The main trio of actors is to be commended for delivering the marshmallow dialogue
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If you're excitedly anticipating this next chapter of the swoony Twilight series because of the franchise's supernatural love triangle, you're about to get your money's worth. Eclipse, the third film based on Stephenie Meyer's novels, will satisfy fans who thirst for plenty of Bella-and-Edward and Bella-and-Jacob playtime. (Ah, the perils of young inter-species love.) But for those looking to Eclipse for a bigger tale of vampires and wolves -- one which should be readily available -- you're going to leave hungry.
That shouldn't come as a surprise to the series' diehard fans (known as 'Twi-hards' by some), who relate to brooding high schooler Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and envy her romantic conundrum: She can choose to give up her human life and marry old vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), or commit herself to young man-wolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Two different guys, from different races, pining for Bella with their hearts on their sleeves -- or in Jacob's case, on his biceps, as the fella never wears a shirt. What'll it be ladies, the intense, pale-looking skinny dude or the brown, buff musclehead? Deal with it, guys; this setup is many a woman's dream.
Director David Slade (30 Days of Night) steps in for New Moon's Chris Weitz, but there's not much discernible difference between the films. That can be good or bad depending on your taste for talk. Bella's intimate conversations with her individual beaus are chock full of chatter, and like Weitz, Slad doesn't rush the moment. That's great, considering your typical teen movie is much quicker these days. But sadly, the words pouring out of the kids' mouths -- via writer Melissa Rosenberg's pen -- is predictable fluff.
String enough of those scenes together and even the softest-hearted preteen is bound to get bored. Did Slade have the latitude to speed up the proceedings, offering an edit here and there? It would've helped.
If you're a 14-year-old girl, you can probably deal. The proclamations of love leap right out of a romance novel (or Meyer's series), with innocence and sacrifice professed in fields of wildflowers, spoken bare-chested amidst mountain ranges. Add a little danger, in the form of a marauding bunch of vampires called "newborns," and the higher stakes make all that love feel desperate. If teen romance turns drama into melodrama, then the added gravity here turns this melodrama into camp.
The main trio of actors is to be commended for delivering the marshmallow dialogue with the right sticky-sweet flavor. They provide just enough breathless puppy love to make the young girls gasp, and enough feigned interest to make the older folks laugh. At them, not with them.
But what else can the cast do? Early in the film, Rosenberg's script is peppered with references to earlier films, with lame lines like "Yeah, I remember that." or "You mean like the last time?" Younger audience members squeal with delight to be part of the joke, but the rest of the screenplay doesn't get much more mature than that. Lines like that aren't easy to pull off, though Lautner seems to have it down.
I don't know what the later Twilight novels bring (forgive me), but I'd like to see a film that delivers meaningful commentary on race and destiny, an epic romance tinged with a loss of identity, capped off by a large-scale, full-blown, mind-reading supernatural war. Or, Bella and Edward can just make goo-goo eyes at each other.
Starring
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Dakota Fanning, Catalina Sandino Moreno
Director
David Slade
Filmcritic.com
Playboy rating: 2
Buy
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse [DVD] at Amazon
You may also be interested in:
If you're excitedly anticipating this next chapter of the swoony Twilight series because of the franchise's supernatural love triangle, you're about to get your money's worth. Eclipse, the third film based on Stephenie Meyer's novels, will satisfy fans who thirst for plenty of Bella-and-Edward and Bella-and-Jacob playtime. (Ah, the perils of young inter-species love.) But for those looking to Eclipse for a bigger tale of vampires and wolves -- one which should be readily available -- you're going to leave hungry.
That shouldn't come as a surprise to the series' diehard fans (known as 'Twi-hards' by some), who relate to brooding high schooler Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and envy her romantic conundrum: She can choose to give up her human life and marry old vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), or commit herself to young man-wolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Two different guys, from different races, pining for Bella with their hearts on their sleeves -- or in Jacob's case, on his biceps, as the fella never wears a shirt. What'll it be ladies, the intense, pale-looking skinny dude or the brown, buff musclehead? Deal with it, guys; this setup is many a woman's dream.
Director David Slade (30 Days of Night) steps in for New Moon's Chris Weitz, but there's not much discernible difference between the films. That can be good or bad depending on your taste for talk. Bella's intimate conversations with her individual beaus are chock full of chatter, and like Weitz, Slad doesn't rush the moment. That's great, considering your typical teen movie is much quicker these days. But sadly, the words pouring out of the kids' mouths -- via writer Melissa Rosenberg's pen -- is predictable fluff.
String enough of those scenes together and even the softest-hearted preteen is bound to get bored. Did Slade have the latitude to speed up the proceedings, offering an edit here and there? It would've helped.
If you're a 14-year-old girl, you can probably deal. The proclamations of love leap right out of a romance novel (or Meyer's series), with innocence and sacrifice professed in fields of wildflowers, spoken bare-chested amidst mountain ranges. Add a little danger, in the form of a marauding bunch of vampires called "newborns," and the higher stakes make all that love feel desperate. If teen romance turns drama into melodrama, then the added gravity here turns this melodrama into camp.
The main trio of actors is to be commended for delivering the marshmallow dialogue with the right sticky-sweet flavor. They provide just enough breathless puppy love to make the young girls gasp, and enough feigned interest to make the older folks laugh. At them, not with them.
But what else can the cast do? Early in the film, Rosenberg's script is peppered with references to earlier films, with lame lines like "Yeah, I remember that." or "You mean like the last time?" Younger audience members squeal with delight to be part of the joke, but the rest of the screenplay doesn't get much more mature than that. Lines like that aren't easy to pull off, though Lautner seems to have it down.
I don't know what the later Twilight novels bring (forgive me), but I'd like to see a film that delivers meaningful commentary on race and destiny, an epic romance tinged with a loss of identity, capped off by a large-scale, full-blown, mind-reading supernatural war. Or, Bella and Edward can just make goo-goo eyes at each other.
Starring
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Dakota Fanning, Catalina Sandino Moreno
Director
David Slade
Filmcritic.com
Playboy rating: 2
Buy
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse [DVD] at Amazon
You may also be interested in:
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