Eclipse
Fri, July 2, 2010 
Hey, did you guys know there was a new movie released this week to go along with the Twilight saga? Yep, Eclipse, the third installment in the series hit theaters Monday night at midnight, and it seems that you can’t go anywhere without hearing something about it.
I like to keep my reviews somewhat light on spoilers, but, for those of you who don’t want any knowledge of the film before seeing it for yourself, you may want to skip to the next article.
It starts off with an opening scene that, at that point, I considered to be the best of the trilogy. In a way, it mirrored the opening scene of The Lost Boys, where the cop runs from the camera, scared for his life by whatever was after him. There’s a lot of quick, sweeping camera movement that can never quite catch up to what we as the audienc knows to be a vampire, but is scaring the bejeezies out of the teenage boy in peril. The scene cuts away with him looking down at his bleeding hand and screaming.
Obviously the movie picks up right where New Moon left off with Edward trying to get Bella to agree to marry him and Bella trying to get him to turn her into a soulless, bloodsucking monster of movie making proportions. I’m sorry. Is that politically incorrect? The agreement is still in place that he’ll turn her after graduation and they’ll be wed, but as the film progresses, although she never admits it aloud, she seemingly has second thoughts due to the fact that she would have to say goodbye to her family and Jacob forever.
You remember Jacob, right? You know, Sharkboy. He plays a bigger part in this story, and the tension between him and Edward over Bella’s affection provides some much needed comedic relief that I personally didn’t think existed in the first two movies.
With a new (and old) threat on the horizon, Edward agrees to leave Bella in Jacob’s care while he joins his covenant to feed and prepare for an upcoming battle with a clan of newborn vampires, who we learn is stronger than older vampires, because some of their human blood is still in their body. I guess that’s how it is in Washington. Down in Bon Temps, LA, the older the vampire is the stronger they are. But that’s a fang of a different color, I guess.
During her stay with the wolf pack, so to speak, Bella is subject to a story about the tribe’s past that explains the on-going war between the wolves and the “cold ones”.
To match that bit of history, we also get separate back stories on Jasper and Rosalie.
It was during the history channel version of Rosalie that I realized why I was enjoying the film more than its predecessors. It actually had a little grown up material in it. Although, thankfully for the younger crowd it didn’t show it, she eludes to the fact that she was gang raped and left in the street to die before she was turned. Then, of course, she took her revenge on all of her assailants.
Another big plus was the improvement of special effects. I hated, HATED, the scene in the first film where Edward climbed the tree with Bella on his back, because of the obvious cable work. It looked cheap. I’m thinking maybe the director saw the same thing, albeit too late, and decided to go a different direction. They also created a new method of destroying vampires, in which they crumble like stone statues. It was a pretty impressive idea when dealing with younger audiences. Especially since one of the main scenes ends with a decapitation. I would assume that a preteen girl would much rather see broken concrete lying on the ground between a body and its head.
So, all in all, it really was a pretty decent film. You have the obvious love triangle between Jacob, Bella and Edward. You have the immediate duel threat of the vampire army and its leader, along with the looming threat of the Volturi, who watched over the entire proceedings without interference, and then Bella’s weighted decision of leaving her life behind her. All that topped with a smoother arrangement of special effects and camera work makes for an unexpected fun time in the theater.
Reader Comments (4)
Good to see you back Mike.
If you're saying this is actually that good I might see it. I did like what Slade did with 30 days of night...
I hated the book, so I'll probably keep up my perfect Twilight non-attendance record in theaters and wait for the DVD.
Hold up...its only THAT good in comparison to the others. Setting my expectations much lower than that for Iron-man 2, I was pleasantly surprised.
I wish I hadn't seen this. It felt like 6 hours of my life I'll never get back, really was only 2 hours...
Holy fucking shit balls was this ever boring. Some of it was hilarious for me too though, but overall this was an awful, slow, and extremely boring movie.