The Twilight Soap Opera Continues

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2010)

¨You have a choice. I didn't. None of us did. But you do and, you're choosing wrong.¨ The Twilight saga continues with this third installment of the popular Stephanie Meyer novel, Eclipse, and I don't think the film will win any new converts by now. You either liked the previous Twilight movies or you hated them and this third film will not change your opinion on them. So if you disliked the first two then stay away from this one, but if you liked them -like I did - then you won't be disappointed with Eclipse. Yes, the movie continues with its cheesy dialogues such as ¨Isabella Swan I promise to love you every moment of forever, ¨ and awkward pauses such as ¨I kissed Bella (pause). And she broke her hand (pause). Punching my face (pause). It was a complete misunderstanding.¨ , but the characters are what make us come back, the soap opera triangle love between Edward, Jacob, and Bella. The scenery and action scenes are also pretty well crafted. This movie even plays a little with the audience and decides to use some humor. Bella's difficulty to decide what she wants is getting kind of old and some of the same situations from the second part repeat themselves in this film so it doesn't feel as fresh, but the film is entertaining nonetheless. Like in the previous two installments the screenplay for Eclipse was adapted by Melissa Rosenberg, but this time it was directed by David Slade (30 Days of Night and Hard Candy, the last one was a movie I enjoyed quite a bit in 2005) and he does a decent job at satisfying the hard core fans who really just want to see more of Jacob and Edward fighting for Bella.
The pace of the Twilight movies are so slow that there isn't really much explaining to do with the plot that is pretty simple. Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) are graduating from High School and it is time for the Cullen family to move once again. They are planning on moving to Alaska and Bella is going with them. Meanwhile there are a series of murders taking place in Seattle and the Cullen's suspect that the killings are being produced by a newborn vampire army. What they don't know is that Victoria (this time played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is behind this army and is preparing them to attack Bella so that she can get her revenge on Edward for killing her partner. Edward's brother, Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), knows how to face this breed of vampires so he prepares everyone for the upcoming battle. The Cullen's and the werewolves make an alliance in order to face the army because they both want to protect Bella. In the meantime Jacob (Taylor Lautner) declares his love for Bella and she has to decide who she wants to stay with, so the soap opera begins.
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner have become overnight sensations with Twilight. Stewart is by far the most talented of the group as an actress and she has proved herself in other movies like Adventureland and The Runaways. She is also a pleasure to see on screen although her character in this film may become a little tiresome with all her indecisions, but that just proves how human she really is. The movie itself has become some sort of soap opera, but by now those of us that are hooked want to see the final outcome of the franchise. There is nothing new in this third installment and some elements can get old, but the action scenes make up for it in the final battle. This time the vampires and the Cullen family had more screen time, although I wasn't a big fan of all the flashbacks which only served to make more time before we got to the final battle scene. If you come to think about it not much really happens in this movie and most everything could be told in 30 minutes since it serves as a kind of bridge to the next film. From the beginning we are left waiting for the final battle and the entire midsection of the film focuses on the love triangle, but the movie still manages to entertain because by now we are already drawn to the characters and used to the pace of the movie. I recommend this movie only to those who have enjoyed the previous two because it is more of the same, so let me state once again if you didn't like the other films then save your time and stay away from this one.