Film Review: Eclipse

The wait is over! Or, umm, the seven month wait from New Moon, the second installment of The Twilight Saga, to Eclipse. Eclipse is easily the best movie in the series, leagues above the previous two efforts to capture the wildly popular book series in celluloid. This time around, it's all about choices for Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) - the big choice is between her love for Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and the life Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) can promise her; she must also make a decision about marrying Edward, and her desire to turn into a vampire. Meanwhile, Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard, replacing Rachelle Lefevre) is back in Forks with an agenda, along with vicious newborn vampire Riley (Xavier Samuel) joining the picture.

Eclipse finally feels like the big blockbuster to match the box office numbers this series pulls in. It's also the first film I'd recommend to those who aren't big fans of the book. I'm chalking up the win to director David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy); Slade gives the film a darker atmosphere, matched with appropriate scope and streamlined vision. Slade truly delivers on two of the biggest emotional scenes from the book (a sequence in Edward's bedroom, and the highly anticipated tent scene), and brings some great action moments. Slade balances the sweeping fight sequences and gorgeous landscape shots with intimate close-ups; it matches the gravitas of the vampire battle, but also draws in the emotional core of Bella-Edward-Jacob. Slade also ups the technically aspects, giving the film an expensive and sleek look that the previous cinematography lacked. Overall, Slade infuses Eclipse with a kinetic energy the other films were sorely missing.

Kristen Stewart (the wig isn't that bad) and Robert Pattinson (the contacts are that bad) seem more comfortable and mature. Stewart has grown up and let go of those acting tics many criticized; she seems much more relaxed and focused on screen. She makes mopey and hapless Bella relatable, and even comes across as fiery heroine at times. Pattison has a quiet rage beneath his cool demeanor; it's wonderful when he does lash out, letting Edward's guard drop. I believe the two stars are incredibly talented, but the horrendous script doesn't let them sink their teeth into any meaty material. The amount of wooden, laughable dialogue in this film is ridiculous. Taylor Lautner is still an absolutely atrocious actor, to the point that any scene with him is nearly ruined. I don't care about how washboard his abs are, Lautner should have been fired after Twilight; he seems like a small boy among the ensemble.

Almost everyone else in the film's massive ensemble is given a backseat role; after her Oscar nomination, I wish Anna Kendrick had a little more screen time. Jackson Rathbone's Jasper is as creeper as ever; Billy Burke's Charlie is still one of best parts of the movie, mainly for being intentionally hilarious; and Bryce Dallas Howard's Victoria is an improvement on the character, toeing the line between charming woman and menacing villain. And then there's that killer soundtrack...

The movie can still be unintentionally hilarious, campy (flashback costumes!), and takes its teen romance angst so seriously it's sometimes impossible not to laugh; if you want real vampires, check out HBO's delicious True Blood. Stephenie Meyer is no master storyteller, and the slight nature of the books still shows. However, Stewart and Pattinson are fully committed, and the energy between them drives the film. Eclipse probably won't convert new followers to the moody vampire madness, but fans will appreciate that this feels like a fully-realized movie, not just shoddy CliffsNotes of the novel. The entire Eclipse team has stepped up their game. Eclipse, and the entire Twilight Saga craze, is great fun as guilty pleasure - it's a franchise built around a girl desperately pining for love, for animalistic desire. It's old school melodrama; at the end of the day, it's hard not to revel in these characters wearing their tortured hearts on their sleeves. B