The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

David Slade

BY Denise FalzonPublished Jul 1, 2010

OMG! The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is the best movie ever! Well, okay, maybe not ever, but it's the best in the series to date. Director David Slade takes the helm and flawlessly adapts Eclipse to the screen, living up to New Moon director Chris Weitz's example of staying true to the book first and foremost. But Slade can't take all the credit, as the story he had to work with is the strongest of all four books. Based on the third novel in the Twilight series by author Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse is when the story hits a climax, containing the most suspense, excitement, action and, yes, the most make-out scenes.

After their separation in New Moon and a cliff-hanger ending, Eclipse finds Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) back together with her vampire soul-mate Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), sparkling in all of his stone cold glory. But danger surrounds them, as nearby Seattle is being ravaged by disappearing people and inexplicable killings. Victoria (now played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is building an army of newborn vampires in order to finally finish Bella off and enact her revenge for Edward's killing of her James, "mate for mate."

Making things even more complicated is Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a member of the Quileute tribe, who is part of a vampire killing pack of gigantic supernatural wolves. Bella is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob once and for all, but not without a few smooches first, igniting even more friction between the natural enemies, who must unite to battle Victoria.

Oh, and royal vampires the Volturi are still keeping an eye on things, noticing that the Cullens' promise of turning Bella into a vampire has yet to happen and the consequences of breaking that promise are dire for all concerned.

As with any novel-to-screen adaptation, a few minor changes were made to Eclipse, but the plot remains faithful to Meyer's vision. Also, a bit more character development for a few of the Cullens adds more depth, with flashback scenes of how Jasper and Rosalie became vampires. Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) in particular plays a key role in the film, as he's the only one who knows how to defeat the army of newborns.

While some more insight is given as to how Victoria created her army, her character in Eclipse loses some momentum with the change of actors. The original Victoria (played by Rachelle Lefevre) had much more of an intrinsically evil, revengeful presence. Building off of New Moon's special effects, the fight scene between the newborns, the Cullens and wolves is pretty epic.

This is a definite turning point in the series, as Victoria finally strikes and the suspense that was building from the end of Twilight throughout New Moon and through most of Eclipse hits the boiling point. Let the anticipation for the next film begin.
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