**Slight Spoilers, You’ve Been Warned**
After 8 months of waiting, Eclipse finally hit theaters this morning. I had the added advantage of being able to go to an advance screening prior to the midnight showing, so I saw it twice in less than 5 hours. Which really helps when making up your mind on if you like a film or not!
I’m going preface this with saying that ‘Eclipse’ was my favorite book out of the series so I was expecting a lot out of David Slade and crew. I’m also not guaranteeing that this will be 100% spoiler free, so read at your own risk.
Review is after the jump
Directing/Pacing:
David Slade so far has been the best director for the series (we still have to judge Bill Condon in a year). While Catherine Hardwicke started the series, her directing style lacked a lot, it was too jumpy, not smooth and the pacing was awful. This was greatly improved upon when Chris Weitz took over for ‘New Moon’. That film had a more polished look, but it still dragged in many places. Then came along director David Slade who is best known for the horror vamp flick ’30 Days of Night’. Not only was the pacing pretty damn good, but the film just had a much smoother (yes darker) look/feel to it. Yes, there were a few moments that I think good have been touched on a little more, we could have used a little more interaction with ‘The Humans’, but overall this was a very solid offering from David Slade.
The Actors:
Kristen Stewart seemed more comfortable as Bella this time around, the performance didn’t seem forced or stiff, with Rob Pattinson this was really the first time we got to really “see” him as Edward. In Twilight it was almost painful to watch him at time and he got like 30 whole minutes of screen time in ‘New Moon’, so in ‘Eclipse’ we really got to see what he could do, and I have to say it was pretty darn good, we know the boy can act, and it was nice to be able to see him do well under the direction of David Slade. Taylor Launter, what else can you say except he is Jacob Black, I have to say he was at his best in the last 15 minutes of this screen time, the emotion he brought in, let me say this, I’m Team Edward all the way, but during those last few moments with Jacob, I felt a little bad for him.
We all know Bryce Dallas Howard replaced Rachelle Lefevre as ‘Victoria’, and I’m glad she did. I was never a huge Rachelle fan, and Bryce was able to really step into the Victoria I had in my head. She was the feral quality that Victoria seems to have in the book and it was much need in this film, where her whole purpose is revenge.
Kudos to newcomers Xavier Samuel (Riley) and Jodelle Furland (Bree), they both did great is roles that were pretty much blips in the book.
Jackson Rathbone really got to shine as Jasper this time around. He was dark when he needed to be (Bella’s little dream scene) and so sweet with Alice it made me go “AWWW”. It was nice to see him out of the shadows so to speak and really get some good screen time.
All that being said, I have to say Billy Burke’s ‘Charlie’ just keeps getting better with each film. He brought both laughs and tear jerking moments (graduation scene is all I’m going to say). I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Charlie Swan in ‘Breaking Dawn’.
The Effects (Spoiler Warning)Twilights Effects sucked major ass (glitter scene anyone), New Moon’s effects were a much needed step up from Twilight’s, Chris Weitz did a damn good job on the wolves. However, Eclipse’s effects blew me away. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the battle scene, but WOW. David Slade and crew really went above and beyond there. But then there were the little touches that were nice (Edward’s barely there sparkles in the first meadow scene).
The Battle Scene (Spoiler Warning)
Yes this gets its own little review. Any of us who have seen ’30 Days of Night’ know that David Slade can make a truly gruesome movie. In the book, we don’t see the battle scene, since it is all from Bella’s POV we only see the fight with Edward/Riley/Seth/Victoria. So it was almost as if Slade had free rein of how to make a Vampire/Werewolf battle scene. The sights, sounds, and Jasper were all beyond what my head could come up with. I have to say watching Riley’s hand come off it was awesome in that totally sick way. Just also have to say that Kellan Lutz really was amazing in the battle, it was nice to see Emmett actually doing something.
And the Rest:
All the major scene’s were included; we got the proposal which made my inner girl squeal and jump for joy, we got Bella’s bracelet, all the good kissing scenes (and a few more then what I recall in the book) and the famous “leg hitch” even made into the cut. What didn’t make, we got no Alice kidnapping Bella, and a lot of the school scenes were missing.
As per the usual, the hair/wigs/makeup were greatly improved upon, mostly Jasper’s wig was 100x better than his own bleached out hair in Twilight or the fro type wig from ‘New Moon’. The wig that Kristen had to wear to hide the Joan Jett mullet was nicely fixed post production, there was really only one or two times that it looked a little off.
My overall take on the film, it’s the best one yet, I’m torn between giving it an A- or B+, but totally worth seeing it multiple times!!
