Directed by: David Slade
Written by: Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay), Stephenie Meyer (novel)
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anna Kendrick
Hold on a second, wh
at happened?Where am I? Suddenly, I’ve seen not one but two Twilight films, and what’s more, I
actually have something positive to say about this one. Ahem — Eclipse is 100% better than New Moon, a film I initially scored one star. Make of that what you will, mathematicians.
Like many males, I’m an outsider on the Stephenie Meyer phenomenon. I haven’t read her books, and I laugh derisively at the cardboard Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner chilling outside the local record store (though maybe I’m just jealous no one will pay $29.99 for a life-sized stand-up of me). Regardless, last November I decided to give the series a chance to win me over. It did not.
However, the improvements this third installment wields over its predecessor are immediately apparent. For starters, Chris Weitz, who directed New Moon, along with the equally contemptible adaptation of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, abdicated the director’s chair to David Slade, helmer of Hard Candy and 3
0 Days of Night. Slade seems an unusual choice, and one, I can only assume, was made with the intention of casting the Twilight net clear across the gender gap, coaxing more teenage menfolk into the seats by way of grittier, more competent action. Also, more of it.
Still, Eclipse is anything but action-packed, and most of the time it feels as if the script is working against that goal. Slade can class up the werewolf on vampire (on vampire) scuffles till the bats come home, but nothing can change the fact that his film is founded on one of the most unnecessarily redundant screenplays in cinematic history. In fact, so little happens in either of the latter two Twilight films that most of New Moon could be stricken from the series, and would be better for it.
But instead, we’ve got star-crossed lovers Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Pattinson) picking up precisely where they left off, or maybe even earlier. To summarize: Bella wants to be a vampire; Edwards wants to be married — you’d think they’d reach common ground at the ‘eternity’ part. But while their apparently passionate relationship is at loggerheads, Jacob T. Wolf (Lautner) is determined to thwart the union and win over Bella, who seems more uncertain than ever which monster man she’s more interested in.
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