Failure of the Leads...

Rating: 4/10 (10 August 2010)

Having seen all three movies before they were officially released now and having read all four of the books, I believe I am qualified to offer an opinion on this, the latest tragedy to come out of Meyer's small time dream.
Firstly, let me just say that the two main actors must take a significant amount of blame here for why this film and the next one will mark the failure of vampire films for the next few years. It's called PASSION, people! Kristen Stewart, who at first seemed so perfect to play Bella Swan (an inferior character to begin with) has now become notoriously renowned for her 'Constipated Fish Face' and it really does detract quite painfully from whatever it is she's supposed to be portraying. She is gravely monotonous, plain faced and exerts as little as possible effort to give the admittedly dull character any life at all. And then there's Rob Pattinson - who I ADORED, just let it be known - who needs to GET OVER the fact that he'll be type-casted as Edward Cullen for the rest of his life and stop moping and sulking! What began as pleasant modesty has escalated to the point where his own markedly irritating personality is bleeding into one of literature's most charismatic, enchanting and all around breathtaking characters ever written. Edward Cullen is, lets face facts, why we read Twilight...and in this film, I found myself cringing away from him. Eclipse is supposed to represent the pull of choices, the difficulties Bella must overcome in choosing between those she loves. Only, in this, you'd have to be insane, deaf and blind to chose Edward over Jacob (who I previously hated). Rob and Kristen were most of what went wrong in this film and it makes me sad to remember how passionate, intimate and stunningly open they were in the original Twilight film. Both seem openly displeased with having to act or participate at all in the film; impatient to get to other, more well respected roles perhaps, and it showed greatly.
So, onto some other issues. Everyone has already shouted and screamed about Riley's character, demanding to know why he was given so much air time and such background. I agree with this point, though there is a more pressing issue and that's the changes that the director made in the beginning or the film. I don't know if it was screen writers, the director or Meyer herself who decided to go against canon grain in the first quarter of the movie but it was a bad decision. The film lost momentum too early, the dialogue was almost monosyllabic and extremely poor. Bad idea.
Perhaps the worst thing about these films is how they try to become action movies. There is little to no action in these books, no matter what Meyer attempts in the Breaking Dawn or the latter of Eclipse. It is a strange, intimate love story made interesting and explosive because of the vampiric aspect. Trying to make this similar to the Narnia Movies or even The Golden Compass is a mistake. The first movie is the only one to correctly interpret the chemistry and the others have failed as a result.
However, the reason I give this movie a 4/10 is that there were redeeming points. The soundtrack was excellent. One thing this franchise does well is select it's music. Also, the other Cullens succeeded greatly in adding flavour and variety to the otherwise dull recipe of Edward/Bella. Rosalie's back-story was excellent portrayed as was Jasper's. Meyer should think long and hard about writing a prequel. It's amusing how every other actor in this film was, in my opinion, excellent. Taylor Lautnor, Nikki Reed and of course the ever mesmeric Bryce Dallas Howard in particular shone through the drudgery of Stewart and Pattinson's loveless love story.
All in all, a disappointment for the last glimmer of hope before the horror of Breaking Dawn is splattered across screens worldwide. Twice.