Eclipse

Well, we didn’t get enough members in our Facebook group to force Chad to see this third installment of the Twilight series (which has now been morphed from a quadrilogy to a quintrilogy… and I will absolutely get to that in a moment), so it is just Gina and I for your reviewing pleasure.

Both of us have read the book series, and I was especially excited with this part of the story because it actually had some action. Go figure… action in a story that focuses on vampires and werewolves?

Kevin: I will say right now that this will be the best movie of this series… Even with the ridiculous addition of a fifth movie that divides the fourth book into two parts. I really hate that they are going to be greedy with this series!

Gina: It’s completely unnecessary. It is only to drag it on and make as much money as they can while they can, and it might ruin the fourth book.

Kevin: They’re trying to make up for how bad New Moon was… Yes, it was horrible! And I truly feel for anyone who didn’t read the book and sat through that garbage!

In contrast to New Moon’s divergence from the book, Eclipse followed pretty accurately (at least as much as a movie can). Something is always going to be omitted but they scrapped the right scenes. Take a hint director of Half Blood Prince. The flow was also a refreshing change from the previous films. Where they had a slow, choppy run-a-long, this was smooth and straight to the point; Almost too much, maybe, when coming to the conclusion. There was a wonderful build up of tension leading to the final fight, which turned a little anti-climactic. The boyfriends of the female Twilight-aholics will be thankful of the added amount of fighting, but still a little disappointed that it didn’t last longer. The real cinematic complaint is the overdone close-up shot. Every scene from kiss to punch to run to bite was so extremely close up you will feel the need to keep trying to back up.

Gina: They never put enough of the werewolves as werewolves in the movie – the telepathic link, the tribe, etc. This was all about the love triangle, but this book was all about the fight and the coming together between the two conflicted groups.

Kevin: Almost as juxtaposition, the tension between Edward and Jacob was to be mimicked between the Cullens and the Quileutes.

Gina: Exactly! The movie just kind of tossed that in there and focused more on the love triangle.

Kevin: They [producers] always want to focus on the love story for Twilight, but this was really about a fight! There has been, and will continue to be, plenty of love issues throughout this series. Please let the one chapter that dwells on a monumental fight do exactly that!

Now not that you would expect Oscar winning performances from a movie of this nature, the acting was pretty terrible. The only performances that really held strong were Billy Burke as Bella’s father and Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen; of course, the two with the most acting experience. In fact, the few scenes where Kristen Stewart paired with Burke actually improved her acting. It was amazing that he was able to extrude some glimmers of talent out of her. That sounds harsh, but it was impressive… on both of their parts.

Gina: Yeah, none of them are great actors, and I hate Bella’s gasping breaths that she does ALL THE TIME!

Kevin: I will throw out there Bryce Dallas Howard, who I think made a much better Victoria… bad vampire woman, for those who don’t know what I’m talking about.

Gina: Some of the comedic dialogue helped, the little stingers that were thrown in like Jacob saying to Edward “I’m just hotter than you” or Edward asking if Jacob even owns a shirt. But can I say that Jasper's hair makes him look like a clown! All he needs is some baggy pants and a tiny car.

Kevin: Whoa, whoa! Jasper is Bad-Ass no matter what he looks like and I’m glad he got his time to show that he is the warrior of the vampire vegetarians.

With anything anyone says about Eclipse, it’s obvious that the fans of the book are going to be fans of the movie no matter how bad they screw it up. A bad review will just make Twilight fans argue their point a little stronger, and a good review will make them annoy you with their ludicrous knowledge of the series. Pick your battles.

Gina: 7.5 of 10 stars

Kevin: It will be the best movie of the series, especially with the horrendous New Moon chapter and the publicity-hoarding split of Breaking Dawn.

7 of 10 stars