The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed By: David Slade
Written By: Melissa Rosenberg
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner
Eclipse is the third film in the Twilight Saga. The story focuses on the intense relationship between Bella, her vampire boyfriend Edward and friend who wants to be more Jacob (who also happens to be a werewolf) Bella wants to become a vampire in order for her never to be older than Edward, he is against this idea but wants to marry her, an idea she is against while Jacob is against the whole notion of those two even kissing. However an army of newborn vampires are starting to make a name for themselves and coming to Forks, meaning that the werewolves and vampires must put aside their differences to fight together and protect Bella.
As a male, the twilight films aren’t aimed at me and I am well aware of this fact. The first Twilight film was ok, New Moon was terrible and Eclipse is back to the first films level of not being horrible but not being that great either. Eclipse has many flaws such as its length, unlikable lead characters, bad dialogue and acting in places, cheesy special effects and one of the most infuriating love stories ever in the love triangle. The triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob is the center of twilight however it is one of the, if not the thing that I hate most about the film. It doesn’t help that none of the people involved in the triangle are easy to empathize with. Edward is overprotective, paranoid and has some serious trust issues. Jacob is a forceful, arrogant stalker who displays all the qualities of a rapist and Bella is an indecisive and annoying “heroine”
It also doesn’t help that the love triangle is so overly dramatic and over the top, with the acting in those “intense” scenes coming off as laughable. The most truthful line of the film is spoken by Bella’s Father Charlie (a character who is oddly clueless to everything that is happening despite the fact he is a cop) who says to the characters “Guys, take it down a notch” that love triangle needs to be taken down a notch in terms of acting and screen time as it is tedious, dull, melodramatic and boring.
More screen time should be given to the actual interesting supporting characters in Eclipse, who are much more interesting and developed than our main ones. Engaging and intriguing flashbacks are given to vampires Rosaline and Jasper, both detailing how they became vampires and how it changed them, reflecting the choice Bella must make. Bella’s choice over her humanity is a much more interesting one than which guy she should pick and if more screen time was given to that conflict then Eclipse would be a much more interesting film for it. The characters of Riley and Victoria are severely underused in this film which ruins the films climax as Riley was never developed enough even though he could have had a really interesting story and Victoria just feel like somebody who needed to pop up in order for there to be a dramatic climax, her revenge is never really felt.
Visually this film is much better directed than the first two and has a better handle on the action scenes than the previous films. However the Twilight films are still let down by sub par special effects, which actually got laughs from the audience. Speaking of laughs this film is much funnier than the other films in the saga and knows how to poke fun of itself, which is a refreshing change of tone from the depression filled angst of New Moon, which bogged down that film.
Overall Eclipse is not the worst that the Twilight saga has had to offer, it makes improvements with the films humour and visuals, has a decent soundtrack, has a better handle on the action and develops some of the supporting characters really well. However ultimately for me the film is brought down by the very thing that garners such excitement from its key demographic which is the love triangle, less over the top melodramatic screen time for that and more focus on the supporting characters and meatier conflicts would make Eclipse a much better film. Perhaps though the biggest crime with Twilight is that I didn’t care about these characters or feel any emotion and forgive the pun but for a film involving vampires the Twilight Saga lacks bite.
One Sentence Summary: Infuriating love triangles, laughable special effects and lack of emotion make this "vampire" film lack bite.
5/10
By Michael Dalton
As a male, the twilight films aren’t aimed at me and I am well aware of this fact. The first Twilight film was ok, New Moon was terrible and Eclipse is back to the first films level of not being horrible but not being that great either. Eclipse has many flaws such as its length, unlikable lead characters, bad dialogue and acting in places, cheesy special effects and one of the most infuriating love stories ever in the love triangle. The triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob is the center of twilight however it is one of the, if not the thing that I hate most about the film. It doesn’t help that none of the people involved in the triangle are easy to empathize with. Edward is overprotective, paranoid and has some serious trust issues. Jacob is a forceful, arrogant stalker who displays all the qualities of a rapist and Bella is an indecisive and annoying “heroine”
It also doesn’t help that the love triangle is so overly dramatic and over the top, with the acting in those “intense” scenes coming off as laughable. The most truthful line of the film is spoken by Bella’s Father Charlie (a character who is oddly clueless to everything that is happening despite the fact he is a cop) who says to the characters “Guys, take it down a notch” that love triangle needs to be taken down a notch in terms of acting and screen time as it is tedious, dull, melodramatic and boring.
More screen time should be given to the actual interesting supporting characters in Eclipse, who are much more interesting and developed than our main ones. Engaging and intriguing flashbacks are given to vampires Rosaline and Jasper, both detailing how they became vampires and how it changed them, reflecting the choice Bella must make. Bella’s choice over her humanity is a much more interesting one than which guy she should pick and if more screen time was given to that conflict then Eclipse would be a much more interesting film for it. The characters of Riley and Victoria are severely underused in this film which ruins the films climax as Riley was never developed enough even though he could have had a really interesting story and Victoria just feel like somebody who needed to pop up in order for there to be a dramatic climax, her revenge is never really felt.
Visually this film is much better directed than the first two and has a better handle on the action scenes than the previous films. However the Twilight films are still let down by sub par special effects, which actually got laughs from the audience. Speaking of laughs this film is much funnier than the other films in the saga and knows how to poke fun of itself, which is a refreshing change of tone from the depression filled angst of New Moon, which bogged down that film.
Overall Eclipse is not the worst that the Twilight saga has had to offer, it makes improvements with the films humour and visuals, has a decent soundtrack, has a better handle on the action and develops some of the supporting characters really well. However ultimately for me the film is brought down by the very thing that garners such excitement from its key demographic which is the love triangle, less over the top melodramatic screen time for that and more focus on the supporting characters and meatier conflicts would make Eclipse a much better film. Perhaps though the biggest crime with Twilight is that I didn’t care about these characters or feel any emotion and forgive the pun but for a film involving vampires the Twilight Saga lacks bite.
One Sentence Summary: Infuriating love triangles, laughable special effects and lack of emotion make this "vampire" film lack bite.
5/10
By Michael Dalton
This trailer was taken from: “The Twilight Saga Eclipse” Official Full Trailer HD (Video). March 11, 2010. Retrieved July 16, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1D5goGz0SY