A Step Up from New Moon

Rating: Null/10 (5 September 2011)

Eclipse (2010)
** (out of 4)
Third film is the hugely successful series has Bella (Kristen Stewart) having to choose from the vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) and her best friend and werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner). While the three have their issues, a new breed of vampires are stalking Seattle and have their eyes on Bella. ECLIPSE is certainly a major step up from NEW MOON but that's not saying too much. Director David Slade manages to make a good looking picture and a somewhat well-made one but there's still no question that the screenplay is downright bad and pointless. I'm sure there are millions of girls who would disagree with me but as I sat through this film I kept asking myself what the point of everything was. I mean, are we supposed to really care about this love triangle that's going on? Not for a second did any of these three hit me as real characters and instead they seem like throw aways from a soap opera. I didn't believe any of their motivations and I didn't believe anything any of them were saying. I mean, having the 17-year-old Bella making decisions on her future as if she's some sort of an adult just made me laugh. I can't believe we're supposed to be taking any of this stuff serious and even if she wasn't in love with a vampire and werewolf you'd still question a lot of her and these men. Not for a single second did I find either man to be "good" for her. It seems both of them share a great number of problems and control issues, which I guess many would say I'm reading too much into them. The dialogue is downright horrendous at times and once again we've got a story for maybe an 80-minute movie but of course it gets extended to over two-hours. I thought the film did manage to get good performances from Stewart and Pattinson. Both were back in fine form after the really bad second film. Lautner once again shows that he probably didn't read any lines at his audition and instead just took off his shirt. Perhaps it's just because I'm a straight male but I was a little confused as to what point the male werewolves had at always being topless. Once again we're treated to some horrible and embarrassing CGI effects, which really made me wonder why the production values weren't bumped up a few notches and especially considering how much money the first two films made. With that said, there's some mild entertainment to be had here but let's hope things improve.