Valerie ChuaIf you believe the movie posters that Eclipse is the cinematic event of the year, 2010 is no less a year of the vampires than 2009, when the sequel before it, New Moon, was released.
Gone were the days of blood-thirsty fanged creatures who shunned garlic and turned into ash in the sun. According to bestselling author Stephenie Meyer, new-age vampires sparkle in the sun like diamonds. They also rule the world, make women swoon not from fear but longing and lust, which is probably why movie directors have moved in for the jugular.
Yes, and not a moment too soon either, it’s been just a mere 6 months, the Twilight Saga is back again with its third film, Eclipse, directed by David Slade who had, oddly enough, originally stated that he wouldn’t go near the franchise.
Like New Moon, the third installment of the Twilight saga was highly anticipated by the Twihards, fang-girls of the Twilight Saga. During the premiere, all it took was the lights dimming for the audience to break out in applause and loud cheering.
In Eclipse, female protagonist Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) finds herself in danger once again as Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) continues her quest for revenge against Edward (Robert Pattinson) for killing her mate, James, in the first movie. Victoria gets herself a puppet, which comes in the form of newborn vampire Riley (Xavier Samuel), who forms his own army of others like him.
10 minutes in and the show has already got the audience’s adrenaline pumping as the entire Cullen clan comes face to face with Victoria, chasing her through the forest. However, the Cullens get into trouble with the werewolves when Emmett (Kellan Lutz) accidentally crosses into their territory.
The tussle between the vampires and the werewolves is not just a fight for territory, but also love.
Like any other romance flick, there’s a love triangle. In this case, it’s more intense, mainly because most of the main characters aren’t human.
Once again, Bella is forced to choose between her soul-mate Edward and her best friend, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) as both parties declare their love to her throughout the movie, in thinly-veiled attempts to make the other jealous.
Like the other 2 Twilight movies, there were many gag-inducing scenes that were meant to be romantic but came off as extraordinarily cheesy. One such example would be Edward’s declaration of love: “Isabella Swan, I promise to love you every moment of forever”, while that’s the cue to make the audience swoon, it makes you cringe instead.
So, who will Bella choose? Although the answer’s obvious, it didn’t stop the audience for rooting for Jacob as they greeted his first appearance with loud wolf-whistles, if you can even imagine girls doing that. Of course,you could hardly blame then when Lautner looked fantastic with his washboard abs that got quite an airing.
Scenes that played on the Team Jacob vs. Team Edward issue were funny, especially the one in which Jacob commented to Edward, “I’m way hotter than you”, no contest there, as werewolves have a generally warmer body temperature than the ice-cold vampires.
The climax of this film is the big fight between the Cullens and Victoria’s army of newborns. It’s the most notable one and the one actress Ashley Greene was most anticipating to film. Think dismemberment of heads, tearing of limbs and shredding of body parts.
In the midst of all this fighting and drama, Bella has to make the most important decision of her entire life with her graduation approaching and her birthday coming. But UrbanWire won’t spoil it for you.
At the end, Eclipse is like the other Twilight films, made for the Twihards who will be the ones to enjoy the films whatever critics say However, to the rest of us, there are better movies to spend $10 on.
Title: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Opening Date: 01 July 2010Duration: 124 Minutes
Language: EnglishGenre: Fantasy, Romance, Thriller
Directed by: David Slade
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart
Rating: ★★☆☆☆