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The fact that all these rumors about the third film in the TWILIGHT franchise being the best yet in the series are actually true may surprise several people, but it doesn't surprise me a huge deal, mainly because of the fact that David Slade came on board to direct this one. Slade was responsible for the searingly incredible HARD CANDY and for the surprisingly good, also vampire-themed 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. Hokey as the first two movies may have been, I had all the expectations in the world that Slade would do something good with ECLIPSE, and indeed, he does. This film improves upon the first two outings by upping the level of excitement from the action sequences and by doing a better job at depicting the things that are at stake emotionally with the story's three main characters. To make it even better (and this is really the factor that makes this film clearly distinguishable from the first two), the film knows when to make fun of itself. The first two films provided their share of unintended guffaws during some ridiculous, over-serious moments. Slade recognizes that there's a considerable amount of silliness to this whole thing and allows that to be exploited for humor that actually IS intentional (the best example of this is Edward's already famous line in regard to Jacob not wearing a shirt).
The love triangle takes center stage in the plot of ECLIPSE. There are many who disagree with what I'm about to say, but well, I said it in my review of NEW MOON, and I'll say it here again because it continues being true: this love triangle is handled better than love triangles we see in most films. Why? Because it's grounded in an emotional reality that was relatively evident in NEW MOON, and is even clearer in ECLIPSE: as much as we may call it a "love triangle," Bella's choice is TOTALLY obvious. A more contrived, hokey plot would have Bella (Kristen Stewart) wander indecisively from one guy to the other, and it would have Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) constantly growling at each other, and threatening/insulting each other. The movie doesn't choose to focus on the cheap question of "Who will she choose?" It TELLS us that she is in love with Edward, but that she's conflicted about certain warm feelings that she also has for Jacob. That makes a lot more sense, and is a lot more relatable to a real-life emotional conflict (well, you know, minus the vampire/werewolf aspect). If this doesn't become obvious to the audience during the first hour of ECLIPSE, it'll become clear once the lines "I love you more" and "I know" are spoken.
The other reason why there's a sense of unconventionality when it comes to the so-called love triangle here is that Edward and Jacob are able to come together for purposes of protecting Bella, and there's a particularly well-executed scene in a tent in which they converse while Bella is sleeping. It is in this scene that we know for sure that Edward and Jacob aren't mere wooden pawns for Bella to pick one and discard the other. Each of them understands and accepts how important the other guy is to her.
One of the other great strengths that I mentioned the movie has is its much better handle on humor than the first two films. Billy Burke gets some great one-liners in as Bella's father (particularly during the uncomfortable conversation in which Bella has to reveal to him that she's still a virgin). Bella and Jacob's first kiss is followed by an unpredictable and frankly hilarious, um, "punchline." But if I have to pick the one moment in which it's most obvious that this franchise has finally learned to make fun of itself (rather than succumb to unintentional ridiculousness), it's when the line "You know I'm hotter than you" is uttered... just wait till you see the context in which it is said.
The other surprise to be found here is the fact that the embarrassing special effects don't quite plague this film as much as they did the first two. The battle sequences are more exciting, and the final showdown between Edward and the evil Victoria is very satisfying. Sadly, though, I do take issue with the switch from Rachel Lefevre to Bryce Dallas Howard to play the villain; the former actress was a lot more menacing-looking. One of the aspects that has been constantly weak in these films and that continues to be weak here is that the villains aren't developed well. The film is too interested in the romantic plot, which is fine, but it hardly leaves any room to get us to hate the evildoers. Thus, in ECLIPSE, we just have to accept that there's a new "army" of evil vampires who are coming to kill Bella, even if we hardly get any well-developed scenes that set this up.
Another flaw to be found in ECLIPSE emerges during its last few minutes. The denouement of the first TWILIGHT movie (mediocre as that film was) did a good job at setting up Bella's dilemma of whether to change herself into a vampire or stay human. Similarly, the final moments of NEW MOON created a great hook that left everyone waiting for the next installment. Unfortunately, if it weren't for the fact that it's practically common knowledge that there's a fourth chapter in the franchise, some may assume that ECLIPSE was the last film. This film's last scene could easily appear to be definitively conclusive. There isn't much to tell us what stakes are going to be on the line in the next chapter.
Performance-wise, Kristen Stewart continues to be the strongest link. Those who are scoffing as they read this are probably among those who give Stewart a truly unnecessarily hard time by bashing her on message boards. I understand where the bashing comes from: most of the TWILIGHT fans are teenaged girls who wish they could be Bella so that they could make out with the two male characters, so they're jealous that Stewart actually DOES get to be Bella. Boohoo. But the truth is that Stewart has been a consistently great young actress, and I continue to think that she'll have great projects coming her way once life after TWILIGHT begins. I'm glad to say that Slade gets a SLIGHTLY better performance out of Robert Pattinson than the first two directors did... but I'd like to stress the word "slightly" and if you read my reviews of the first two films, you'll see how little that really means (read: he's still kinda bad). Taylor Lautner has a better handle on line delivery and comedic timing, and if it were up to me, Bella would choose Jacob, just so that she can be with the character who is played more genuinely, but I know there's a slew of people who disagree.
The first TWILIGHT film was utterly mediocre. Contrary to how most people felt, I actually liked NEW MOON more because I found it more entertaining at the time, but after some reflection, I think I've realized that it may simply have to do with the fact that Pattinson wasn't in that film as much. However, there's no doubt about the fact that David Slade has given us a marked improvement in this third installment. The story is more cohesive and interesting, and none of its humor is misplaced. Since I'm not a fan of the ending, though, I'm not sure where to place my expectations for BREAKING DAWN, which will be split into two movies. While I have faith in Bill Condon, I have to admit that I'll lower my expectations considerably if (as I fear) the movies aren't rated R. If we have another case (a la THE LOVELY BONES) of sanitizing things to achieve a PG-13 rating, there's probably little hope for the final two movies to be anything more than so-so, but we'll see.
6/10
