Movie Review - The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

Starring Kristin Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anna Kendrick

Directed by David Slade

To say that Eclipse is the best of the Twilight movies thus far isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.  The original fell into that "so bad it's good" category.  The film itself was awful, but with dialog like "hold on tight, spider monkey," you had to appreciate its sheer corniness.  Movie #2, New Moon, was just horrendous.  It had no story at all spread out over 130 minutes.

Eclipse at least moves beyond #2's "epic" struggle of young Bella (Stewart) choosing whether to be with pale but shiny vampire Edward (Pattinson) or hunky six-packed werewolf Jacob (Lautner).  Yes, Bella still needs to make a decision (what gal would want to hurt either of these two Adonis's feelings?), but the film at least moves on a little bit from the relationship drama.  Back in movie one, Edward was responsible for the death of some vampire and that vampire's girlfriend is now out for revenge.  She sets up a posse of sorts to avenge his death, but Edward's creepy family and Jacob's werewolf tribe join forces to save the angst-ridden Bella.

Since there actually is a story in this one, that's certainly a positive.  Director David Slade is the best director of the bunch so far.  There's some moderately enjoyable action sequences and he manages to pull out at least watchable performances from Stewart and Pattinson, although this duo is still an incredible bore to watch onscreen.  Lautner, once again, is the only one of the main trio who shows any amount of charisma.

The problem with this whole series is that screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg brings no life to any of these characters.  Granted, I'm sure that she's probably not working with much from the original source, but I'm utterly shocked that they decided to allow Rosenberg to write all of the flicks for this franchise.  Her dialog is ridiculously silly and she has no sense of dramatic tension.  All of her scenes involving Bella and Edward feel interminably long.  Considering that these are your film's two main characters, I should at least give a damn about them -- and I don't in the slightest.

In the end, this film will get the same rating as the first flick in the "saga."  That being said, this one's a better crafted film thanks to the director.  The first one's good for some laughs.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-