The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

To say that this is the Twilight film I had been waiting for would be a grave overstatement. This is, however, the kind of complete story that both of the preceding Twilight films should have been. While there are still the usual filmmaking stumbles along the way that an objective observer would expect from a Twilight sequel, Eclipse provides a satisfying amount of character development and pacing.

After seeing her lover and her lackey dispatched in the first two films, the wicked Victoria (now played by Bryce Dallas Howard) finally sets her plot for revenge against Bella Swan into motion. Building an army of newborn vampires, she plans to manipulate her strong and blood-thirsty minions into destroying Bella and the Cullens. All is not lost, however, as Jasper Cullen knows exactly how to fight newborn vampires and trains his family as well as Jacob Black and some of his werewolf brethren for a vicious battle.

After two installments, audiences finally get a complete story. One of my biggest issues with the first two Twilight films was the way they fed us false starts, only to wander aimlessly until the final 30 minutes, when a sudden development yanks us at full speed to the final destination. Here we have real plot development and foreshadowing. The film never goes off an a tangent, always moving forward to the next cog in the machinery. Needless to say, this is a very welcome change.

Character development is also a welcome change here. Up to now, the characters Rosalie and Jasper were virtually one-dimensional. In Eclipse, we learn a little about both their pasts, as humans and vampires. Rosalie is no longer the raging vampire PMS queen and Jasper is finally given a personality of his own. Watching him stare at everything like a psychopath got old quick. While it’s hard to swallow some of Jacob’s pack mates joining forces with the Cullens to protect Bella, it does make for some humorous moments when Jasper teaches them all how to fight newborn vampires.

The visual effects and the acting are both still sketchy. It’s nice to see more color on screen now that most of the digital color grading has been abandoned. The Cullens are also just pale in complexion now, instead of super-pasty white. That helps you believe they could actually coexist in the human world without being gawked at 100% of the time. The werewolves still look lousy and the fight sequence was overdone.

I give credit to Nikki Reed and Jackson Rathbone for stepping up to the plate when their characters finally get some spotlight. It still boggles my mind, however, how Twihards still support Kristen Stewart. She just looks lost half the time and her delivery is horrible. Perhaps this is due to the source material but it just looks like she’s dialing this thing in. The intensity of the newborns is appreciated, even if they become comical by the time the big fight arrives. In short, the acting represents an overall improvement for the Twilight series but the bar was set really low to begin with.

To me, Eclipse marks a turning point in the Twilight films. It seems that the actors are finally comfortable in their roles (Kristen Stewart may be the exception). As someone who hasn’t read the books, I am now comfortable with the Twilight universe, flaws and all. Perhaps resigning myself to expect a deeply flawed film allowed me to be taken off guard by how complete the story of Eclipse actually is. Calling it my favorite Twilight film would be disingenuous but if you locked me in a room and told me that I had to watch one of the Twilight films, I would pick this one in a heartbeat.

RATING: 2.75 out of 5