Eclipse Review

Last night was the UK preview screening of Eclipse and I just happened to attend the midnight showing. Now let me tell you that Eclipse is my favourite book of the Twilight Saga, mostly due to all the sexual tension coming to a head. I was really frightened when I first heard that David Slade (of 30 days and 30 nights fame) was going to direct this as I thought he couldn’t do the book justice. I’m pleased to report that the movie is really good and easily the best of the three. The acting is better as people have grown into their characters, the effects are good and the storyline is good. I decided to bullet point my thoughts which I wrote last night at 02 30am when I got home!

1. I had heard that Kristen Stewart wore a wig in this movie due to the fact that she cut all her hair off for The Runaways. After seeing the trailer, I was worried and became obsessed with the fact that Bella is wearing a wig! Although to me it’s still obvious that it’s not real, the wig was not as distracting as I originally thought.

2. I totally get what Myra McEntire said about Dakota Fanning’s eyebrows being distracting. Also, as mentioned in Myra’s blog, no sound effects to the glistening of Edward’s skin sparkling in the sunlight and the vampires running looked better and not as blurry. See here for Myra’s VLOG which is hysterically funny. I love her!

3. How come when vampires were killed, it looked like the scene from Terminator 2 when the terminator had been covered in liquid nitrogen and then its arm broke off? Presumably because the vampires are considered the “cold ones” and this was symbolic of them being like ice.

4. Bryce Dallas Howard was an interesting Victoria although I thought she lacked the menace of the previous Victoria, played by actress Rachelle Lefevre. That's not to say that Bryce didn’t do a good job, I just felt she could have been more menacing.

5. Riley – woohoo, another hottie in the twilight mix although we won’t be seeing him again unfortunately.

6. It was good to get a reminder of who Bree Tanner is since I still have to read the new Stephenie Meyer novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.

7. There’s a reason why this film is being touted as the best of the three and I’m not sure it has much to do with direction or effects. This is my favourite book because the love triangle comes to a head and there is a lot of action and tension in it. There is plot and there is characterisation.

8. The tent scene remains my favourite scene by far. Thankfully it was done well in the movie and represented the book nicely.

9. How come Jasper just suddenly remembered he had a Southern accent?

10. The Jacob and Bella kiss – when they first kissed, I thought that was THE kiss and I was less than impressed. Then later, came the real kiss. Following the first kiss, Jacob promised not to kiss Bella again until she asked. Later, in the midst of all the romantic tension when Jacob found out that Bella had accepted Edward’s marriage proposal, he was hurt and threatened to go off into battle not caring for his own safety. in order to make things right (?) Bella admitted her feelings for him and asked him to kiss her. Now I don’t know about you but I think that Taylor Lautner should have studied Richard Gere in First Knight when a similar situation occurred with Guinevere. He kissed her, she got offended and he promised not to kiss her again until she asked him to. And when she did? OH BOY, there were sparks and passion flying everywhere. This is what I'm talking about...



This is a round about way of saying that the Jacob Bella kiss was too gentle and lacked passion. Not good enough I'm afraid.

11. Summit films moved some of the locations to Canada and I totally didn't notice anything different in the film.

12. The animation of the wolves seemed better and looked more real.

13. Is it just me or is Charlie just an awesome character? For a parent in YA fiction, I think he is great.

14. I don't think the music has been as good since the first film. Twilight had some awesome songs and theme music. As a film sountrack, it was excellent. New Moon and Eclipse don't compare I'm afraid and I'm sorry that we've lost the themes.

Overall though, I’m glad they kept it pretty close to the book and I think David Slade did a decent job. I'm dying to watch it all over again!!



For more information about The Twilight Saga movies, click here.