Official Synopsis
“Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob — knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.”
I’m neither female or homosexual… (although due to my fond use of hair straighteners and tanning creams the latter part of that statement has been strongly debated.) So, I come to the Twilight series at a slight disadvantage…. Is the latest of the Twilight series any good? Well, actually yes… you see, Summit got off to a good start by hiring David Slade to direct this instalment. Slade has dabbled in vampire lore before – with the excellent 30 Days of Night tucked firmly under his belt.
From the opening scenes of Eclipse that experience clearly shows, there’s a darkness and sense of impending doom that the last flick was clearly missing. There are some similarities carried through too from 30 Days of Night, vampires actually act like vampires this time round. Robert Patterson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner continue to grow into their roles, Lautner seems to be more lean and in proportion this time round (in New Moon he was that ridiculously huge it got laughable.) Kristen Stewart felt more likeable this time and Robert Patterson continues to impress.
Summit paid more money to get Bryce Dallas Howard who replaces Rachelle Lefevre in the role of Victoria. Unfortunately she doesn’t get much screen time, which is a shame (to be honest if you wasn’t in the know… you probably wouldn’t even notice the change in actress) the extra money seems a bit of a waste. New comer to the series Xavier Samuel who plays bad guy Riley is pretty awesome and carries the right amount of menace with his screen time.
We spend more time with the Cullen’s in this flick – which is always a bonus (personally, the Cullen family have always been the best part of the Twilight series.) The more time spent with these guys the better, there are also some handy flashbacks that help drive the narrative and help explain some of the back story for us non-‘twihard’ fans. There are more action scenes in this film than any of the others which will probably keep the core male audience satisfied, David Slade handles these with ease… the wolf and vampire smackdown is choreographed well and looks great (it looks nowhere near as hockey as it did in the last flick.)
There’s the typical Twilight love triangle mush (but let’s face it, the Twilight Saga wasn’t written with my demographic in mind), but credit to the director and screenwriters for actually having the balls to make fun of its self in certain parts with Edward’s “Does he ever wear a shirt?” line being one of the highlights.
Eclipse is easily the highpoint of the series so far and is a solid offering, there’s something there for everyone whether you’re a Twilight fan or just a fan of film in general.
Entertaining **** (4 out of 5)
Glenn Glenn Glenn, i held you in such high regard, this film is truly awful. Firstly, the acting, RPat can hold is own, but those other two are useless. The film took two hours to wind through not a lot really happening, which is understandable considering it’s a middle film (Think Matrix Reloaded). Finally, the ‘effects’ are laughable, me and you could have made a scene look more realistic than that horrendous snow scene!
Quite frankly the worst film i’ve seen this year, and that includes friday night erotica on channel 5! James(Quote)
I’m a Twilight fan and this film was great. Many book to film attempts tend to throw away the story in favour of action. This didn’t and is better for it. But the action was intense (the smashes sounded really painful even to those who break like stone)
I was at the midnight showing and it was brilliant
PS the snow scene was important because of Edward and Jacobs conversation. The “we both want her but want her to be happy more” talk. hannah(Quote)
I’m not saying the snow scene wasn’t important, i’m merely saying that you can see the fact that they’re acting infront of a big white screen and then the background is slapped on, which is embarrassing for a film of that magnitude.
Nor am i doubting the fact that it sticks to the book, in fact it’s probably for this reason it struggles, as really not very much happens, and it seems to be elongated in anticipation of her ‘The Change’ James(Quote)
MAybe your right abotu the set but I don’t think many people will mind so much with it being a big moment in the movie. Personally I didn’t see anything wrong but I’ve read the books and it looked right to me.
But there is no doubt it’s a movie to span the gap to the next, marriage,change, baby bit. Hannah(Quote)
Turn your frowns upside down dude….. predators is released this week!! LEONHITMAN(Quote)