Movie review: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

7:12 PM Thursday Jul 1, 2010

The director of the third instalment of the Twilight saga had a rather fat block of nothing to work with when he set out to create Eclipse.

The Stephenie Meyer novel flips between Bella's (Kristen Stewart) decision to become a vampire so she can be with vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson) forever, or remain human and try out things with werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner).

It's basically a rather long, confused internal monologue punctuated by humans pashing vampires, humans pashing wolves and vampires pashing vampires.

In two years Bella has moved on from fearing her lust for Edward in the first Twilight film, and from nursing her aching heart in the second New Moon, to being confident with her decision to become, well, a monster. But Stewart has not moved on from her awkward, sulky delivery. And if it was endearing then, it's terribly grating now.

Pattinson's Edward looks more sickly than ever, he still speaks with locked-jawed determination and pants as he declares his love.

At least their performances give peripheral characters a chance to shine - in particular Billy Burke who plays Bella's father Charlie, and Nikki Reed who plays Edward's adopted sister Rosalie Hale.

Thank goodness also for Jacob. A smart-alecky Lautner, whose arms are each now bigger than his head, turns what could be a trite script into something laugh-out-loud. A favourite line? When using his high lupine body temperature to warm a shivering Bella, he says to a seething Edward, "Well I am hotter than you."

Well, yes, the casting is still spot-on.

The film is also saved by complex battle sequences using fancy computer graphics and a punchy soundtrack. But despite a sinister opening sequence, this is no bloodier than the previous films, as it seems you can kill a vampire by snapping off limbs like big sticks of plaster.

Sure, there is a running plot about a new vampire army out for Bella but elsewhere Eclipse is a painfully slow game of love where no one scores. At least we have that to look forward to fourth and fifth time around.

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed
Director: David Slade
Rating: M
Running time: 124 mins

By Jacqueline Smith

Magnus (New Zealand) | 11:20AM Friday, 02 Jul 2010

I've only ever watched the first movie and read the first book and that was enough for me. They were painfully slow, pointless and vastly overrated. There are far better writers out their and can't see what all the fuss is about. There again I'm way past my teens so that could be the reason.

Serf (New Zealand) | 08:28AM Monday, 05 Jul 2010

Ha ha love it! Spot on review. Although, I have to say, I did like the ceramic (or plaster) breaking effect used when tearing up the newborn vampires, quite clever.

Dilla (New Zealand) | 01:58PM Monday, 05 Jul 2010

I think you mean 'writers out there' and 'then again' not 'there' again. In which case your absolutely right. I agree with you on the slowness of the first book, however, its blatantly obvious this amateur authors target audience loves her work and I had to find out why - by the second book I was hooked and am now a shameless convert to Twilight.