 10- The Galleria (Houston, TX)*
November 11- Mall of America (Bloomington, MN)*
November 11- Cherry Hill Mall (Philadelphia, PA)*
November 11- Stonestown Galleria (San Francisco, CA)*
November 12- Perimeter Mall (Atlanta, GA)
November 12- Southcenter (Tukwila, WA)*
November 13- Aventura Mall (Aventura, FL)
November 13- Scottsdale Fashion Square (Phoenix, AZ)*
November 14- Fashion Place (Murray, UT)*

The BP department also has New Moon clothing and will be holding in-store styling parties on November 14 and 15.

The first television trailer for Twilight: New Moon came out today. The trailer shows more of Jacob and the relationship between Bella and Jacob while Edward is gone.

Look for media to get flooded with New Moon as we get closer to the release date of 11/20.