The Twilight Saga: Eclipse reviewed

In all honesty, reviewing The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is largely redundant because fans of the film series, and bestselling books on which it is based, will flock to cinemas regardless of what any reviewer has to say. This third installment in the supernatural romance franchise also does little to accommodate newcomers to the Twilight phenomenon, littered as it is with obscure, unelaborated references to events in the first two films. This means that ultimately Eclipse is still pretty much a movie for Twihards alone – even if the film is easily the most violent and action-packed of the series so far, widening its appeal through some “blockbuster-fication”.


Eclipse, like the other films in the Twilight series, is definitely not without its entertaining moments. Once again, though, also like the other Twilights, it is difficult to recommend as an all-round good film. But this is less the failure of the filmmakers and more the fault of basing a movie on tepid source material to begin with. The team behind Eclipse, the film, have done an admirable job with their adaptation, condensing the dullest portions of the book while simultaneously devoting a lot of screen time to the novel’s behind-the-scenes action scenes, depicting them in graphic, if badly CGI-ed, detail.

So while there is still A LOT of tedious, angst-saturated talking in Eclipse, as teenager Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) struggles to choose between vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) – who represents icy, undead immortality – and werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) – who stands for fire, passion and life – audiences also witness a number of events that were only fleetingly mentioned in the novel. These include the formation of the Seattle vampire army, the chase that almost shatters the treaty between the werewolves and "good" Cullen vampires, and, of course, the intense final battle.


Other enjoyable touches in the film include greatly ramping up the intensity of Edward and Jacob’s rivalry – to comical extremes at times – and including several flashbacks relating to the Twilight supporting cast.

Speaking of the cast, performances in Eclipse, as in the other two Twilight films, are generally very stilted and stiff. This said, the woodenness of the dialogue (often lifted straight from the novel) would hamstring most actors. Lautner probably comes off worst seeing as his character has to seesaw between cockiness and hurt. Stewart and Pattinson, meanwhile, continue on exactly as before, and Bryce Dallas Howard, who replaces Rachelle Lefevre as vengeful vampire Victoria, makes surprisingly little impact in the role despite being a much bigger name than her predecessor.


On the performance plus side, special mention must go to Billy Burke and Sarah Clarke as Bella’s concerned parents. The pair exude enough warmth and likeability in the midst of all the over-confident, indestructible supernatural beings that the audience momentarily shares Bella’s anguish at the thought of walking out of their lives forever once she becomes a vampire.

It seems a nearly universal opinion that The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is the best of the series so far. Personally though, I still think I enjoyed New Moon more in terms of its continually moving plot and pacing, whereas Eclipse is far more staccato, jolting between talk, fight, talk, fight. Then again, audiences don’t seem to be too concerned. Most of the pleasure for Twilight fans and casual viewers alike seems to come from revelling in the cheesiness and complete relationship unreality at the heart of the series. And The Twilight Saga: Eclipse certainly delivers plenty of both.