robert-1853
This movie is the 3rd in a series of five. The general plot involves a girl who desires to be a vampire. She is torn between loving a werewolf and loving a vampire. The actors and actress are a curious bunch that seems to grab and maintain your attention. Each of the first three movies move painfully slow, but deliberate enough that it gives one time to think about these circumstances from many different angles. I give the movie a ten, because I can see the care and effort that the team put in to create these three movies. I'm looking forward to watching the next two movies. The next two movies are Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Part 2. I actually started research twilight phases, this is what brought me to these movies, and I'm glad it did.
Nikita Wannenburgh
Finally, Twilight is worthy of all the hype, attention, and popularity. Eclipse proves that there can be excitement, thrills, humour and awesome action scenes in the Twilight Saga, and soars above the low standards of the previous films. The cinematography is perfect. We get to see some beautiful snowy scenes, lush, dark forests, and the cameras are more intelligently aimed at capturing the feelings of this darker, more haunted Twilight than of the ones we've seen in the past. Although the dialogue is still rather unoriginal and uninspired, the script does flow more smoothly, and there's an awesome soundtrack as well. Thanks to the direction of David Slade, there is a drastic improvement in all areas. There's also entertaining humour; mostly coming from the brilliant Anna Kendrick who, as always, lights up the screen with the bubbliness of her character and gives the film its light-hearted moments. There's plenty of strong, exciting action, with breathless fight scenes. Although the previously two films lacked some battle moments, Eclipse makes up for that with some awesome sequences. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have returned with hot chemistry; the proposal scene really moved me and every word Edward spoke honestly seemed to come from his heart. Both actors have greatly improved their skills since the previous films, especially Pattinson. While Stewart is still wooden and her acting never reaches her eyes, she does give a lot more to the film than her previous efforts and is more focused. Although she's still frustratingly unemotional, she is improving. While also being a bit too wooden, Pattinson brings much more depth and emotion to his character. He outshines Stewart, reaching an emotional level she hadn't yet got to, and we get glimpses of emotion he showed previously in the first film; where he really shows how distraught Edward is at Bella's physical agony (in the climax). Their love is a lot more believable, and Edward seems to REALLY love and devote himself to Bella in this film. It's refreshing and satisfying; throwing away any doubts I might have had about his commitment to her. Once again, the scenes with Bella's school friends are humorous, light-hearted, and pure fun. Led by Anna Kendrick, they bring their roles to life, and I wish we'd got to see more of them. Billy Burke, Dakota Fanning and Bryce Dallas Howard are excellent actors who outshine everyone else. Howard is very underused, but she makes the most of every scene with a superb performance. Likewise, Fanning and Burke reprise their roles with brilliant and effortless acting, especially Fanning, and both of them are mature reliefs in a fantasy full of half-hearted actors who never reach the level of these experienced. Similarly, Elizabeth Reaser (in her role as Esme) is a very good, mature actress. Unfortunately, like many of the other older, more experienced actors, she has very little screen time. I was very happy to see more of Ashley Greene and Jackson Rathbone's characters, Jasper and Alice. They have strong chemistry, and their relationship wasn't only expanded on, but strengthened and sweetened with enchanting performances from both of them. But not all the actors are at the top of their games. Taylor Lautner's acting had drastically gotten worse, and especially when he tells Bella he loves her, the words are said so poorly and so badly that I had a seriously hard time believing he meant them. Overall, Eclipse is an action-packed, entertaining, humorous, and well put together film. It isn't perfect, but it's much better than its predecessors, and certainly has enough action and romance to carry the viewers through to the end.
brchthethird
This installment of the Twilight saga is a slight improvement across the board from the last one, but it is still every bit as cheesy. The story this time is a little more engaging, following the love triangle between Edward, Bella and Jacob and revolving around an unexplained series of killings in Forks. It turns out to be an army of Newborns being built by Victoria, and this draws the attention of the Volturi, who have a slightly expanded presence here. One thing that does keep me watching these movies without being utterly bored is the unintentional humor, especially in this one. The scenes between Bella, Edward and Jacob are really funny and over-the-top in their portrayal of masculinity and because of the woodenness of the performances. Some other positives include effective tension in a few scenes, as well as more action. The obvious set-piece here would be the climactic battle between the Newborns and the Cullens and the werewolves. However, since the movie is PG-13, the violence is bloodless. I still have some problems with the visual effects being slightly less than convincing, but at this point I don't really expect them to improve significantly anyway. Generally speaking, the acting has improved marginally since the first one, but the material they're working with is passé, immature and flawed. One performance in particular that stuck out to me as being really bad was Dakota Fanning as Jane, one of the Volturi. Also, Stephenie Meyer's Mormon roots are on full display now, as Edward acts as the mouthpiece for "traditional" values. It's a shame, really, that teenagers eat this stuff up. Times have changed, but most likely they were distracted by all of the teenage flesh on display. There's also a creepy moment early on where it's suggested (through dialogue) that Bella is essentially being groomed to be a vampire. This takes on a new meaning when you remember that Edward is over 100 years old, and Bella is a minor (although she does turn 18 in the movie). Still, this movie is somewhat worth watching, if only for the moments of unintentional comedy. Just don't complain if you don't like it, since you most likely made it through the previous installments to get to this one.
