Review of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) by Justinsmith — 25 Sep 2010

"Is it better than New Moon?" After viewing The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, this was the first question asked by most people, and the answer is "Yes.", but that doesn't mean that Eclipse is good.

The third outing into Forks, Washington retreads much of the same ground as the first two films, Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) are both still fighting for Bella's (Kristen Stewart) love, which leads to discussions like, "I want to be a vampire. But you shouldn't become a vampire. I want to have sex. We shouldn't have sex until we're married. I like the cold vampire and the warm wolf, why can't they just get along?" Of course we know there's also going to be a battle, either between vampires and wolves, vampires and vampires, or a mix of vampires, wolves, and more vampires. There's more shirtless abs too, Edward even asks Bella at one point, "Doesn't he own a shirt?".

If you can sit through all this, there is about 45 minutes of worthwhile footage, mostly consisting of Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone) or Charlie Swan (Billy Burke). Bella's loving father, Charlie, is his usual comic-relief self, and he maintains and like-able presence while remaining concerned for Bella's well-being. Every scene with Charlie is enjoyable. Jasper is a different animal altogether, as the most mysterious, and unpredictable, of the Cullen coven, Jasper finally comes out of his shell to show that, (surprise, surprise) Jackson Rathbone can act. Rathbone never comes across cheesy or lame, and he delivers his sub-par lines in such a way that we focus not on what he's saying, but how he says it.

Another bonus in this installment of The Twilight Saga, are the featured back-stories of select members of the Cullen coven. Up til now, Edward's the only one graced with a "How I became a teenage vampire" story, and it's not just the low temperature bloodsuckers who have a history lesson to share, we also learn a little history of the Quil wolf tribe.

The actors are slightly better this time around and deliver less cringe-worthy moments. The dialogue is still uninspired, but I can't blame the director, David Slade (check out his film Hard Candy (2005), to see what he's capable of when he has a good script and actors). In Eclipse, Dakota Fanning is still shaping up to become the next Meryl Streep, I hope to see more than a few stares and harsh words from her in the next two films. Ashley Greene, my other favorite actress in the film, who plays the future seeing vampire, Alice, isn't in many scenes, but she's great, as always, in her few moments on-screen. Although I wasn't thrilled with Rachelle Lefevre in the first two films as Victoria, the red-head vamp who's set on ridding the Earth of Bella, she was a better fit than Bryce Dallas Howard, who, although a good actress, doesn't have the qualities needed to pull off the heartless soulless creature bent on destruction and revenge.

David Slade uses more static and wide shots, giving the viewer more to chew on and allowing them to take in the scene as well as the moment. On the down side several hand-held scenes were too shaky, not The Blair Witch Project (1999) or Cloverfield (2008) shaky, but it gets annoying. The CGI wolves had been vastly improved, yet still possessed an air of cartoonish quality, making them less believable in some scene.

There will never be a better score for any Twilight film than that of Carter Burwell, the masterful composer behind the score of the first film (you may recognize his talent from the Coen Brothers films, Fargo (1996), No Country For Old Men (2007), and Burn After Reading (2008)). Despite this, Howard Shore brings the score back from the depths it sank to in New Moon to a more acceptable level in Eclipse. Even the songs this time around work better in their scenes.

Eclipse isn't the Twilight film I'd hoped for, but the moments that weren't filled with Bella, Edward, and Jacob drama were decent. Plus, I now have a new actor to keep an eye on.