Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The (2010)

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The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

The third installment in the Twilight franchise eclipses(pun intended) New Moon in every possible way.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse continues the story of Bella Swan(Kristen Stewart) as she struggles to maintain a "normal" life with Edward Cullen(Robert Pattinson), while attempting to keep her friendship with Jacob Black(Taylor Lautner). Of course, the hatred Edward and Jacob have for one another isn't going away. This time around, Victoria(now played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is creating an army of Vampire newborns to take out the Cullen clan. The Cullen's form an uneasy truce with the wolf pack and decide they need to work together to protect Bella at all costs.

The movie is surprisingly very different from the first two films. Of course changing directors will do that. David Slade(Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) helms this film, it's obvious. He brought an edge to the franchise not seen before. The opening of the film is very dark, gothic; adding a new layer of uneasiness to the story. He balanced the big action scenes, as well as the intense feeding scenes very well with the teen melodrama of Bella's life. The film also features two flashback sequences telling the history of Rosalie and Jasper. These two scene were my favorite in the entire film. They drew you in to another period and showed you just how big the Twilight universe could be. Plus it was great to just see a different side, a more human side to Rosalie and Jasper after being background characters for two films.

The acting this time around is shockingly, far better than before. I was really impressed by Kristen Stewart, who I felt phoned it in on the first two films. She brought some raw emotion to Bella for the first time, especially during her short scene with her mother. Robert Pattinson as well upped it to a new level. Sadly, Taylor Lautner is still stiff as a board, lacking in anything resembling acting talent, bore he was before. This guy drags the series down greatly. Jackson Rathbone, who plays Jasper, is given much more screen time, and he really shines in what he gets. Newcomer to the series, Xavier Samuel who plays newborn Riley also adds an element of fright to the film.

The climax of the film which consists of a battle between the newborns and Cullens/wolf pack was the selling point of the film. This part did suffer from everything appearing to be too easy for our heroes. They never seemed to be in any danger after the wolf pack arrived and it hurt the scene. Also, the film does pose the question, why do these vampire break like ice? In the previous films, the vampires were tough as hell to kill and had to be torn apart. This time, they just sorta break like porcelain dolls.

The negatives in this are the same they've been since day one. The writing is sloppy and the jokes are forced. The film is unevenly paced and the transitions between scenes makes you scratch your head. However, it seemed Slade really wanted to push the Twilight series forward, but also didn't want to step on anyone's toes. Some of the newborn scenes are just brutal and could have been very intense and even scary; but Slade seemed to tone it down just when things started to escalate.

I give the film 6.5/10. Overall it's a really fun movie to see and I really did enjoy watching it. I know I'll watch it again. It trumps New Moon(not that difficult) in every way. While it doesn't quite top the first film or capture the magic Catherine Hardwicke had with "Twilight," "Eclipse" is sure to satisfy every Twilight fan and may even entertain those of you forced to see it quite a bit.