The Twilight Saga : Eclipse

Review by Anthony Morris

The latest installent in the pop-culture steamroller that is Twilight : Eclipse opens with a romantic scene between human Bella (Kristen Stewart) and the vampire she is passionately in love with, Edward (Robert Pattinson).

No surprises there : those two making cow-eyes at each other has been pretty much the entire point of the previous two movies.

But after a minute or two you realise, this romantic scene is actually, well… romantic.

Not "Look we're being ROMANTIC" like the other films (especially the mental second one), but an actual, believable scene bewteen two people who seem to really like each other. And so it goes throughout the entire film, as scene after scene manages to do what it's supposed to rather than just having the people inside the film talking about emotions they don't seem to be feeling.

It helps – a lot – that the story is very straightforward : someone (ok, it's the evil Victoria from the first two films) is creating an army of newborn vampires over in Seattle, and as newborns are the toughest form of vampires (they still have human blood inside them to fuel them), Edward's vampire clan and the local werewolves lead by Bella's other love interest Jacob (Taylor Lautner) have to team up to defend her.

Yes, once again Bella is the centre of the entire universe and this really could have been called "FIGHT OVER ME" as the battle between Edward and Jacob for Bella is all this film is really about (her human friends get two entire scenes in a two hour movie).

But Twilight : Eclipse is also about love in a way the other films weren't, as Bella's looming – and previously eagerly awaited - conversion to a vampire is countered with a string of reminders of what she’ll be losing (family, friends, a human life) and the grim and cruel tales of how Edward’s fellow vampires were turned (which all involve some kind of nasty romantic betrayal). 

It’s not exactly genius-level stuff, but at least it’s something like an actual theme, and makes the endless "now boys, stop fighting over me [giggle]" scenes seem like they're there for more of a reason than to ogle the shirtless Taylor (even Edward asks him "don’t you own a shirt?").

It's still giggle girl fantasy stuff and anyone who takes it remotely seriously is only fooling themselves, but Twilight : Eclipse is a definite step up from Twilight : New Moon : at this rate, by the time the wrap up the series they'll actually know what they're doing.

3.5 out of 5

The Twilight Saga : Eclipse
Australian release: 1st July, 2010
Official Site: The Twilight Saga : Eclipse
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene
Director: David Slade