Twilight Saga: Eclipse

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Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Millions of teenagers and females in general across the world rejoice as The Twilight Saga returns with the  third installment of the series Eclipse.  The story picks up with Victoria returning to create a army of young unctrollable newborn vampires to get her revenge on Bella and the Cullens for killing her mate in the original story.  In the mean time Bella's issues are mounting as she is battling to convince Edward that she wants to be turned into a vampire while fighting off not only her feelings towards but Jacob's advances and his own mission to stop her becoming one of the undead.

To add to their troubles the Volturi are lurking in the background too as the deadline agreed by Bella and the Volturi is fast running out.  We also get to learn a bit more of the Cullens and the Oulettes as we see more of their various backstories before building up into the climatic battle between our heroes and the newborns.  Bella and Edward get a final showdown with Victoria as well to finally close this part of the story.  Finally the film once again ends with a bit of cliffhanger that should keep the Twi-hards on the edge of their seats until the first part of the final part next year.

While Twilight Eclipse probably won't win any new converts, it's by far and away the best of the films so far.  Unlike the first two which were overly mopey and broody, this one manages to balance that with the human side of the drama that Bella faces and a bit more action that the male members who are viewing the film will relish.  It's great also as some of the other members of the cast especially in the Cullen household get more screen time and manage to shine through past Robert Pattinson, Kirsten Stewart and Taylor Lautner.  Especially Ashley Greene as the delightful Alice, Nikki Reed as Rosalie, but none more so than Jackson Rathbone as Jasper whose southern drawl and droopy style has more than just a little Johnny Depp about him.  This is where the film really flourishes too as getting to see the  backstories allows a break from all of the teen fawning and allows you to finally connect with the rest of the cast.  Rathbone and Reed especially manage to convey the real angst of their characters and depths that are not normally seen in teen fodder such as this.

The negatives?  Well again an overlong run time (120 minutes) while will probably be ecstacy for the Twihards can be heavy going for everyone else.  It could have quite easily have had 15 minutes or so trimmed off the run time and still made for a decent film.  David Slade has managed to depsence with the shoddy looking effects from the first couple of films with effective looking werewolves however the decision to have the vampires shatter like dolls when killed is a bit of an odd decision and the CGI looks pretty bad.

However Twilight Saga: Eclipse, much like Sex and the City 2 before is a critic proof film and could be given zero stars and still make hundreds of millions at the box office.  Unlike SATC 2 however Eclipse is not awful far from it, it's actually quite enjoyable in parts.  It manages to pick up on the comments made about New Moon and incorporate them into this film ('Doesn't he ever wear a shirt?' asks Edward to Bella of the first shot of a bare chested Jacob.  'I'm hotter than you' Jacob to Edward when Bella is freezing in the tent late on in the film).  Again this will be readily enjoyed by fans of the series and this sets up the two part finale very well.  For newcomers to the series they may very well wonder what on earth is going on, but then they should have watched the first two films and/or read the books first...

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