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R W -> RE: Eclipse (10/7/2010 11:48:21 AM)
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Director: David Slade
Screenwriter: Melissa Rosenberg
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ashley Greene, Billy Burke, Xavier Samuel, Dakota Fanning
Synopsis
As school graduation is approaching, Bella (Stewart) must choose between her love for vampire Edward (Pattinson) and her friendship with werewolf Jacob. Meanwhile, an army of newborn vampires are heading in their direction, while a vengeful Victoria (Howard) wants payback.
Review
As someone who hasn’t read Stephenie Meyer’s literary phenomenon, I have been a supporter of the current film franchise which though has its rocky moments, it also has a fascinating premise that is Bella’s journey of becoming immortal like her vampiric boyfriend while a childhood friend is trying to break it off. Although this isn’t the final chapter of the saga (the two-part adaptation of Breaking Dawn coming soon), the conflict between the two alpha males begins.
When I heard that David Slade was directing this, it was a shock, because if you are familiar with his small but memorable catalogue, this isn’t his kind of work as he said before becoming the next director. His previous flick 30 Days of Night was a good vampire B-movie which was occasionally clunky but did the job very well by making it blood-drenched and making the vampires very animalistic and nasty. This predator-like approach to vampires is somewhat reflected on Eclipse, with the exception of gallons of blood bursting out.
As well as making a darker film than its predecessors, in terms of a more realistic and hard-hitting approach, it achieves best for its dramatic tension. Slade’s debut feature Hard Candy was essentially about that, in which it was an intense confrontation between the vigilant teenager and her date she met through the internet. In Eclipse, the intensity is shown between the three protagonists, in which Bella is in a position in which there is no easy exit.
While there is dramatic tension, the Twilight series will always have sexual tension to satisfy female audiences. While the first film was about pale-skinned vampires with fine hair product and New Moon involved a scene in which Jacob takes his entire shirt off to clean off a tiny amount of Bella’s blood, Slade doesn’t seem to be interested in those kind of gags. However, thanks to Melissa Rosenberg’s script, there is a sequence involving a snowstorm, a small tent and a threesome (not literally, of course).
In the past, despite Bella being a fine heroine, she always felt like an outsider as she was quite socially awkward and in New Moon, she was indeed Miss Sulky Sulky. However, there is none of that sulkiness in this instalment as her task is all about decisions which makes her a more confident protagonist, which Kristen Stewart succeeds on. As intensity grows between Edward and Jacob, they are more than a couple of bickering men and a sense of humour springs out, particularly the infamous manage a trois.
The only major criticism to take notice of is the largely extended cast, including the Cullens, the werewolves and the newborn vampires. In the case of the Cullens, there are two back stories about which are well-developed and become a serious part in Bella’s journey. As for the newborn army lead by the chaotic Riley (played by Xavier Samuel), they are for the most part bloodsucking but there is a nice sexual chemistry between Riley and Victoria, played brilliantly by Ron Howard’s daughter. In two hours, the film doesn’t entirely flesh out every single player, so the story does get baggy.
Verdict
With such praise towards David Slade’s strong direction, this is clearly the best of the Twilight series as the drama is more serious while the romantic element isn’t too mushy.
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