Hollywood.com Says
With more action and humor than either of its predecessors, ‘Eclipse’ is the best ‘Twilight’ flick thus far. But that doesn’t mean it’s good.

Twilight’s contentious “Edward vs. Jacob” debate was finally settled at the close of 2009‘s New Moon, the second episode of Stephenie Meyers’ supernatural teen harlequin saga, when plaintive emo hottie Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) definitively rejected the advances of Taylor Lautner’s musclebound man-wolf in favor of Robert Pattinson’s brooding vampire.

Or so we thought. Twilight’s fateful love triangle is revived in earnest by Eclipse, part three of the series, and this time the implications are serious — relatively speaking, of course. Taking over the helm from New Moon director Chris Weitz is David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy), who adds a hefty dose of action to Twilight’s trademark mix of soaring romance and manic melodrama, making Eclipse the first film in the saga in which — get this — something actually happens.

Indeed, action is primary theme of Eclipse. Like most high school seniors, Bella wants some; her pasty paramour Edward Cullen, however, remains stubbornly chaste, and not just because the briefest exposure to his unbridled vampire lust would almost certainly kill his all-too-human sweetheart. You see, chivalrous Edward hails “from a different era,” one in which the institution of marriage meant everything and a man took care to mount a proper courtship before marrying a girl nearly a century his junior. (He’s 109 years old.) He asks her to marry him; she agrees, but only if he’ll turn her into a vampire first; he hesitates, pondering the unalterable consequences; the matter is tabled and heavy petting resumes. (This exchange is repeated, ad nauseam, throughout the remainder of the film.)

The constant fawning and unwavering devotion from impossibly beautiful Edward aren’t enough to sate Bella’s thirst — she needs validation like a vampire needs blood — and so she uses the flimsiest of pretexts to re-insert herself into the the life of Jacob Black, the sensitive werewolf she previously shunned, who dutifully plies her with his own declarations of undying love. (Jacob, to his credit, has developed enough game since we last saw him to qualify as a serious contender for Bella’s affections, and is no longer the devoted doormat we saw in New Moon. He’s still a tool, though.) Game on.

But Edward and Jacob aren’t the only ones with designs on Bella. (Seriously, are there no other hot emo chicks in the greater Pacific Northwest?) A ginger-haired menace (Bryce Dallas Howard) has emerged, one that will require Edward’s vampire clan and Jacob’s wolfpack tribe, longtime enemies forever on the verge of a climactic battle (in which Bella will serve as the jeans-and-hoodie-clad Helen of Troy, no doubt) to put aside their differences and unite against a common enemy. In order to ensure Bella’s safety, Edward and Jacob must form an uneasy tag-team (no, not that kind of tag team, much as it would likely better serve to resolve matters) to keep Bella safe from harm.

With its amped-up action, sharpened wit, and darker, horror flick-inspired atmospherics, Eclipse boasts the broadest appeal of all the Twilight films thus far. But that doesn’t mean it’s good. Director Slade’s grasp of plot development borders on amateurish in this film; Eclipse often feels less like a movie than a weighty discourse on the pros and cons of vampiredom, laid out in lengthy, exhaustingly repetitive chunks of exposition and awkward, campy flashbacks, as just about every character in the film, including Edward, attempts to dissuade Bella from joining the ranks of the bloodsuckers.

But alas, no force, no matter how utterly rational its arguments, will keep Bella from her destiny. Which, obviously, is Edward. Or is it? Eclipse goes to great pains to invent ways to perpetuate the film’s romantic rivalry, inserting scenes like the one in which Bella, on the verge of freezing to death in a tent high up in the mountains, is saved when Jacob arrives to heroically spoon her body temperature back to its proper level. (Eclipse is being hyped as the first “guy-friendly” Twilight flick, but no film which includes a climactic spooning scene can rightly claim such a distinction.) Edward, meanwhile, with his poor vampire circulation, is powerless to help.

Who will win in the end? Will it be abs over eyes? Obviously, it will take two more movies (at least!) to solve this kind of wrenching dilemma.

Many Twilight followers consider the third book to be the best, and the same can be argued for its film adaptation (at least so far). From the opening sequence with new character Riley (Xavier Samuel) running through the streets of Seattle, it’s obvious that the production value for Eclipse has been upped. The fight scenes feel sharper, the CGI wolves are more lifelike, and even Edward’s looks have benefited (yes, Robert Pattinson is even dreamier here than in New Moon).

The story picks up with Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) in their regular meadow, as they discuss Edward’s proposal from the last film. Bella has her reservations about saying yes, but her desire to be changed into a vampire is wearing her down. The couple have bigger issues, however; newborn bloodsuckers are on the loose in Seattle, plus Alice (Ashley Greene) foresees Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard)’s return to Forks in search of vengeance. If you’ve read the novel, you know what happens, but that doesn’t make the events any less exciting. For more on what I mean, just keep reading.

In order to combat Victoria and the thirsty newbies, the Cullen family must band together with the wolf clan. It also means that Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and Edward must finally agree to a truce. The boys’ rivalry is at a boiling point in this installment, as they spew insults in each others’ faces. It’s melodramatic to the point of being unintentionally comical; but the film doesn’t shy away from poking fun at the Jacob versus Edward debate. Case in point: cheeky lines like Jacob boasting to Edward, “Well, I am hotter,” and Edward taking a jab at Jacob for his constant lack of clothing. It’s these moments that keep the film from getting mired in its own self-seriousness.

But it’s not all Jacob, Edward, and Bella. In Eclipse, we also get a glimpse at the back-story for two other Cullens: Rosalie and Jasper. What could have been a totally campy flashback in period clothing turns out to actually be a fairly well-done peek into their previous lives. We finally hear more than two words from Jasper, and — surprise! — his Southern accent is out in full effect. It’s one of the film’s highlights and left me craving more.

Most of the film’s problems are the same issues found in the book series — inconsistencies and syrupy dialogue. While the over-the-top proclamations of love may cause some viewers to scoff, the chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson feels more solid than ever (of course, it helps that there are make-outs aplenty). But more than anything, Eclipse has eased my concerns about Breaking Dawn. Splitting the last installment into two films is a huge undertaking, but with this film, the Twilight franchise seems better fit for the challenge. All there’s left to say is: bring it on.

Chances are, right now millions of Twilight fans are standing in line, waiting to get into tonight’s midnight showings of Eclipse all over the country. But in today’s ultra-connected world, how do you find someone with no knowledge of Twilight, either the movies or Stephenie Meyer’s crazy-popular book series? Someone who doesn’t know that Edward Cullen is the vampire Romeo to the Juliet-esque Bella Swan. Someone who doesn’t know that Jacob Black is a member of the insanely loyal Quileute werewolf pack of La Push, Wash. Someone who doesn’t know that Alice Cullen sees the future, vampires like to play baseball, and you usually want to separate bloodsuckers and werewolves at picnics and other social gatherings. I mean, I’m a comic nerd and I know all these things! (Don’t judge. I can tell you’re judging.) Luckily, I didn’t have to go too far to find someone with no Twilight knowledge at all so she could watch the new movie Eclipse — the third in the series — with no preconceived notions or bias. Our own Laura Hoxworth was a total Twilight neophyte, and she attended an early screening last night of Eclipse to see if it could hold up as a movie for the masses or if it was for super-fans only. Read below for her thoughts.

Photos courtesy of Summit Entertainment
I am not a Twilight fan. I have not read the books, seen the first two movies, nor am I a member of either Team Edward or Team Jacob. Granted, Eclipse was probably not the best place to jump in, as it was not accommodating to newcomers. Several lines that caused the audience to roar with laughter only caused me confusion, and I still have no idea who the Volturi are. But going in with no preparation gave me an interesting perspective on the movie as it stands by itself, not in comparison to its predecessors.

Throughout the movie, the seemingly larger plotline of centuries-old rivalries and vampire revenge took an obvious backseat to the real plotline: the love triangle of teenage Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her two supernatural suitors, vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) and werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner). I had to assume that all character development was taken care of in the first two installments, but to its credit, there is more depth to these relationships than I expected, especially between Jacob and Edward in the rare moments they connect over wanting to protect the girl they both love. Though the outcome was obvious, I found myself entertained, even empathizing with Bella’s predicament.

But enough about romance – isn’t this supposed to be the one with all the action? That’s what I thought, too. And it makes me wonder what the first two were like. If anything disappointed about this movie, it was the so-called “action.” An “army” of bloodthirsty vampires numbered maybe 15, and what was hyped as an epic battle turned out to be little more than a five-minute fight, so completely ruled by CGI that it somehow made werewolves vs. vampires surprisingly unrealistic. Not to mention that the Cullens’ ability to read minds and predict the future pretty much drained any potential for suspense, even for someone who didn’t already know what was going to happen.

The movie was not without its high points, however, even for a novice like me. The most refreshing moments were the scattered one-liners that poked fun at the series’ reputation, like Jacob’s “Face it, I’m hotter than you” jab directed at Edward (and referring to body temperature, of course). I laughed along with everyone else at that one.

As I filed out of the packed theater, I eavesdropped on giddy Twilight fans discussing how long they had stood in line (six hours seemed about the norm) and the tickets they had already bought to see it again. The question “Did you like it?” seemed to be negligible. My guess is that if you are a Twi-hard, it goes without saying you will enjoy the third installment. The drama, the romance, Edward’s brooding passion and Jacob’s rippling abs will not disappoint. If you’re looking to Eclipse to bring the series sophistication, surprise or nuance, you’re out of luck. But who really expected that? The movie deserves credit, if only because it doesn’t take itself too seriously or try to be anything more than what it is – a story of teenage vampire love.

So I may not be a Twilight convert yet. But if nothing else, I left the theater with a better understanding of why this franchise has become so rabidly popular – and it’s not the vampire battles, or even Robert Pattinson’s cheekbones. Underneath all the drama and camp, Bella is just an awkward teenager who wants to be somewhere she feels she belongs. And who can’t relate to that?

Give it up for David Slade. The director of “Hard Candy” and “30 Days of Night,” a rock ‘em-sock ‘em vampire movie with extremely sharp teeth and buckets of blood, has managed to reanimate the “Twilight” franchise — sort of. The third chapter in Bella Swan’s via dolorosa is still pretty much of a drag for anyone not affiliated with Teams Edward and Jacob, but it certainly eclipses the dead-on-arrival dud that was “New Moon.”

Because Slade sees cinematically, he’s able now and then to pull his eyes away from breathless, close-up contemplation of Broody (Robert Pattinson), Shirtless (Tayler Lautner) and Our Lady of Perpetual Mope (Kristen Stewart). The world is larger than this, he nudges, elevating his camera to a god’s-eye vision of the Pacific Northwest. The movie even leaves soggy Forks for Rain City, opening hot and heavy in the noirish streets of Seattle, where something unseen but lethal dive-bombs a hapless young chap to death. Shock cut to an idyllic meadow, aglow with flowers and sunlight, where, in between soul kisses, Bella agrees to marry her 109-year-old beau, as long as he promises to “change” her.

Slade works that contrast throughout, visually and viscerally: Bella spends most of the film watching and listening, weighing the dark side of vampire life (oxymoron, I know) with … well, its sparkly-faced aspect. While the boys babble on about whom she loves most, the object of their desire is mulling.

Bella learns the cautionary tales of the “making” of Cullen kids Rosalie (Nikki Reed) and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), how love led both of them into pain and betrayal. These flashbacks give Slade another opportunity to pipe some “fresh air” into “Twilight”‘s claustrophobic environs. In powerful close-up, Rosalie revisits the 1930s, when she was young and innocent, happily promenading arm-in-arm with her handsome husband-to-be. Sunny bliss is eclipsed by night, gang-rape and the “dark gift” with which the Cullen patriarch (Peter Facinelli) rescued Rosalie. Can’t Bella see what she will lose — husband, children, the movement of time — if she makes the wrong choice?

A Civil War hero, gallant Jasper encountered three lovely belles abroad in the sweet Southern dusk. One turned him into a vampire and brutal lieutenant in her army of “newborns.” His salvation came in the form of Alice (Ashley Greene), Bella’s BFF, but that old story — vampire life as abattoir — is about to be reprised. Red-maned Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) is back, using a besotted boy-toy (Australian import Xavier Samuel) to recruit Seattle street kids for a war of vengeance against Edward and the Cullen clan, with the soulless Volturi pulling all the strings. (Yes, red-eyed Dakota Fanning’s back.)

These vampire parables read like variations on Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci”: Bella, half in love with easeful death, must wonder whether signing on with Team Undead might leave her “alone, and palely loitering” like the knight seduced by the poet’s sexy lady vampire.

Even Jacob’s eternally naked chest (for once Edward cracks wise: “Doesn’t he own a shirt?”) isn’t just for show; rather, it’s a show with a point. Every time Bella is confronted with wolfboy’s golden fur or glowing flesh — a veritable ambulatory space heater — she’s forced to reconsider freezer life. Let’s face it, for all Edward’s Byronic charm, he’s still an ice-cold corpse. (Gotta love it when Bella quotes Robert Frost’s apocalyptic poem “Fire and Ice.”) Holed up in a tent on a cold, snowy mountain, it’s Jacob whose body warms shivering Bella while the porcelain-pale Edward, looking on, winces at a funny but fanged dis from his on- and offscreen rival: “I am hotter than you.”

And yet heat, even more than sex, is what “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” crucially lacks: the tactile sensuality distilled from the juxtaposition of death and beauty and lust that fuels vampire movies with real bite. Titillation rising from repression eventually turns toxic, a turn-on for puritans and Victorians or maybe a generation of arrested adolescents, raised by neutered dads and androgynous moms, gorged on popcult exhibitions of explicit sex.

Leave Bella to her Peter Pan, but don’t expect anyone with a taste for pulse-elevating vampire eroticism to get off on these damp “Twilight” teases. Not when one can warm up to Frank Langella’s taboo-busting “Dracula,” our first glimpse of the molten-eyed devil a close-up of his long fingers trailing lasciviously through rich lupine fur; or shape-shifter Gary Oldman in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” arched backward in blind ecstasy as his consort sucks the transformative blood from his chest; or “Near Dark”‘s moist-eyed Lolita, her tongue suggestively stroking ice cream before she samples her teen lover’s blood; or this very week on “True Blood,” Tara’s eyelashes quivering, during vampire ravishment, like hummingbird wings.

Not for nothing did Shakespeare and his contemporaries call intercourse the little death; that’s the dark heart of the vampire’s crimson kiss, his rosy crucifixion. This enduring myth takes us back to a universal, infantile dream of consuming or being totally consumed by the Other, through a transgressive combo of nursing and sex, and thereby dying into wholeness.

But in Stephenie Meyer’s hands, the rich tradition of vampire fiction is robbed of mystery and disruptive power, euphemized into waxworks for solipsistic children given to nonstop staring and sulking and pouting and mushy romance-novel litanies of “you love me — no, I love him — but you shouldn’t love me.”

There’s room for complaint about the climactic action sequence in “Eclipse”: wolves and vamps locked in battle so summarily edited, its combatants so undifferentiated that the scene plays as perfunctory smear rather than decisive rout. And, as in “New Moon,” despite a bigger budget and more masters of CGI, Jacob’s pack looks superimposed on every landscape, their paws never quite touching ground. (Somebody should have checked out the heart-stopping real thing on “True Blood.”)

But let all that pass. In the end, what drains this movie of authentic emotional impact is the absence of any appetite, sexual or otherwise. Existential drear trumps every extreme — crimson blood, dark of night and brightest day. Forget the hot thrill of sinking one’s teeth into ripe, forbidden fictions: “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” nibbles on teeny-weeny passions, wet kisses and damp embraces.

Oh, to be Bella Swan. To be adored by a shirtless werewolf on one side, a chivalrous vampire on the other. Other girls her age are stuck between a nerd and a jock, and that’s if they’re lucky.

But Bella (Kristen Stewart) doesn’t have much in common with other girls her age. And she doesn’t enjoy being worshiped by all this mutant male hunkiness, two notable exemplars of which she professes to love in “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” directed by David Slade. Yet she never seems that happy about either of them and is depressed by it all.

Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), the abstemious vampire extraordinaire, keeps after her to marry him and doesn’t smile much himself. Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), the clothing-deprived Quileute shape-shifter, thinks Edward stinks – literally, figuratively, all ways – and resents Bella’s plan to become an undead bloodsucker shortly after graduating from high school. To complicate matters, an army of freshly minted vampires is eating its way to Bella’s home in Forks, Wash. They may want to eat her, too.

Come to think of it, she has good cause to be depressed. It’s her raison d’etre. Suffering for love, teen-bogeyman-style, is the central theme of the “Twilight” films and their source material, Stephenie Meyer’s addictive fantasy novels. They were written ostensibly for teens but have been consumed by vast numbers of middle-aged moms who overlook their literary mediocrity in pursuit of a fat emotional payoff. So far, the film adaptations have nailed the mediocrity but missed the payoff. “Eclipse” continues that trend, though it looks sharper and seems a tad more grown-up in the smooching, acting and violence departments.

In the second movie, “New Moon,” lovebirds Bella and Edward spent much of the plot separated and glum about it. This time, their togetherness is realized onscreen in enormous gummy close-ups that bring a new dimension to eyelashes and facial pores. Not just Bella’s and Edward’s, either; the movie is filled with this tight-squeeze intimacy, unfolding as a series of heart-to-hearts between various characters sorting out heavy issues.

In between are scenes of hard-driving gothic action as Jacob’s pack and Edward’s family prepare to do battle with the approaching vampire army.

Slade is more at ease with the scenes of ghoulish dismemberment than all that romance, which is none too surprising given his resume: He brought a wicked-cruel imagination and visual snap to the horror films “Hard Candy” and “30 Days of Night,” the last being a much more graphic bloodsucking saga with much less attractive vampires.

Melissa Rosenberg’s screenplay is faithful enough to Meyer’s soap-operatic inclinations, but I kind of wish it weren’t. I kind of wish Bella weren’t such an indecisive wuss about her feelings. And I know I’m in the minority here, but I kind of wish Jacob would put on a shirt.

A moon-eyed teen must choose between her vampire lover and her werewolf pal, a decision she faces amid the ever-simmering rivalry between bloodsuckers and lycanthropes.

Wait a sec, aren’t we right back where we were last year on this whole “Twilight Saga” thing? Chapter three, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” seems on its surface to be nothing more than a retread of last year’s retread, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”

Yet with the franchise under new management again, this time director David Slade (best known for the hard-core vampire horror flick “30 Days of Night”), and a stronger story than the first two, “Eclipse” manages to do what its dreadfully dumb predecessors could not.

It almost makes believers out of those of us who don’t much care whether Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan chooses vampire stud Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) or werewolf hunk Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).

Almost. The trouble is, while “Eclipse” may not be dreadfully dumb, it’s still pretty dumb.

Slade and his collaborators use that to their advantage here and there, lightening up on the relentless gloom of the first two movies by making fun of some of the franchise’s silliness (why not slip in your own wisecrack about Lautner’s constant shirtlessness, rather than letting the audience snicker on its own each time he shows off his torso?).

Still, the filmmakers made “Eclipse” for the “Twilight” faithful, so while the movie’s a bit more light on its feet, it wallows in what fans love most, that whiny romantic triangle among a schoolgirl and her two beastie boys.

This time around, Bella’s dealing with all those transitional developments teens face — high school graduation, saying goodbye to classmates, whether or not to let her boyfriend turn her into a vampire so they can stay young, beautiful and broody together forever.

Her still-chaste dalliance with Edward and friendship with Jacob take on new strains as the Cullen vampire clan and the local werewolf pack join forces to battle the Newborn Army, which is far more formidable than the diaper brigade the name implies.

The Newborn Army is made up of newly bred vampires — who, in author Stephenie Meyer’s fantasy realm, are at their most powerful and bloodthirsty when fresh off the showroom floor.

Of course, the newborns are coming after Bella, as is her old enemy, evil vampire redhead Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard, taking over the role played by Rachelle Lefevre in the first two movies).

And a band of Volturi, the uppercrust snobs of the vampire world, also are on the trail, led by Dakota Fanning in a slightly expanded role after her blink-and-you’ll-miss-her appearance in “New Moon.”

The cast of vamps and wolfies is getting too big to mention everyone, but all the key players are back, with Nikki Reed and Jackson Rathbone of the Cullen clan stepping up this time with some nice flashbacks detailing their vampire origins.

With returning screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg delivering her sharpest adaptation yet, Slade keeps the rather episodic story moving at a good clip, though things still bog down often enough in the same old routine. Bella begging Edward to turn her into a vampire, Jacob pleading with Bella to fall for him, Edward snarling at Jacob to stay away from his woman, Jacob snarling back.

The stars remain a boring threesome, Stewart limping through supposedly impassioned speeches as though Bella already were one of the cold-blooded undead.

Pattinson and Lautner at least have perfected their shallow mugging and one-upping, and they’re clearly having fun as Edward and Jacob try to out-sneer each other.

But enough quibbling. Meyer’s millions of fans know what they want in a good “Twilight” movie, and they are going to love “Eclipse.”

The bad news for fans: Only one more book left to bring to the big-screen. The good news: Meyer’s fourth installment, “Breaking Dawn,” is being split into two movies. More bad news: They’ll have to wait longer between chapters, with part one of “Breaking Dawn” due in theaters Nov. 18, 2011. More good news: Bill Condon, the guy behind the clever “Frankenstein”-themed “Gods and Monsters,” is directing the last two movies.

With the sharp improvement in part three, could “The Twilight Saga” actually grow a brain for its finale?

“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” a Summit Entertainment release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and some sensuality. Running time: 121 minutes. Two stars out of four.

Human or immortal? Werewolf or vampire? Marriage or college? These are the kinds of choices Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) faces in David Slade’s fast-paced “Eclipse,” the third chapter in Stephenie Meyer’s beloved “Twilight” saga.

You, however, have no such dilemmas, because you decided a long time ago whether Bella’s tangled love life is of any interest. And there’s nothing in Slade’s straightforward adaptation that will change your mind. If you adore Meyer’s characters already, you’ll be thrilled to spend more time with them. If you don’t, well, you’d just end up sitting among a bunch of sighing teens (and their moms), wondering what the fuss is about.

As any one of those die-hard fans could tell you, it’s all about love: Do the dangers of a potentially eternal romance with undead Edward (Robert Pattinson) outweigh the practical comforts provided by loyal Jacob (Taylor Lautner)? Life with Edward is hard; not only is he a vampire, but he’s got to be the moodiest boyfriend in history. Jacob might turn into a werewolf now and then, but he’s steady and reliable.

Plus, he loves to take his shirt off. Edward may be Bella’s soul mate, but Jacob definitely spends more time at the gym.

Are you swooning yet? Don’t scoff; Slade – who imports some of the darkness from his last vamp thriller, “30 Days of Night” – knows just how to reach his audience, alternating suspense and romance in carefully precise degrees. It may not be the subtlest approach, but it is effective.

He and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg also find ways to broaden the series’ scope, incorporating slightly more opportunity for the supporting players (including Bryce Dallas Howard and Dakota Fanning as especially vicious vampires).

Most important, Bella and Edward are allowed a wider range of emotions than we’ve seen before; as a result, Stewart and Pattinson finally appear fully comfortable in their roles (though Lautner once again proves the standout, working hard to make Bella’s decision a difficult one).

The truth is, almost everyone planning to see “Eclipse” will know how things end before the opening credits even appear. So Slade and his cast can be proud that they consistently keep us involved anyway.

As always, this The Twilight Saga: Eclipse review comes with a cautionary introduction: it is written by a Twilight fan, for Twilight fans.

STORY: Stephenie Meyer
DIRECTOR: David Slade
SCREENWRITER: Melissa Rosenberg
CAST: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Billy Burke, Xavier Samuel, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dakota Fanning, Daniel Cudmore, Charlie Bewley, Cameron Bright, Gil Birmingham, Chaske Spencer, Alex Meraz, Tyson Houseman, Kiowa Gordon, Booboo Stewart, Tinsel Korey, Julia Jones, Alex Rice, Anna Kendrick, Michael Welch, Justin Chon, and Christian Serratos.

First of all, there’s been quite a bit of buzz about this film. It’s for good reason. Remember back in December when David Slade promised that the film was presenting a “great state of balance” between the love story aspects of Eclipse and the action sequences? Well, I was as skeptical as anybody, but he was right.

For the first time, with Eclipse, we get to truly step out of Bella’s shoes and into Forks (and Seattle, too). Kristen Stewart isn’t in every frame, but she’s in enough. Bella is there, and Edward is there, and Jacob is there, but there are also new, fresh faces that exonerate the tensions (or, when necessary add to them) of the “Twifecta” and lead us into new lives (and undeaths). This, in turn, makes the love story aspect that much more sweet and significant.

Obviously, there are three main book-based back-stories brought in with Eclipse: Jasper’s (Jackson Rathbone), Rosalie’s (Nikki Reed), and the Quileute wolves’ (told by Gil Birmingham as Billy Black). These are all beautifully done, but they are also quite quick (just as they were in the book). Really, they stand out for the fact that they give their respective characters a chance to shine and to share some perspective with our protagonist (which, in turn, helps move the story along). These are stories we’ve known for quite a while, thanks to the books. They play out very similarly to their literary counterparts such that there are few surprises – though that’s not to say they aren’t terribly fun (and theatrical) to watch.

Still, the real newness Eclipse ushers in comes in the form of Riley (portrayed by Xavier Samuel). The focus on Riley was something that we slowly came to understand as promotional materials for the film were revealed, but it is still fascinating to watch his story – not just from Bella’s or Bree’s perspectives – unfold. It is also fun to see how closely Riley’s ill-fated devotion to Victoria mirrors what could’ve been for Jasper with his Maria if there were no Alice Cullen. The freshness of this portion of the story is exhilirating.

Over all, the entire movie is still about relationships, though – how they lift you up, how they threaten your countenance, how they drive you to do things you might not have, and, finally, how they can heal.

What promised to be an action-packed film certainly was just that. The fight scenes are everything they were hyped up to be and then some. And even though there are a zillion TV spots and clips for this film, the best moments of the action sequences are left just for the theaters.

And the action does not trump the love story here. Not at all, actually. In fact, one of the most surprising things for me when watching Eclipse was how developed and strong the acting and dialogue delivery in the emotional scenes were. I loved Chris Weitz’s dedication to fans with New Moon, but the story didn’t give him the fodder for intensity the way that Eclipse did for David Slade.

So, hands down, Eclipse has the best acting of the three so far.

I’ll stop there. It was excellent, and I know you will love it so much.

Some of you sent in questions for this review a few weeks back, and I’ll answer a few of them below. If you don’t want to read any spoilers don’t continue past this point!

• Flow of the movie, slow parts or is it fast paced? Lighting, too dark or a mixture?
There are some slow – perhaps paced is a better word for it – in the movie, but a lot of it is fast. Every important moment between Edward, Bella, and Jacob lasts just long enough, though, if that eases your mind.

• Are all the steamy scenes B/T Bella & Edward in the film? Ex. Leghitch, Bella trying to seduce Edward, etc.
Yes! With a few nice additional romantic touches as well. Hint: look for the color orangeish-red.

• I wanna hear about the difference in tone thx to DS
I think the tone was more serious but also more professional. It is a more advanced film than the prior two.

• Your opinion of the tent scene and J/B kisses.
The tent scene was well done. As I mentioned, I thought the acting was a cut above in this one. I’m Team Edward, no doubt, but the Jacob and Bella mountaintop kiss was very sincere.

• Did it live up to the book and what scenes had to be cut out of the movie??
Oh yes, and not very many that I could recall.

• NM has some humor..is there some in Eclipse?”

There’s quite a bit of humor in this one, but it’s subtle – very subtle, at times. Nothing obvious like “put the dog out” from New Moon.

Rob mentions begins at 1:43…

With the third film in the Twilight Saga: Eclipse hiting theatres this week, critics are voicing their opinions. The verdict: Eclipse is the best Twilight film so far. Critics haven’t been too kind to the vampires and werewolves before, but that hasn’t ever stopped true Twihards from seeing the films.

With Eclipse, the series takes on a darker and more action-oriented style. Perhaps that’s why critics have finally jumped on the Twilight train. Or maybe the magic of the Team Edward and Team Jacob rivalry have earned the franchise a new class of Twilight fans. The Hollywood Reporter said, “It took three films, but ‘The Twilight Saga’ finally nails just the right tone in ‘Eclipse.’” Finally, some good news for Twihards. Not that they need it with Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson on the big screen; fans don’t mind harsh words from newpapers.

The Kansas City Star sumed up the basic feel of most of the movie world saying, “In short, the film’s arsenal of action and emotion makes ‘Eclipse’ the best ‘Twilight’ movie yet.” Now that’s the type of review Twicrazed fans want to hear. Jacob and Edward teaming up to protect Bella… sounds like the the best of both worlds. Variety added, “The pleasant suprise this time around is that the result finally feels more like the blockbuster this top-earning franchise deserves.”

This film is going to be epic!! Only hours left Twihards! Do you think this film will be the best so far?

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This week’s boxoffice should skyrocket as two summer sizzlers launch midweek ahead of the long Independence Day weekend amid fervid enthusiasm from their respective fan bases.

Summit’s “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” bows at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday in more than 4,000 locations, with the vampire-romance threequel likely to sink its teeth into more than $150 million in domestic coin through Monday. Just during the weekend, a four-day domestic frame with Independence Day falling on Sunday, the fanged franchise’s latest installment should ring up $85 million or so from a record 4,416 theaters.

That would be a bloody good three-day performance, though not as big as the opening weekend of the first “Twilight” sequel.

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” bowed with $142.8 million in November en route to $296.6 million in total U.S. and Canadian coin. The original “Twilight” unspooled in November 2008 with $69.6 million and wrapped with $192.8 million domestically.

On the other hand, a fairer comparison with the first-weekend tally for “New Moon” might be coin that “Eclipse” registers between Wednesday and Friday, its first three days in release. But good luck guessing what that might be.

“The advance ticket sales are as good as for ‘New Moon,’ and certainly the tracking data is,” Summit distribution topper Richie Fay said Tuesday. “But the real question is whether the moviegoers feel they need to catch the movie the first day or two or maybe think they can wait until the weekend. It’s really difficult to say how the grosses will come in.”

Also this session, Paramount debuts the M. Night Shyamalan-helmed 3D family adventure “The Last Airbender,” which should skew male as “Eclipse” preoccupies younger females.

Based on the 2005-08 Nickelodeon animated kids series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” the live-action movie was produced in 2D and converted to 3D to exploit audience enthusiasm for the format. Bowing on Thursday, “Airbender” will include at least 2,000 3D screens among its more than 3,000 total engagements and is forecast to fetch as much as $50 million through Monday.

The “Airbender” cast includes Jackson Rathbone, who also appears in “Eclipse” and other “Twilight” pics. The estimated production costs totaled $150 million.

“Eclipse” was directed by David Slade (“30 Days of Night”) and has Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart reprising their respective roles of vampire, werewolf and anguished love interest.

In a franchise first, “Eclipse” will play in 193 domestic Imax locations and 11 more overseas.

“It will be interesting to see how the Imax audience responds,” Fay said.

“Eclipse” — which totes a relatively modest $60 million negative cost — also bows this week in 41 international territories, including several larger markets such as Russia, Italy, Spain and Mexico. “Airbender” unspools in foreign markets during July and August.

Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s 3D threequel “Toy Story 3″ is likely to grab the weekend’s bronze medal with upward of $35 million in its third session.

Industrywide, the session will be compared with last year’s $162.5 million Fourth of July weekend. The three-day holiday frame was topped by the $41.7 million first-weekend tally for Fox’s 3D threequel “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”
Will ‘Eclipse’ top ‘New Moon’ at boxoffice?
VIDEO: Third ‘Twilight’ film eyes $150 mil six-day opening

By Carl DiOrio

June 29, 2010, 08:40 PM ET
This week’s boxoffice should skyrocket as two summer sizzlers launch midweek ahead of the long Independence Day weekend amid fervid enthusiasm from their respective fan bases.

Summit’s “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” bows at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday in more than 4,000 locations, with the vampire-romance threequel likely to sink its teeth into more than $150 million in domestic coin through Monday. Just during the weekend, a four-day domestic frame with Independence Day falling on Sunday, the fanged franchise’s latest installment should ring up $85 million or so from a record 4,416 theaters.

That would be a bloody good three-day performance, though not as big as the opening weekend of the first “Twilight” sequel.

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” bowed with $142.8 million in November en route to $296.6 million in total U.S. and Canadian coin. The original “Twilight” unspooled in November 2008 with $69.6 million and wrapped with $192.8 million domestically.

On the other hand, a fairer comparison with the first-weekend tally for “New Moon” might be coin that “Eclipse” registers between Wednesday and Friday, its first three days in release. But good luck guessing what that might be.

“The advance ticket sales are as good as for ‘New Moon,’ and certainly the tracking data is,” Summit distribution topper Richie Fay said Tuesday. “But the real question is whether the moviegoers feel they need to catch the movie the first day or two or maybe think they can wait until the weekend. It’s really difficult to say how the grosses will come in.”

Also this session, Paramount debuts the M. Night Shyamalan-helmed 3D family adventure “The Last Airbender,” which should skew male as “Eclipse” preoccupies younger females.

Based on the 2005-08 Nickelodeon animated kids series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” the live-action movie was produced in 2D and converted to 3D to exploit audience enthusiasm for the format. Bowing on Thursday, “Airbender” will include at least 2,000 3D screens among its more than 3,000 total engagements and is forecast to fetch as much as $50 million through Monday.

The “Airbender” cast includes Jackson Rathbone, who also appears in “Eclipse” and other “Twilight” pics. The estimated production costs totaled $150 million.

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“Eclipse” was directed by David Slade (“30 Days of Night”) and has Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart reprising their respective roles of vampire, werewolf and anguished love interest.

In a franchise first, “Eclipse” will play in 193 domestic Imax locations and 11 more overseas.

“It will be interesting to see how the Imax audience responds,” Fay said.

“Eclipse” — which totes a relatively modest $60 million negative cost — also bows this week in 41 international territories, including several larger markets such as Russia, Italy, Spain and Mexico. “Airbender” unspools in foreign markets during July and August.

Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s 3D threequel “Toy Story 3″ is likely to grab the weekend’s bronze medal with upward of $35 million in its third session.

Industrywide, the session will be compared with last year’s $162.5 million Fourth of July weekend. The three-day holiday frame was topped by the $41.7 million first-weekend tally for Fox’s 3D threequel “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”

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Hola, virgins! What’s up? Are you completely freaking out? Because Twilight: Eclipse, right? This week, right? Well, I saw it. And as my esteemed old father would say from beneath his fine old moustache: you people should be put in a rubber room. This is what you’ve been going on about all this time? THIS?

I had avoided Twilight (books and movies) up until now, because I try to avoid things that people whose taste I trust have deemed, as my dainty dear mother would say from beneath her dainty dear moustache, horse-pucky. (It’s an American euphemism, British readers. Look it up. And just kidding, mother. Your moustache is as robust and fluffy as a spring ewe.) But sometimes, if you are me, horse-pucky is your job, and so, you go see Twilight 3: Havana Nights or whatever.

And could such a cultural phenomenon really be that bad? When millions of humans around the globe are joining hands and weeping and peeing a little and screaming to the heavens, “Yes! I am a virgin and waiting until marriage to have sex with a reanimated corpse who eats people”? Could it? Be that bad? (Rhetorical question, virgins. Shut up.)

It’s no coincidence that Kristen Stewart – grounded, subtle, affecting – plays the only human in the thing. Everyone else seems borderline comatose, which is how you’ll be feeling before long. Stewart is way too good for this movie and, to her credit, was recently named #66 on Forbes’s list of the most powerful celebrities. Robert Pattinson, on the other hand – a man so bland his presence barely registers on-screen, like a vampire reflected – came in at #50. Now, I hate to see sexism lurking under every wildflower, but that is some goddamn horse-pucky right there.

Twilight: Eclipse is meticulously, strenuously boring. It opens in a field of wildflowers, where Bella and Edward are cuddling and murmuring about feelings like it’s their full-time job (which, as you will discover, it is). The plot unfolds in an endless slime trail of similar scenes: Bella and Edward murmur about feelings. Bella and Jacob murmur about feelings. Bella murmurs about feelings via awkward voiceover narration. Bella and Edward murmur about feelings again.

Just when you think no one could possibly have any more feelings, Jacob murmurs to Bella about the very same feelings he just finished murmuring at her two minutes before, and she murmurs back like they didn’t just have this exact goddamn conversation. Then he says the words, “Wolf telepathy.” Then Edward tells Bella that she is a slut whose eternal soul is in jeopardy because of her insatiable horniness. Then she consents to marry him, saying, “I wanna tie myself to you in every way humanly possible.”

Then feminism cuts itself. Just to feel something.

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When we last saw Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), the teen beauty who insists on seeing herself as an ugly duckling, and her dreamy vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), they had weathered both a major relationship crisis and a run-in with the vampire world’s sinister elite, the Volturi, who decreed that their romance could end one of two ways. Bella could become a vampire or she could die.

As Eclipse—based on the third of four novels by Stephenie Meyer—begins, Bella and Edward (who’s 109 to her 17, making their amour fou more than a little creepy, which is the kind of thing you notice if you just don’t get it) are working out the details of her transformation. Edward will change her shortly after graduation (why the younger Cullens repeatedly subject themselves to the ordeal of high school is a mystery) and wants to get married at the same time; Bella, however, is more comfortable with becoming a blood-drinking ghoul than a bride, having been traumatized by her parents’ divorce. The movie’s theme, reiterated often and obviously, has been established: Life is about choices and consequences.

And then there are the complications: Bella’s dad (Billy Burke) dislikes Edward (if only he knew the louche-looking boyfriend, afraid of what he might do in the throes of vampire passion, is the reason Bella remains a virgin), and her best friend since childhood, studly Native-American shape-shifter Jacob (Taylor Lautner), is in a world-class sulk, Bella apparently being the only person in the Pacific Northwest who doesn’t know he’s been crushing on her for years. And Edward’s adopted sister, Alice (Ashley Greene), is having visions of feral vamp Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) up to no good: Could she be behind a rash of vicious murders and disappearances in nearby Seattle, and can the werewolves and vampires put aside their centuries-old enmity to protect Bella?

Director David Slade, picking up where Catherine Hardwicke ( Twilight) and Chris Weitz ( New Moon) left off, has a short but thoroughly apropos resume, consisting of the straight-up vampire bloodbath 30 Days of Night (2007) and art-house shocker Hard Candy (2005), about a coltish adolescent’s double-edged flirtation with a suave sexual predator. Were Eclipse not the third part of a golden juggernaut yoked to its PG-13 rating, he might have given it a dangerous edge. But Meyer’s sensibility, brilliantly attuned to the contradictory inner lives of tweens enraptured by fairy-tale romance but skittish about the power of raw, visceral lust, trumps all: Edward is sexy yet soulful, an artfully neutered object of desire, while Jacob’s inner beast is firmly leashed and nobody is getting any.

Eclipse has a certain sense of humor that Twilight and New Moon lacked: Confronted for the umpteenth time by Jacob’s artfully toned abs, Edward snarls, “Doesn’t he own a shirt?” But the disconnect between message and material is often unintentionally hilarious; witness the scene in which cold-blooded Edward must let Jacob rescue Bella from hypothermia by crawling into her sleeping bag. It should crackle with perverse erotic tension, but it’s a hoot and a half instead: No sex please, we’re sensitive.

Thematic gaffes aside, the CGI werewolves continue to be a huge liability; even allowing for the special-effects truism that flashy monsters are easy and house cats are hard (because everyone knows exactly what cats look like, from the pebbly texture of their noses to the way their fur thins at the base of their ears), the wolves are illusion-shatteringly fake. And the entire hair department should be fired on the basis of Cullen patriarch Peter Facinelli’s brassy blond locks alone: It’s not nitpicking if a character’s hair is less plausible than the love triangle between a werewolf, a vampire and a moody teen.

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