List under the cut due to film detail spoilers.

(Note – Sense of Humor Required)

Read full article »

Sticking up for co-stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

“They have a lot of heat on them. They’re in a world of their own. We get in the tabloids, but not even close to what Rob and Kristen get. And from what I see, they handle it really well and I think people should cut them some slack because they’re very young and just trying to get through this.”

Thanks @anggiacullen for sharing with us!

Thank you to @nikkiedee1295 for sharing with us!

It’s always difficult translating something people are passionate about – whether it is a subject matter, person or book – to the big screen. Eclipse, the third book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga, is no exception. For many fans (myself included), it is their favorite of the four books, so there are high expectations for the film adaptation. Mine were met, and then some.

To me, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse feels like blend of the best of the first two movies. It captures the sexiness and energy of Twilight, even returning to the more blue tones of the first movie. It also pays the same respect to the novel that The Twilight Saga: New Moon did. But while New Moon was very much a visual representation of the words Meyer wrote, Eclipse takes her plot and rearranges them a bit, which keeps even the most loyal fans interested. Everything is there, it just might not be in the order you expect it. Screenwriter Melissa Rosenburg also added some backstory in places, particularly with the characters of Riley and Bree, that actually adds to the storyline. With that said, there are, of course, some things that are missing. It would be rather difficult to turn a 600-plus page book into a movie and still include everything. But the things fans most want to see – the tent scene and the leg hitch – are still there.

Much of that plot centers on the idea of two. Kristen Stewart’s Bella makes her choice between Robert Pattinson’s Edward and Taylor Lautner’s Jacob. Two sides – the Cullens and the Quileute wolfpack – come together to fight one common enemy. There are even two ideas of marriage discussed as Bella considers Edward’s proposal. Bella feels that at 18, she’s much too young and people will assume they’re getting married for the wrong reasons. Edward, on the other hand, explains that in culture he grew up in during the 1910s, people courted and did marry at that age.

Another predominant theme in Eclipse is family. The Cullens, a group of vampires who have chosen not to drink human blood, rally to protect Bella simply because Edward loves her. In addition, audiences get to see how two members of the family came to join them. The backstories of Nikki Reed’s Rosalie and Jackson Rathbone’s Jasper are explained, and it’s nice to see those actors get a few well-deserved minutes in the spotlight.

It’s also nice to see Pattinson and Stewart become even more comfortable in their roles, as well as with each other. The chemistry between the two of them, which was electric in Twilight, felt somewhat stilted in New Moon. But it’s back in a more grown-up, seemingly self-assured way. Their Bella and Edward feel like an actual couple in love rather than a schoolgirl with a crush and vampire who may or may not be slightly obsessive. Whatever the reason, their on-screen relationship seems much more authentic.

Individually, Pattinson and Stewart have improved as well. Edward is not nearly as overly-serious and brooding as he was in New Moon, and is, at times, playful, romantic and even funny, which Pattinson certainly takes to well. Pattinson seems to breathe a bit of life back into Edward in this film and makes it easy to forget that he’s not just a teenager in love. It is in those quiet moments between Edward and Bella where Pattinson really shines, making the audience feel Edward’s struggle between wanting to protect Bella and allowing her to stand on her own. Stewart does a fantastic job of capturing that awkward transition from teenager to adult. Bella is at an age when she is making decisions about what she wants from life, and Stewart nails that combination of innocence and self-assuredness with an understated grace.

It’s also nice to see Lautner’s Jacob grow as well. He’s gone from sidekick (OK, best friend) to a true leader among his pack. And not matter what team you’re on, you can’t help but feel for the guy when Bella makes her decision.

But once again, it’s the humans who steal the show. Anna Kendrick takes the spotlight in each scene she’s in as Bella’s friend and classmate Jessica Stanley. And Billy Burke (and his incredible comedic timing) again stands out as Bella’s father, police chief Charlie Swan. One of the truly hilarious moments of the movie comes when Charlie attempts to have “the talk” with Bella. It’s uncomfortable. It’s cringeworthy. And it will have you in hysterics.

The new cast members deserve some credit, too. Bryce Dallas Howard turns in a commendable performance after replacing Rachelle LeFevre as Victoria. Julia Jones added an interesting dynamic as the only female member of the wolfpack. And keep your eyes on Xavier Samuel. His performance as Riley is a good introduction to American film audiences.

Director David Slade does an excellent job with this material, particularly in the balance of action and romance. The pacing is good, taking the audience from one scene to another without rushing. The effects also seem to get better as this series continues. The wolves look more realistic, and the vampire sparkles are less, well, cheesy.

Fans of this series undoubtedly will love this third installment. But Eclipse, in particular, will interest those who aren’t fans as well. It’s exciting, it’s romantic, and it is the best of the series so far.

Now, the wait begins for the first part of Breaking Dawn on Nov. 18, 2011.

Source

From her site, Random Acts of Rob, she said,

It Looks OFFICIAL GUYS! I rarely post twice in one day but this is something many of you’ve been waiting for!

Robert Pattinson (The Twilight Saga) and Tallulah Riley (The Boat That Rocked) star in The Summer House. Set in rural France in the late sixties, a young girl reaches a turning point in her life as mankind celebrates the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Available on iTunes from 13 July (US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany)

No matter how many books she sells, no matter how many billions the movies make, no matter what significance her huge success has for the future of Western culture, there’s no excuse for Stephenie Meyer’s terrible writing. And now her mind-numbing logorrhea has overwhelmed whatever salvage operation the big screen can offer.Not that director David Slade and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg have put up much resistance. Like Meyer’s own editors, they’ve given up trying to rein in her literary crimes and have decided simply to give the customers what they want. The third in the series (two more are in the works, since the final volume is being divided, Harry Potter–style, into two films) is, aside from a few moments of probably unintentional wit, emotion, and excitement, a tedious litany of trite, mawkish, repetitious dialogue from what might be the world’s worst Y/A novel. (I have yet to read volume four.)

Back when the first Twilight (2008) came out, I didn’t think any of that mattered. I thought of it as a silent movie that shone with close-ups of luminous faces and exulted in the bigger-than-life emotions of melodrama. But now I realize it’s all just bad acting and cornball inanity.

So why will it be the most popular movie in the world for at least part of the summer? Maybe it’s the fantasy of an average girl like Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in a dead-end town with a dumb dad and trivial friends who bumps into superhuman beings — okay, vampires, but they drink the blood only of wild animals, and we don’t have to watch them doing even that — who possess unearthly beauty and invincible powers and have lots of money and things. Not only does she get to hang out with these people, she falls in love with one of them — dreamy Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) — and someday might even become one of them. It’s kind of like regular people like us getting up close and personal with real celebrities like, well, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

But Bella is not just in with the vampires, she’s also palling around with their mortal enemies, the Native American werewolves, who, given the audience reaction to Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) without his shirt on, might be even sexier than their rivals. (Jacob to Edward in the best line of the movie: “Let’s face it — I’m hotter than you.”) These guys are so cool, they don’t even need to text each other — they just chat all day through werewolf telepathy.

To top it off, Bella is so special that the vampire puppetmaster Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard mugging like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard) has gone to the trouble of raising up an army of “newborns” — freshly minted, ravenous revenants who look a lot like the zombies in 28 Days Later (or those in Slade’s wintry vampire knockoff, 30 Days of Night) — to do her in, forcing both her vampire and her werewolf friends to protect her.

Throw in the tease of perpetually postponed sex and it’s a lot of tempting, empty emotive calories. And then for eggheads like myself, there’s the whole class-conflict subtext, what with the bloodsucking aristocratic vampires versus the lumpen lupine members of the tribe. Something to think about while enduring the to and fro of Bella and Edward’s stilted pillow talk about getting married, or whether she should become a vampire, or the repetitious palaver of whether Bella loves the passive-aggressive Edward or the emotionally extorting Jacob, etc. But it’s not enough: this is a bad film made from an awful novel..

Source

Selected excerpts from reviews of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

It took three films, but The Twilight Saga finally nails just the right tone in Eclipse, a film that neatly balances the teen operatic passions from Stephenie Meyer’s novels with the movies’ supernatural trappings.

– Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

With stronger plot, and less mood and attitude, Eclipse, the third chapter in the Twilight franchise, is at least a notch above the previous chapter, New Moon.

– Emanuel Levy, emanuellevy. com

The movie contains violence and death, but not really very much. For most of its languorous running time, it listens to conversations between Bella and Edward, Bella and David, Edward and David, and Edward and Bella and David. This would play better if any of them were clever conversationalists, but their ideas are limited to simplistic renderings of their desires.

– Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The Twilight Saga comes close to that sweet spot between swooning silliness and special effects slaughter with Eclipse.

– Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

The pleasant surprise this time around is that the result finally feels more like the blockbuster this top-earning franchise deserves.

– Peter Debruge, Variety

Source

So, here’s what right about “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.”

The action: a well-staged fight, albeit mostly CGI and wire work, between an alliance of the Cullen clan and the werewolves vs. a pack of deadly “newborns” — freshly created vampires with the lust to kill still deeply engrained.

The humor: Some smiles and laughs pop up now and again, and even Robert Pattinson’s Edward cracks a smile.

The back-stories: Two of the younger Cullens explain how they became vampires and joined the family.

Yet, the franchise still has one giant problem: Kristen Stewart’s Bella continues to furrow her brow, pout and display little spark or personality.

The biggest mystery of any of these movies is what continues to draw not only Edward but hunky werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) to want to risk life and limb to love and protect her.

Too much time is given over to machismo encounters between Edward and Jacob with a glowering Bella continually having to separate the two.

In her few brief scenes as a vampire leader, Dakota Fanning exhibits more personality than Stewart has in all three movies combined.

Ashley Greene’s Alice Cullen displays more emotion and warmth than Bella — and she walks around without a heartbeat.

After seeing Stewart’s portrayal of Joan Jett in “The Runaways,” I believe that it is the manner in which Bella is written and presented rather than a lack of talent on Stewart’s part that makes the character so unappealing.

The movie’s other drawback is Lautner. Sure, he looks hunky and the women in the audience were palpitating heavily as he continually walked around shirtless.

But Lautner is no actor; he incessantly strikes poses and juts out his chin.

All that being said, “Eclipse” is a vast improvement over the first two movies. The pacing is quicker, and more movement is evident.

The editing is surprisingly ragged, as parts of the film seem choppy and a few transitions are very rough.

Howard Shore’s rather bland score does not help, either.

The special effects and the misty landscapes add to the overall drama and atmosphere.

“Eclipse” is the best movie in the series, but the franchise still has a long road to climb to rise above the ordinary and mundane.

Source

I don’t want to start any fights here with the “Twilight” nation, but has anyone else noticed that Bella Swan is kind of a mouth-breather?

Seriously – it’s very distracting. As portrayed by Kristen Stewart in “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” the third installment of the blockbuster teen vampire franchise opening today, Bella once again spends most of the movie rather conspicuously slack-jawed.

Eyes cast downward, lips slightly parted, Bella continues to mope from scene to scene despite the series’ increasingly higher stakes (heh). Stewart seems to have exactly four emotive expressions: The Brow Wrinkle, the Half Smile, the Lip Bite and the Dull Gaze.

I’m only half kidding because IMHO, as the kids like to say, Stewart’s limited dramatic range continues to drag this series down. It’s a real problem, seeing as how the entire film orbits Bella and the drama of her supernatural love life.

Good thing the rest of the movie more or less works. For those just tuning in, “Eclipse” finds Bella on the eve of high school graduation in the remarkable Pacific Northwest town of Forks. Torn between two lovers, dreamy vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) and perpetually shirtless werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), Bella has some serious decisions to make.

Also, she’s being targeted by a pair of villainous matriarch vampires (Dakota Fanning and Bryce Dallas Howard; both awesomely creepy). They command an army of “newborns” – recently turned vampires who suffer from a disturbing lack of impulse control. As such, Team Jacob and Team Edward must reluctantly work together to protect Bella.

The plot resolves itself along predictable lines, with adequate special effects and action scenes. But these are really the least interesting parts of “Eclipse.” As with the previous two films, it’s the weirdly effective alchemy of teen angst and horror mythology that lingers.

Clearly, the “Twilight” series speaks with great eloquence to the modern American teenage heart. As it turns out, the dilemmas of late adolescence dovetail nicely with the eternal problems of vampires and werewolves.

It’s life and death

Aside from jokes about bad complexion and body hair, there’s this: When you’re a teenager, your problems don’t feel like teenage problems. They feel like life and death. Being a teenager is scary as hell.

By populating Bella’s world with actual monsters the movies turn teenage emotional violence literal. Heads up, kids! Your first serious boyfriend might actually rip your heart out.

Director David Slade keeps “Eclipse” humming along by toggling between these scenes of PG-13 romance and violence. Every shot, it seems, concludes with hot Eurotrash vampires either (A) tearing each other to shreds or (B) making out in close-up.

One interesting element is the use of flashback sequences to provide back stories on some of the peripheral characters. We get to see the first encounter between vampires and werewolves in colonial America, some Civil War bloodsucking, and a compelling story of a jilted undead bride. I suggest a spinoff franchise, “Twilight: Origins.” You read it here first.

Horror movie purists will also appreciate the film’s occasional updates to vampire mythology. For instance, we learn that in the “Twilight” universe, vampires are strongest in the first few months after being turned. Also, wooden stakes are out – defeated vampires now turn into flammable granite statues, so cleanup is a breeze.

All things considered, “Eclipse” is fairly generous and occasionally thrilling entertainment. Devotees of the series won’t be disappointed, and the rest of us can enjoy all the sex-and-death subtext, the beautiful young dead people and the welcome moments of humor.

I still say Stewart comes up short in the central role, and I’m mystified by her appeal generally. But what do I know? Thirty million teenagers, and their disposable incomes, can’t be wrong.

Source

Amongst some of the cheesiest lines ever written in cinematic history and a tremendously catchy soundtrack, Bella is making choices, a process of transforming into a woman. Does she choose Jake, her best friend and a path to human life? Or does she choose Edward, her true love, and a life removed from humanity—a life of immortality?Each choice has consequences, and the audience is made to agonize with her as she contemplates how each choice will impact her and those around her.It’s a bit complicated, as love can be. Bella (Kristen Stewart) is faced with weighing the pros and cons of becoming a vampire. But does she really want to be a vamp? Perhaps she wants to be with Jacob (Taylor Lautner). It’s an emotional ride figuring out whom she will choose as well as foreseeing the consequences of her decision.

In order to make her ultimate choice, Jacob and Edward get taken face to face into an emotional game, where their hearts are on the line with Bella in the middle. Therefore the romance brewing between Bella with Jake and Edward is played up even more so in this film than the previous ones.

With a noble and self-sacrificing demeanor, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) personifies the tragedy of his circumstance. He’s a vamp after all; he has no soul. But he’s still good, amplifying valiant ancient traditions in the face of cruel, heartbreaking circumstances.

Then there is a question on the other side of the love triangle most female teen fans want to know, namely does Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) take his shirt off or not. The tweens will be satisfied on this front to a large degree. The love tension is cheesy—near unbearable depending on your perspective but has lifted the plot and movie to grand heights for its loyal fans (many of whom are the adolescents that have graduated on from “Harry Potter.”)

Not only does Bella find herself trapped in a love triangle, but also she finds herself the main target of destruction driven by a hate-filled vamp mustering up a strategy and army for revenge. It creates great vamp vs. werewolf fight scenes satisfying that supernormal action fans crave and have come to expect in this saga.

Thickening tension builds as a revenge plot develops. We experience how the vamps and werewolves (sworn enemies) prepare for the grand face-off and how that affects and plays into the love triangle. Within this are vamp and werewolf tribe history. These flashback scenes become an interesting touch that serves to deepen character development and fulfill the satisfaction of the plot. We’re taken back to different time periods such as the 1930s, 1800s, and 1700s. Also, the cast is bigger with a host of new vamps and tribal members introduced.

Net-Net, the target audience will certainly receive what they came for—a shirtless teen hunk, action crazed scenes, noble but heartbreaking love, ultimatums resulting in jealousy, and witty one-liners built upon the cliché of the saga that will burst the audience into laughter.

We laughed, we cried, and our hearts were on edge because at the core of it all is the emotion derived from the love triangle. But in the end, a happy ending, with new beginnings, loose ends, and an open road ahead for Bella.

Source

Robert Pattinson just might be at the pinnacle of his career, but he’s not going to fret about it.

Pattinson plays vampire Edward Cullen opposite Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan in the Twilight movie series, which continues its high-profile run with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which opens to a great deal of anticipation today.

Based on the bestselling Stephenie Meyer books, the first two film versions, Twilight and New Moon, earned a whopping $1.1 billion world wide, underscoring the acclaim afforded to Stewart and Pattinson.

The final chapter, Breaking Dawn, starts shooting in October, a six-month production of two separate movies with Breaking Dawn Part I already set to open Nov. 18, 2011.

That means the reluctant poster boy heartthrob has a few more years to endure Twihard frenzy from fans who are tween, teen and way past post-college.

Not surprisingly, Pattinson has evolved since Twilight first hit screens in 2008, followed by New Moon last year.

So, yes, Eclipse was another actor learning experience, but for a slightly different reason as the love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) heats up.

That’s just as the avenging vampire Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard replaces Montreal’s Rachelle Lefevre) returns with a gang of fiendish “new blood” vampires determined to eliminate Bella, Edward and the Cullen coven.

During a chat at a Beverly Hills Hotel, the affable 24-year-old Pattinson shares his thoughts on Eclipse, the Twilight series and himself in this brief portrait of an artist as a famous young man.

First of all, he agrees that getting into the moody Edward persona always arrives with the costuming, especially the insert of those vivid vampire contact lenses. “I think probably the contact lenses make me miserable as soon as I put them in,” reports Pattinson. “That’s what creates the sort of brooding, pouting character.”

Eclipse called for some other preparations, however. “In the last two, I always run with a kind of limp, skip,” he says smiling. “I had to run more solidly this time, and so I spent a lot of time practising running on a treadmill — like one of those wheels that mice run around on. I got filmed to improve my form.”

Pattinson’s Edward finds himself facing off with Lautner’s Jacob a lot more in the latest Twilight adventure.

“It’s kind of hard letting Edward have petty emotions like being jealous of Jacob and not being able to control himself around him because he gets under his skin so much,” he notes “But it became easier to play.”

Especially when the love triangle begins to heat up between Bella and Jacob.

Has Pattinson ever been faced with that sort of competition from another guy? He has to think about that one.

“Yeah, probably,” he says. “But I don’t know if it was about love. It was more about pride.”

Meanwhile, Pattinson seems more at ease with the Twilight fanatics who seem to follow him wherever he goes.

“It’s kind of incredible the information that they get so quickly,” he confesses. “Sometimes, I check (fans’ Internet sites) just to see what my schedule is.”

And what does he expect will happen post-Twilight? Will there be a second act for Pattinson?

“I’m not sure,” he says. “I’ve always felt that if something explodes really quickly like this that it takes the same amount of time for people to think of something else. I hope that’s not it for me. Maybe it’ll be. I have no idea.”

So what will drive him to succeed? “I guess probably fear of failure,” he confesses, “and an inadequacy complex.”

Source