Eclipse Shines

The Verdict:
GO SEE!

REVIEW:

*WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

The third installment in the highly popular teen oriented Twilight Saga films easily outshines its previous New Moon.
Eclipse is even heavier on the romance with loads of action compared to the first two Twilight movies.
Eclipse picks off where New Moon ended, with the charming, handsome vampire Edward (Robert Pattison, Remember Me) asking his one true love, stubborn, accident prone human Bella (Kristen Stewart, Into the Wild, The Runaways) to marry him.
But it doesn't start off with the two modern day Romeo and Juliet.
It begins ominously and dark (at first, I thought I was in the wrong movie) with an unidentified teen walking, then being chased by something unseen and superfast (by then I knew I was in the right movie).
He is bite by something (of course a vampire) and his transformation sets off the chain of events for Eclipse.
Eclipse focuses more on the Cullen clan again as it did in Twilight rather than the Quileute tribe as it did in New Moon.
Beautiful, bitchy (well to Bella at least) Rosalie (Nikki Reed, Thirteen) and quiet Jasper (Jackson Rathbone, The Last Airbender) have bigger parts and their origins of how they became vampires are revealed.
There is a new character, a girl werewolf, which is cool, Leah Clearwater (Julia Jones).
But it is all about vampires again although the wolves play a big part at the big battle toward the end.
Edward and Bella have their biggest intimate scene yet which fans should enjoy.
Afterwards he presents her with a engagement ring and properly proposes to her. It's a sweet scene.
Twilight fans ongoing battle, "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" is probably split up the middle in Eclipse.
Edward definitely won in Twilight, Jacob clearly in New Moon. But in Eclipse it's a tie. Every girl's favorite werewolf, hunky, faithful Jacob (Taylor Lautner, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D) wins on one hand for saving Bella in a scene where she's freezing cold in snow and he protects her with his body heat (the "hot" joke he makes here is the line of Eclipse) because Edward can't (he's a cold vampire remember).
But Edward wins on the other for saving Bella from Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard, Lady in the Water, The Village) once and for all (the scene where he takes out Victoria is very un-Edward like, as he shows how vicious he can be in order to save the one he loves).
The battle scene between the newbie vampire army Victoria creates with the help of Riley (the teen at the beginning, Xavier Samuel) is pretty cool but it was short. I expected it to be a longer. Still, it's great seeing the Cullen vampires kick butt together and the Quileute werewolves help them out.
The very ending of the film is moving as Bella tells Edward the whole reason why she really wants to become a vampire. Her reasoning actual is a good one.
Eclipse was the first Twilight film I saw via theatres (I saw the first two via DVD) so it was a treat.
I'm so excited for the last film in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn to open.
It will be split in two parts, part one in November of 2011, part two, in November 2012.
Twilight is still my favorite of the series so far (I just love the origin), followed by New Moon then Eclipse.
I eagerly await to decide where I will place Breaking Dawn.

~Trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810074301/trailer

*The Stars:
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Dakota Fanning

~Director:
David Slade

~Music:
Howard Shore

~Rating:
PG-13

~How Long:
2 hrs. & 4 mins.

~Opening:
6/30/2010