The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Eclipse is the third film in the Twilight Saga, based on the book of the same name by Stephanie Meyer. Like the second film, New Moon, it presupposes that you have knowledge of the preceding movie (or the books) in order to fully understand the events as they unfold onscreen. Some of the characters in this series are supernatural beings. These beings have familiar titles – like “vampire” and “werewolf” – but bear little resemblance to the traditional creatures of the night. The vampires don’t appear to have fangs and, instead of feasting on human blood, they sparkle in the sunlight. (There is one scene where the “bad guy” vampires are seen killing humans, but the blood drinking is more implied than explicitly shown.) The werewolves are people that instantly *pop* into massive, six foot tall wolves who can communicate with each other telepathically. Some of the vampires also have special powers, but, for the most part, this film assumes that you already possess knowledge of their special gifts.
The details of the plot are linked to what has come before as well. Much of it is straightforward enough to follow, but never enough to completely stand on its own. Basically, Bella is in constant danger – from herself and others – and, because she is a fragile human, must be kept safe by the monsters that would eat her in any other story. Twilight was essentially a story of forbidden love (a sex-free love) and essentially, all that New Moon did was introduce a second love interest. Eclipse continues the idea of abstinence and “no sex until marriage” while reinforcing the polyamorous aspects of the love triangle. (They say monogamy is a myth anyway and as Bella says, “two-thirds of marriages end in divorce.”) There's also a scene between the vampire and the wolf that threatens to redefine "male bonding" because of the pent-up sexual energy. Stephanie Meyer apparently wasn't heavily influenced by Anne Rice though or we might have gotten some heavily implied wolf on vamp action. All in all, this installment is better than the last one (though it would really take some doing to not be) and there are quite a few more laughs here than in the previous films. Plus, I only noticed Kristen Stewart bite her lip once.
- Score
- 4/10
Eclipse is being released in more theaters than (just about) any other film in history and – based on my almost-unsuccessful attempt to see the midnight showing – I predict that it will break the record for opening day gross that is currently held by its predecessor, New Moon. (I wasn’t actually present for the opening night of New Moon, so I have no specific frame of reference, but it’s difficult to imagine a more successful movie than the one I attended last night.) I won’t even begin to speculate on numbers for the entire weekend run because – as far as I could tell – the entire target demographic has already been to see the movie in this city. Those fans will love it and everyone else will wonder what the big deal is. I would recommend it to a fan, but you might want to skip this one if you aren't already familiar with the series. Yesterday, Brett Erlich summed it up rather nicely: “Twilight's like soccer.”
