The Movie Press
  • Movie Reviews
  • Twitter News/Updates
  • News & Notes
  • DVD
  • Box Office Results
  • Contact
  • About Us

The action is almost "Eclipsed" by cheesy romance

6/29/2010

0 Comments

 
twilight eclipse
As you may recall from last year’s New Moon review, I’m not a big fan of the Twilight Saga or the whole Mormon vampire phenom in general. So if you’re looking for a subjective review, you’re probably not going to find it here. But considering this is probably the best Twilight outing of the series thus far, you might be surprised at how much I didn’t just outright loathe this film.

Before I get into the good bits of Eclipse, however, let me first reiterate why I firmly believe this series is destroying America—teenage girls in particular. First of all, it’s repeated several times that if Bella (Kristen Stewart) has sex with Edward (Robert Pattinson) that she will lose her soul. No joke. Second of all, Bella is begging for Edward to turn her into a vampire, meaning she will literally give up her life for this dude. Thirdly, Edward is downright obsessive with Bella. It freaks me out, and I’m probably a high maintenance lady.  It’s creepy. So what messages are we sending to all the screaming girls out there? That they should look for an obsessive boyfriend who they should give up their entire lives for? But watch out, you wouldn’t want to lose your virtue by expressing your sexuality!

Anyhoo. Now that my feminist bitchfest is out of the way, onto the rest of the review where, as I mentioned already, I don’t completely bash the shit out of Eclipse!

Eclipse greatly benefited from the addition of director David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy), who really lent a slight edge that the franchise was sorely needing. How can you have a movie about vampires when NO ONE gets bitten, let alone even bares their fangs?! This film starts of quickly with a brief vignette of a young man being attacked in Seattle. Of course, it transitions sharply to Bella and Edward canoodling in a field of flowers, trying to downplay the violence. But, really the violence in the film is what sets Eclipse apart from its predecessors.

Our good buddy Victoria (now played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is out for revenge on the Cullen clan, who killed her mate in the first film. She’s creating a huge army of newborn vamps to kill the Cullens and Edward’s beloved. Apparently newborns are more violent and bloodthirsty than older vamps. So the Cullens and the werewolves must set aside their rivalry to protect Bella and their community. See how much more exciting that sounds than New Moon, where Bella just fucking moped around for 2 hours?! Of course, peppered in the mix is the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and whether or not Bella decides to marry Edward in exchanged for being turned.

The thriller and action part of the film is really where Eclipse succeeds. Super strength vampires fighting CGI wolves is a heck of a lot more believable in this film than anything else. Seriously, the dialogue is stiff and wooden (think of George Lucas’s ridiculous “romantic” dialogue), the accents pop up out of nowhere, and the wigs and makeup are horrendous. This sounds like such a small pet peeve, but I was mesmerized by just HOW BAD Stewart’s wig was. And the caked on makeup for everyone was just an eyesore. It’s like this movie just tried to make normally attractive people look downright weird. And the romance is just hard to watch. It’s bad when a screening full of diehard fans giggle at cheesy professions of love.

I personally wished the battle between the newborns and the Cullens/werewolves could have lasted longer. It was the action scenes that finally lent the Twilight Saga a blockbuster feel that was sorely missing from a franchise of this magnitude.

--Darcie Duttweiler
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008

    Categories

    All
    Austin Film Festival
    Darcie Duttweiler Reviews
    Derrick Mitcham Reviews
    Eric Harrelson Reviews
    Eric Pulsifer Reviews
    Eric Pulsifer Reviews
    Fantastic Fest
    Greg Maclennan Reviews
    Greg Wilson Reviews
    Jessica Hixson Reviews
    Mark Collins Reviews
    Monte Monreal Reviews
    Reviews
    Rob Heidrick Reviews
    Rob Heidrick Reviews
    Sxsw

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.