Twilight: Eclipse

Director: David Slade
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dakota Fanning
Rating: 12A (PG-13)
Company: Summit Entertainment
Duration: 124 Minutes

It is that time again… the moon is full, the freaks are out to play, all dressed in black and ready to attack. All of them waiting outside the cinemas queuing up to see the new installment of the Twilight Saga, possibly one of the biggest, if not slightly mind blogging, global phenomenons to hit society in the last decade. This being the third in the now five-part movie series, it now needs to bring itself to a darker, more mature tone in order to give the film a chance in gaining longevity, especially after the utterly awful ‘New Moon’ which practically destroyed any potential that was established by the first film. But what can anyone really say about this review-proof series now? Can ‘Eclipse’ prove all the haters wrong or does it still fall for the fan-girl loving trap? Do we really care if you support Team Edward or Team Jacob?

The movie starts with Kristen Stewart’s Bella preparing herself for her high school graduation that is quickly approaching. While she tries to get ready for the big day, she is conflicted between choosing her powerful love for Edward, played by Robert Pattinson, and her lusty friendship with Taylor Lautner’s Jacob,  knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ongoing struggle between the Vampires and the Werewolf tribe. Not to mention that this choice can transform her entire life in either living a simple mortal life or transform into a monster to be with her true love. In the midst of all this, Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings. It turns  out that this is connected to creating a newborn Vampire army, lead by the vengeful Victoria, played by the sexy Bryce Dallas Howard. She sends this huge horde towards the quiet town to kill Bella and the Cullens, as a means for taking revenge for what Edward did to her mate, James. ‘Mate for Mate’ as Victoria sees it. When Jacob and Edward hear of this, they agreed to temporarily join forces to protect Bella while the Cullen Clan and Werewolves battle off the evil newborn army. As you can see, there are 2 angles that the film tries to aim at and each one is executed well enough to satisfy its audience. Sadly, each angle is totally designed for two completely different audiences. While the romantic love triangle is putting all its focus on the female twilight fans, the monster battle of vengeance throws its attention towards the non-twilight fans, possibly the boyfriends… with its action set pieces and pretty well-written pace. But it feels like two different films have been sliced in together to make a film that seems to appeal to everyone, even if it is at a few separate scenes at a time… and that is the main problem with ‘Twilight: Eclipse’.

Stand back Cullens... Our glittery skin might give us away!

Let us start with the positives first. The film is directed by David Slade who did such exciting flicks as ‘Hard Candy’ and ’30 Days of Night’… and it shows that he was able to turn much of the previous mistakes around. The acting performances from some of the cast are top-notch. He was able to really drag out some genuine emotion from his stars and concentrate more on real character development, instead of just being flat, one-dimensional eye-candy. There are some fantastically  presented flashback scenes that bring a new light to some of the other well established characters, even if they are short-lived. Even Edward and Jacob seem to grow, showing both their soft and their rather evil sides, clearly getting more and more frustrated by the whole love triangle. The action/fight sequences are very well pulled off and even contain some levels of tension, with a logical visual style that seems to make each motion have some kind of impact. It seems that David Slade have solved all the issues that plagued the very first ‘Twilight’ film and made it work. The only problem is that he never found an answer for the horrendous mess that ‘New Moon’ brought to the front.

‘Eclipse’ still suffers from the over-the-top melodrama and dialogue that made the second chapter almost laughable… only this time, it is done in smaller, less irritating doses. This mainly exposes itself in the terribly written love triangle scenes that just seems to be milked to its ultimately dry conclusion. It now just seems to appear to be nothing but padding for the better scenes between. If taken satirically, some of the sequences are surprisingly witty and even funny, if mainly unintentionally. The infamous camping scenes will definitely make viewers raise an eyebrow at its sheer immaturity and lack of obvious logic. But the main problem here is that the central character of Bella… is just not likable anymore. In fact, she is worse than the irritating cock-tease that she was before… she is now a manipulative, almost villainous mastermind… having these two men nearly do her bidding and become her protectors by playing the indecisive lovestruck victim. While her emotions, or near lack of, for the two lead males seem honest, her actions behave to the contrary, losing nearly all sympathy from the audience. It is clearly a fault in the writing here. Whether this awful progression is adapted from Stephanie Meyer’s book or just naturally from the screenplays is unknown to me… but this major flaw is what stops the non-twilight fans from engaging with it, halting it from becoming a very decent movie all round. Poor writing crushes its ongoing rise.

‘Twilight: Eclipse’ is a major improvement for the series… but that isn’t to say that it is perfect. Half of the time it contains some very well acted and surprisingly engrossing sequences with some matured characterization and great direction… but the other half is full of unlikable melodrama and disastrously written trash revolving around a now uninteresting love plot with an extremely detested central heroine. It is constantly clashing with the positives, but overall balances the whole thing out. It becomes majorly annoying seeing the potentially good parts get squashed by the now standard eye-candy and mindless junk, but it is good to see those shining moments spark through. The movie seems to try way too hard to please everyone and it shows. But it just about works… barely. With these frustrations aside,  the series is finally evolving and has some entertainment value that will leave you questioning what will happen next time. Will it get better from here or will it go down hill? All we can do is patiently wait till the next full moon comes and brings us ‘Breaking Dawn’.

Rating: 3/5
(A major improvement… but not enough to turn you yet)

To read the review for the first ‘Twilight’, click here.

To read the review for ‘Twilight: New Moon’, click here.