Twilight: Eclipse
After the spectacular comeback in quality that the second film in the series made over the awful first entry, things were guaranteed to take a step down for the third entry. After the VERY interesting setup of the love triangle between Robert Pattinson’s Edward, Taylor Lautner’s Jacob, and Kristen Stewart’s Bella, things settle down to the point where we KNOW that Bella loves them both, but prefers Edward, while the vampire and the werewolf have a strong distrust for each other that eventually works its way to being a half-hearted bromance for the greater good of keeping her alive. Pattinson, for his part, has seen his acting level off into a series of constipated looks that would be more at home in a laxative commercial, while Stewart is as bland as ever and Lautner at least tries, as he possesses the charisma and presence but gets stuck with maddening third wheel dialogue. The plot this time concerns Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard replacing the fired Rachelle Lefevre), who spent most of the last movie running here and there through the woods, building an army of “newborn” vampires to take on the Cullen clan and gain her revenge on Bella and Edward for killing her true love in the first movie, which leads to the Cullens forming an uneasy alliance with Jacob’s wolf pack to take on this new challenge. At times, it seems that the setting itself of Forks, Washington has started to get stale, with the same sets, houses, and even the same clearing that seems to be where so many key scenes take place. On the other hand, it is nice to finally get some backstory on certain supporting characters, such as Jackson Rathbone’s Jasper and Nikki Reed’s Rosalie, helping to flesh them out more from the glorified extras they were previously, as well as the reappearance of the European vampires introduced in the last film, led by Dakota Fanning who is not only creepy, but so easy to hate that this viewer would be very satisfied if the ultimate conclusion of this series saw HER get her head and arms torn off for good measure. The rest of the gang return as well, including Billy Burke as Bella’s hands-off, submissive dad (one could only wish we all grew up with a father who was easy to fool as he is), the usual bland teen types playing Bella’s human high school friends for their two scene cameo, as well as the rest of the Cullens and the wolf pack to help show solidarity. The one major newcomer here is Xavier Samuel as Victoria’s new evil beau who helps her form the army, though when the big showdown happens, it’s a little disturbing to see these newborns handled with such relative ease, even as we’re told that they are their most powerful at that point. The pacing and CW network-style music are fairly spot on, though the biggest fault here remains a dwindled enthusiasm to see the series continue unlike the second chapter which sparked heavy interest. Overall, not as good or as vivid as the second film, but enough of a continuing story to keep the teeny boppers coming out in droves…
7/10