The Twilight series finally kicks it up a notch and gets *gasp* exciting! The Cullen clan of good vamps teams up with Jacob's wolf pack (introduced in New Moon) to take on some evil vamps who are intent on destroying Bella - not because she's a petulant miserabilist, but because she helped kill bad ass Victoria's beau in the original movie.
brilliant...
With the third movie the series can rightly start to call itself a 'saga' as plotlines from the first movie come back to bite everyone in the ass here. Whether it's a change of director or a stronger plot Eclipse is much more enjoyable and thrilling than the preceding films. Bella is not quite so irritating, while Robert Pattinson is afforded the opportunity to breath life and personality into his gloomy Edward. Taylor Lautner spends about 80% of his screen time with no shirt, never a bad thing, and the script is playful enough to reference this. The best scene sees Edward and Jacob chatting in a tent over Bella's sleeping body - rather than butting heads they bring some warmth and humour to the characters that improves them both immensely. While Bella's friends (including the ever wonderful Anna Kendrick) are sidelined, we get to see more of the Cullen family, particularly Edward's 'sister' Alice (Ashley Greene) one of the few to be given personality and a winning smile. The movie explores Bella's wish to be turned into a vampire by Edward to be with him forever and how that would be selfish to her family and friends, but she ultimately decides she wants to do it anyway. These more complex issues could have been explored in more depth but at least add more adult subject matter to a slightly neutered 12-certificate vampire flick.
I've said it twice before and I'll say it again: Bella Swan is a rubbish protagonist. She has few redeeming or even interesting qualities, just a selfish desire to be with a vampire she's known not all that long. What Jacob and Edward see in her is a mystery, although Kristen Stewart does do a better job with the character third time round (or the script does). There are still odd moments that don't make much sense, like why vampires shatter like glass rather than exploding in a gore fest as in True Blood, and why the climactic face-off between vamps, wolves and vamps didn't result in any fatalities on the good guys' side. I think the death of a Cullen or a pack member would have brought some extra emotional weight and showed that the fight wasn't too easy. I know Jacob got his bones crushed but we know he'll be ok, there're another 2 films to come.
briefly...
It would be too easy to say that the third film 'Eclipses' the first two, but it would also be accurate. Twilight finally becomes a series worth (some of) the fuss.
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