A girl's eternal choice between necrophilia and bestiality

Rating: 6/10 (9 April 2011)

We all know of the battle on the internet between Twihard and Twihaters, both be very vocal opinions and giving the films artificially high and low scores. This is clear when you look at the voting breakdown on the IMDb scores for all three Twilight films so far and since Twihaters are much more likely to use IMDb they have made the scores low. I am a neutral to Twilight so my review for Eclipse will be honest.
Eclipse starts off with a more darker opening, with a young man, Riley Biers (Xavier Samuel) getting attacked by a vampire outside a Seattle bar on a cold rainy night. The film then goes to Forks to see Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) as they prepare for their graduation, but importantly for the date Bella will have to be turned into a vampire. Bella has to say to goodbye to everyone she knows, without them even knowing she is going. But matters are made more complex because of the feud between Edward and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) because of Jacob's love for Bella, the feud between the Cullen vampires and the Quileute werewolves and more important, Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her army of new born vampires wanting to kill Bella.
The coup for the Twilight franchise was getting David Slade to direct Eclipse. I personally think Slade is not the great new hope some critics making him out to be but he does have a reputation after making Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night. Still he does have a darker edge then Chris Weitz who directed New Moon and he is more confidence with action compared to Catherine Hardwicke. There were interesting moments like the flashbacks showing the origins of Rosalie (Nikki Reed) and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone). In the film it shows that Rosalie was properly gang raped and when she was turned into a vampire she got her bloody revenge (though it cuts away before you got to see the juicy violence). Rosalie is also interesting because she hates being a vampire and tells Bella what her dreams were before she was turned. The action is also the best in the series having a big battle between the Cullen and werewolves against the new born vampires. Many vampires deaths are actually shown this time round. I just wish that the action scenes were longer. The CGI for the wolves is better then it was in New Moon and they did have more of a wolf like look when in New Moon they looked more like huskies.
A problem of the series has been the acting. Stewart is a little stiff but she is not terrible, she is not the whiny then she was in New Moon. Pattinson is decent and he is best of the trio of stars, adding some dramatic weight and I personally believe he will be successful after Twilight. He is at least trying to make more independent projects like Water and Elephants. On the other hand Lautner is a terrible actor, unable to show real emotion and I am sure he was cast because of his body and that he looks a little Native American. Its even joked in the film on whether he has a top on. His performance and character felt forced and he relationships with the characters was empty. Most of the younger members of the tribe looked like they were cast because of their looks. Some of the supporting cast were better, like Reed and Anna Kendrick but they are not given enough screen time.
A problem that I have with all the Twilight films is that they come up with interesting ideas but does not explore them enough. This time round it was the formation of a vampire army: I would have liked to have seen how that was done, how people were targeted, turned and fed a diet of ideas to make them loyal. I wanted to see the violence and chaos they caused in Seattle and more of the public and media panic. I liked the idea that newborn vampires are more powerful but are particularly wild animals with no control. I have not read the books, so I can only judge Eclipse as a film but I do know that the character Bree Tanner (Jodelle Ferland) is teenager who was turned into a vampire was expanded on. I would liked to seen the story through her eyes and how she hates what she has become. But she is barely in the film.
There are some interesting ideas in the film. The main one is Bella who is willing to sacrifice her innocents, life and chance to gain experiences for love, particularly because Bella is only 18 and she if she goes through with the change it would be a mistake she can never rectify. I know that focus was always going to be on Bella and Edward, but some scenes involving those two and Bella's home and social situation could have been shorten and the action/adventure element been heighten up.
On a technically the music score is the best so far. That is thanks to Howard Shore, a great composer who is best know for his work on Lord of the Rings. His music was fitting to the situation, whether it is an important fight or a more personal scene and Slade and Shore rely least on outside music. Javier Aguirresarobe is also a very good cinematography, having worked on New Moon and The Road and he is able to craft some really nice shots of the mountains in the background and foreground, the sunny environment of Bella's mum's home and the field of bluebells.
Eclipse is the best of the Twilight films so far.