First of all, if you are not a rabid fan of the Twilight vampire books or if you found the first film of the “Twilight” series a little slow, then by all means, please stay away from the movie theaters, or at least bring a pillow.

If you love everything Bella, Edward and Jacob, then by all means wait in line for hours at a time to see “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” buy several pieces of memorabilia and keep this tepid franchise alive.

I think I am somewhere in between both camps. I kind of like the story of the young Bella Swan finding her true love, Edward Cullen, to be a vampire. I was intrigued by the teen parables of feeling out of place, unable to be comfortable in the life you are made to live and the fact that the vampires of the story suffer throughout the same problems.

I even found the first film to be OK. A little too much teen and vampire angst, and not very satisfying special effects, but overall a mostly interesting story.

But the second movie, “New Moon,” is simply a bore — again, unless you are a rabid fan. Not much happens and the main love interest, Edward, is absent for most of the tale.

Of course the tweens and their mothers, who are insane about this story, had plenty to swoon about in the form — and I should say the newly formed — body of Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black.

Lautner was almost dropped from the film because the producers thought he was too little to play a future wolf boy. But the kid worked hard in the gym to become a hard body, and kept the role. And considering the collective gasp by the females in the audience, they were impressed when Lautner took his shirt off for the first time. (The gasp was followed by a half-minute of laughter from their boyfriends, who’d been dragged along.)

Unfortunately, the screen writer Melissa Rosenberg, who penned the first film, doesn’t give the characters much to do, except mope around and wish things were different.

There is one scene that shows Bella suffering and pining through a series of seasonal changes, that seemed to actually last as long as the four seasons they covered.

Jacob is madly in love with Bella, Bella is madly in love with Edward, etc. OK, we get it! Now do something!

An interesting choice as director is Chris Weitz, the producer of “American Pie” in 1999 and the director of a maudlin Hugh Grant film, “About a Boy” in 2002.

The fantasy realm is not new, however, to Weitz, as he also helmed the 2007 fantasy-adventure film “The Golden Compass,”  with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

Kristen Stewart is a fine actress and plays Bella well. She is able to invoke her character’s pain, and is a great moper. Robert Pattinson as Edward does a good imitation of a very pale James Dean/Jason Priestly, and Lautner is good. But it is not enough — again, except for the rabid fan.

There are some interesting scenes and characters throughout the film. Michael Sheen, who played David Frost in “Frost/Nixon” (2008) and Tony Blair in “The Queen” (2006), chews up the screen in a small role as Aro, the leader of the Volturi, a type of vampire royalty.

Dakota Fanning is basically wasted as Jane, another member of the Volturi. Apparently, she will be featured more prominently in the third installment of the story, “Eclipse,” which will be released next June.

Again, the special effects do not seem to be of much importance here, and are not very realistic. The way several characters morph instantly into werewolves, turning at least three times the size of their original characters, did not work for me.

But “Twilight” and “New Moon” are not about special effects, they are about feeling the pain and distance of forbidden love and being a teen — oh yeah, and about a lot of moping.

By the way, while I am not into the “Twilight” fever, I must say if I have to take sides, I’m in the Jacob camp.