Review – The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

“It all begins…with a choice,” is the tag on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse posters, but for fans of the mega Twilight Saga franchise, the choice is “how many tickets do I buy for June 30”, “should I see it on IMAX” and “should I go to the screening of the all three movies on June 29”? There is no choice but to see Eclipse the day it opens and multiple times before it leaves multiplexes.

In a recent open letter to Twilight fans, director David Slade said Eclipse is a love letter to fans and I heartily agree with his assessment. The Twilight Saga movies continue to improve and Eclipse is the best film yet.

While New Moon began with the crawling moon and a dream, Eclipse begins at vampire speed with a chase scene, throwing you into the action before you can settle into your seat. The fast pacing of this action movie (yes, action movie) is maintained throughout with the exception of those pinnacle scenes that fans would riot without. They will immediately know what I’m referring to when I say “leg hitch” or “tent scene” and I promise those scenes do not disappoint.

Eclipse picks up shortly after the events of New Moon with our heroine (or in Edward’s case, his brand of heroin), Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), having decided that she wants to become vampire and spend eternity with her love Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). But Edward has stipulated, to Bella’s chagrin, that he only will change her if she agrees to marry him. In the meantime Bella’s best friend and part-time werewolf/shape-shifter, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) has fallen in love with her and wants her to choose him instead of prematurely stopping her heart from beating. At the same time, a series of unexplained murders is terrorizing Seattle and has the Cullen family concerned that an army of newborn vampires is being created. Also, bad vampire Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) continues to try to get past the Cullens and the werewolf pack to kill Bella to get revenge on Edward for his family killing her mate, James, in Twilight.

Kristen Stewart’s poorly wigged Bella has matured from the girl we saw in Twilight. Facing eternity and graduation, she is more focused and serious as she comes to grips with her choices. She easily plays the role of daughter, best friend and love of Edward’s existence with the right display of emotions and the maturity that Bella needs to make her choices while never letting us forget she is a teenager.

Rob Pattinson’s Edward and Taylor Lautner’s Jacob, find themselves in similar positions. Lautner’s Jacob continues to evolve as the gravity of the changes in his life effect him, but I felt he lost some of the levity of the character from the novel. While his acting has improved from New Moon, he doesn’t quite match the talents of Stewart and Pattinson when it comes to the range of emotions emitted from his character.

Although millions of girls and women swoon for Pattinson’s Edward Cullen, I had yet to be swayed until Eclipse. From the moment four-poster bed comes into view, Team Edward fans will be ecstatic with the resulting scene. Edward often edges on stalker behavior in his efforts to keep Bella safe, but his heartfelt marriage proposal in his bedroom made me want to jump to my feet and cheer when Bella said, “yes.” I don’t think anyone could say no to Pattinson’s Edward at that point. His emotions for Bella and the tenderness of his feelings had me near tears. The moment will also have every woman swooning when they hear Sia’s haunting “My Love” going forward.

Many of the supporting characters of the saga also get their moments to shine in Eclipse, which is wonderful for those who aren’t necessarily Team Edward, Jacob or Bella. While Nikki Reed only briefly gets to tell Rosalie story with a flashback to her human life in the early 1930’s, Jackson Rathbone steals the spotlight as Jasper. Rathbone, whose role has been limited with the exception of his attempt on Bella’s life in New Moon, plays a major role this time. He gets plenty of screen time, including telling through a flashback how he became a vampire and his violent pre-Cullen family vampire life as the commander of a newborn army. He portrays Jasper with a commanding presence, southern charm and some amazing battle skills.

Emmett (Kellan Lutz), Esme (Elizabeth Reaser) and Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) also gain screen time due to Eclipse letting us look beyond what Bella sees. The books are from Bella’s perspective and the first two movies stuck to that idea. In Eclipse, we get to see what is happening when Bella is not around, including exciting action sequences as the Cullens pursue Victoria and the climactic battle scene where the ever gentle Cullen parents kick some newborn vampire butt.

The special effects are taken to a new level. The sparkling in the sun that makes non-Twilight vampire fans snicker, has never looked better on Edward. The fight training and battle sequences among the vampires are where David Slade’s experience really shines. We now know what vampires crashing together and being torn apart sound like and it is intense! Add to that the visual destruction of vampire and as much as I imagined it in my head during reading the book, Slade made it even better.

There was controversy last summer when it was announced that Bryce Dallas Howard was replacing Rachelle Lefevre in the role of Victoria. Many fans, including myself, were disappointed to hear that an actor that we had become attached to in a role would be played by someone else in the story where Victoria plays her biggest role. The producers could not have made a better choice. Howard fits Victoria to a tea as described in Eclipse. From the voice that surprises Bella to the look and intensity with which she battles Edward (and a few things we pick up on her in The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner), she is perfection. Newcomer and short timer Xavier Samuel is commanding and vulnerable as Riley, the leader of the newborns. The much talked about Bree is played by Jodelle Ferland. While Ferland’s performance is fine, she appears a bit too young for the role as she is described in the novella.

Billy Burke and Gil Birmingham as Bella and Jacob’s fathers, Charlie Swan and Billy Black continue to show that they were perfectly cast in their roles. Burke especially handles the difficulty of being a single father whose daughter is completely in love with a guy he is not a fan of and having to accept that fact, including uncomfortably urging Bella to be “safe.” Sarah Clarke as Bella’s scattered brain mother, Renee, hasn’t been seen since the first movie, but returns for one of the most touching scenes in Eclipse. She is relatable as the mom who is worried that her daughter’s relationship is too intense for her young age, but also is supportive and excited about Bella’s future.

New wolf pack members Julia Jones and Booboo Stewart as Leah and Seth Clearwater have little to do in their human forms, but are impactful when they appear. Jones brings the right amount of bitterness to Leah, while Stewart has the right amount of youthful exuberance. While the wolves look better than they do in New Moon, they are still pretty unbelievable looking even for mythical giant werewolves. When the wolf pack is in its human form, it continues to be plagued by poor acting with the already listed exceptions and Chaske Spencer as the alpha leader, Sam Uley.

The humor in Eclipse is truly funny, as opposed to the first two movies where as a fan I found moments cheesy or cringe worthy causing inappropriate laughter. With Eclipse this is never the case. Great one-liners from Edward, Emmett and Charlie seemed to be greatest source of laughter at the fan screening I attended in Los Angeles on June 14. My only cringing moment was when Edward and Carlisle battle each other during fight training because I couldn’t stand to see either one get hurt! That wasn’t the same kind of cringe worthy moment.

Eclipse is not for everyone, especially if you are not familiar with Twilight in some way. This script assumes that you have some knowledge of these vampires and werewolves and their “talents,” and I think it could be difficult for someone to truly follow who isn’t up to speed on Twilight. But for those who are familiar, and for those who are fans, they will find little to nothing to fault with Eclipse. It tells the story incredibly well, incorporates all the characters in a way that will make every team happy, brings the essential love triangle scenes to life, has remarkable visual and audio effects, incorporates another perfect Twilight soundtrack, makes even Esme kick ass, presents a kiss that will make Team Edward squirm in their seats and a proposal that will make Team Edward cry and cheer.

Fans will begin counting down the days to Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (November 18, 2011) from the moment they leave the theater.

Follow Amy at @OhMyCarlisle on twitter.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

In Eclipse, Bella (Kristen Stewart) once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward (Robert Pattinson) and her friendship with Jacob (Taylor Lautner) – knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.

Opens June 30th.

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It’s a Twilight Thing? So, explain it to me!

With the holidays over, I can safely say, I was bitten by the Twilight bug.  Thanks to my teen daughter, and her need to see the movie again and again, I finally had the time to see what all the fuss was about.  I read all the books in three days.  Yep, I was hooked, but increasingly I wonder why.

While the stories pulled me in and I had seen the film before ever reading a page of the series, why did I feel cheated the way the story was told on film after reading the book?  Is it because I am a much older reader, pulled in by the history of the Quileute Tribe and Cullen family more than the teen forbidden love?  Is it because I am a child of more darker vampire stories like Anne Rice’s work? I was disappointed that more was not shown of Carlisle’s hisory during Bella’s first visit to the Cullen home as it was in the book.  The flight through the trees was impressive, but hardly necessary.

I will admit, I found the cinematic Edward Cullen creepy.  No offense to Rob Pattinson, who intrigues me as a future One2Watch4, but he wasn’t the Edward I envisioned while reading the books. Of course, after multiple viewings of the film (which I make my daughter pay for out of her own money ), I can see the nuances of his performance where he seemed much older than the character’s 17 years.  That was the point after all and I hope to see more of that in the sequels.

I had no issue with the other kids.  Bella even reminded me of my own daughter in the way she dressed and acted.  The suffer-in-silence type.  Jasper kind of grew on me, but more because I wanted to check under his bed for monsters before he went to sleep.  Hopefully his story will be told well in Eclipse and more of what he is about comes out for film audiences.  It would be a shame to not do that story justice.

The love story certainly pushed a few buttons.  Who is not enamoured with a love so strong and binding?  Not that I haven’t found a similar love, but as time passes, you seek things that remind you of that feeling, that passion, that tends to diminish after years of living a life of routine and the mundane, even if it is with your true love.

For all it’s faults, I can’t shake my attraction to the story, although I question some of why the characters did, or accepted, the things they did.  Probably too much thinking on my part, but I can’t help it!  Sue me.

I hope beyond hope that Summit’s rush to film and release New Moon, which is so obviously financially driven, doesn’t become the Twilight fanchise’s X-Men: The Last Stand.  My plea is, if it isn’t working by September, for God’s sake, push the release date back!  There is no crime in waiting.  I think fans are willing to wait for something great, instead of something you can put on a T-shirt.

So, tell me, what is it about the books and film that pulls you in?

Robert Pattinson

Wizards and vampires have pretty much defined Robert Pattinson in the early stages of his acting career winning him legions of fans for his portrayal as the doomed Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and the teenage Victorian vampire, Edward Cullen, in 2008′s Twilight. Under all the hype lies a 22 year old promising talent that promises to grace our movie screens, iPods and stage productions for many years to come.

Pattinson is credited as the writer and singer of two songs featured in Twilight, Never Think and Let Me Sign.  He has been playing piano since the age of 4 and also plays guitar.  He performs under the name Bobby Dupea (in tribute to his favorite actor, Jack Nicholson, and the character Jack played in Five Easy Pieces) for his own personal satisfaction, but insists that music is only a backup if the acting gigs dry up.   We can only hope he continues to share that part of his talent through other soundtrack contributions and eventually a full fledged album.  It would be a damn shame to not get a chance to listen to him more!

Born in London, England, Rob caught the acting bug at the age of 15 winning roles in amateur plays, eventually landing him lead roles at Barnes Theatre Club.   He has lead roles in the the forthcoming feature films Little Ashes, in which he plays Salvador Dalí, How To Be, a British comedy, and the short film The Summerhouse.

He is also set to reprise his role as Edward Cullen in the Twilight sequels, New Moon and Eclipse, with filming of the back-to-back films slated to begin in March 2009.

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Summit Entertainment Announces Twilight Sequels – New Moon & Eclipse

Summit Entertainment has started preparing the sequel New Moon, based on Stephenie Meyer’s second book in the series, and to contain costs, the studio is filming the third book, Eclipse, back to back using the same new director.

On Sunday, December 7th, Summit Entertainment confirmed that Catherine Hardwicke will not direct the films New Moon or Eclipse. Filming begins on New Moon in March, 2009, and will continue right through completion of Eclipse.

Chris Weitz, director of American Pie, About a Boy, and The Golden Compass will take over the franchise, which will begin filming in March 2009.