Not as poor as expected

Rating: 5/10 (4 July 2010)

I read these books after watching, and somewhat enjoying, Twilight. I found the books to be poor on the whole and would probably rate them as follows: Twilight - Reasonable. New Moon - Awful. Eclipse - Mediocre. Breaking Dawn - Laughable. I think I kept reading them for the same reason we slow down to look at an accident on the opposite carriageway.
That said, I'm watching the rest of the films, and probably for the same reason. So far, they're following the pattern of the books. I'd've given Twilight a 7 and New Moon a 1 (2 at the very most) though I have to say that the change of director between Twilight and New Moon was most likely the primary cause of such a despicable result.
Fortunately, they appear to have changed director again, and it shows in Eclipse. Despite the reviews here, I saw it today and, while I wouldn't say I was overly impressed I was, at least, pleasantly surprised to see that things had improved dramatically since New Moon, both in cinematography, screenplay and on the acting front too.
The three stars, Stewart, Pattinson and, er, the kid who never wears a shirt, were still pretty wooden in this, but the overall effect of the film was neither as disjointed nor as cringe-worthy as that of its predecessor. It's still cheesy, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't laughing myself out of the cinema at the end or feeling embarrassed to even be associated with such trash.
If you liked Twilight, I think you'll like this. If you liked New Moon, you're bound to like this but then you're probably not even bothering to read reviews and are most likely about fourteen and female.