MOVIE REVIEW: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE (English/PG13)

Genre: Fantasy/Horror/Romance/Teen
Release Date: 08 July 2010
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Running Time: 124 minutes
Director: David Slade
Producers: Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt
Writers: Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay); Stephenie Meyer (novel)
Casts: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Billy Burke, Dakota Fanning
Plot: Bella (Kirsten Stewart) once again finds herself encircled with danger as Seattle is ravaged by a sequence of mystifying killings and a spiteful vampire who continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and her friendship with Jacob (Taylor Lautner) as the struggle between vampires and werewolves continues. Other than that, there is still another choice for Bella to make, mortality or immortality?

THE VERDICT

We love some vampire and there is some we can't stand watching them. Catherine Hardwicke first introduced a dizzying and lethargic Twilight. Then Chris Weitz's New Moon became the joke of the year, continuing a blizzard venom for the franchise in a downward spiral. No doubt, New Moon is one of the bad movie (not worst) of the year. Thus, the hardcore fans rejoice the continuation of the third one - Eclipse, while those on the fence like me will eagerly see if this is as bad as the previous crap or not.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse continues the spinning story about a shining vampire, an always shirtless werewolf and a confused girl standing between them. Sorry for been too sarcastical. In Eclipse, Bella once again faced dangers as the city Seattle is unrest with mysterious killings and missings. Red-head vampire Victoria continues her avenge for the lost of her lover James together with an army of newborns to against the Cullen family. Yet again, Bella is immersed with doubts about her future and destiny; forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob.

Let's get this straight! Eclipse is not an excellent movie but it is nowhere near trash like the predecessors. Looking at one point of bright light, Eclipse represents the fresher look of the romantic vampire flick that based from the popular Stephenie Meyer's novel series. This time, Eclipse does not only consuming most of its valuable time to venture into the triangle love alone, but has expanded some of its off-limit horizon to discuss about choosing the right choices for yourself. There is clear evidence that the story has done some decent polishing in terms of romance and displaying some parity of actions into it. Certainly, Eclipse has better and structured story than any of the series so far, while also making more edgier story along too. Eclipse does improve at some degrees upward.

But wait, while all the praise sounds complimenting enough to get some to be excited, well don't! Eclipse represents the best of those only in its three-installments franchise. While there bright lights, there are several dims one too. Neither excellent nor trash, Eclipse continues to rely on the dizzying triangle love. Once again, Bella is forced to make choices and from Day One, Bella found herself in the similar situation again and again, standing in between the two men he cherished the most. One continues to act in palor-vivid and surprisingly an old fashioned vampire that refuses sex. The other continues to seem to forget to wear his shirt around. In the end, there are just plenty of jealousy around and definitely most fan-girls will drool. No worry, Bella. The choice isn't that easy and thus, she remains as confused as I am till now.

The story is unmistakenly flawed because there is still some sluggishness on the script. Dialogue sounds forced and uninspired, while abandoning the core essence of creating the novelty of fantasy romance. The characters are so stuffy, like always but I felt so much talents wasted for nothing. Fortunately, Bella's father (Billy Burke) is the only character I enjoyed the most over the last three installments, and probably Peter Facinelli too. The two fatherly figures always know when to act cool and to insert some humor in the air.What's wrong with the rest shall not be spoken much since I find that their actings are still carried forward from the similar monotonous dimensional.

IN SHORT

Overall, David Slade managed to create a much bearable movie. There are some notable departure from the previous series - immersed itself with much darker action scenes while having more and more in depths on human persona. This is no doubt that Eclipse has been on the edgier and performance wise better than Twilight and the ridiculous New Moon. Being the best does not mean anything more than the fact that the movie is still a notch below from been average. The inside tone remains and probably no one besides the fans circle will enjoy it.
(image sources: IGN)

THE RATING

Story - 2.5 stars

Casts - 3.0 stars

Cinematography - 3.5 stars

Effects - 3.0 stars

OVERALL - 2.5 stars

GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 11.5