Practically "New Moon" All Over Again

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2010)

Before going into the movie house tonight, I was so ready not to like this movie. "Eclipse" is positively the worst book in the Twilight franchise. It even discouraged me from reading the next book "Breaking Dawn." The entire book was an just an over-extended exposition on the indecisive wishi-washiness of one Bella Swan over the vampire Edward and the werewolf Jacob. This very same conflict was already introduced and tackled in "New Moon." For me, it did not really reach a new level here in "Eclipse." Unfortunately, it is the same way here in the movie version.
The best scene in the book only happens past Chapter 20 already when Bella and her two consorts were caught in a single tent in the mountains during a big storm. Same way here in the movie. It features a most hilariously memorable line when one tells the other "I'm hotter than you!" After that though, even the book was better than how Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner monotonously delivered their subsequent cheesy lines.
Director David Slade continues the same character quirks established in the first two movies, like how Bella and Edward love to talk in a field of wildflowers, how Bella's dad Charlie (Billy Burke) provides the comic relief, and others. We got to see the origins of Rosalie and Jasper. We also get to see the history of the Quileuete tribe. The main background conflict was how Victoria was establishing an army of new blood vampires in Seattle in order to kill Bella and avenge her lover's death. These fight scenes were actually quite well shot with good special effects. It was also good to see Anna Kendrick (fresh from her Oscar nomination for "Up in the Air") as Jessica delivering the valedictory speech at their graduation rites.
So overall, we did not really see anything new in the love triangle aspect. Things did get more physically intimate for the three main characters, more than the previous one, but the "romantic" lines do get more corny. This is a movie that Twihards will love, but I do not think it can stand by itself. I feel this is actually a step down from "New Moon." The main limitation is really the book this movie was based on.