David Slade is a director I am going to always check out. His first two movies, Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night are wonderful visions of terror, in completely different ways. He understands how to build tension, how to shoot scenes in horrifying ways and he gets the kind of performances he needs from his actors. I was more than a little surprised when I heard he was going to be taking on the third movie in this ridiculous Twilight series. He is better than that. His movies are dark and grisly, the way a movie about vampires and werewolves should be, but Twilight is not about the dark and grisly, it is about this weak ass love story that is not really about love. Why would Slade agree to this? Why would he do this to me? Now I had to go back and watch New Moon to prepare myself for this because I was not going to miss a David Slade movie. So, the movie became about "Can a good director save a weak story?" Read on to find out the answer.
At the end of New Moon, the Cullen family decides that Bella(Kristen Stewart) becoming a vampire would be a good thing. Well, most of them anyway. So, the race is on as to when that will happen. Edward(Robert Pattinson) is dead set against it and in this movie we get a glimpse into way because there is a vampire out there creating an army of new vampires and new vampires are CRAZY! That is when vampires are at their most inhumane. Luckily, Jasper knows how it goes because in one of the far too many flashbacks we see his previous life and how that went. Jacob(Taylor Lautner), the resident double-digit abdominal muscle having werewolf, is also madly in love with Bella and he is not willing to let it go. Bella refuses to admit she is in love with Jacob, but Jacob presses on anyway. Victoria(Now Bryce Dallas Howard) continues to run around aimlessly terrorizing the Cullens, the werewolves and Bella, all while not seeming to have any considerable talent. Is she behind the baby vampire army? Will Jacob and Bella finally kiss? Will Edward do anything but sulk?
This might just be the best possible movie one can get out of such a terrible story. David Slade must be a genius because he made a watchable Twilight movie. Do not get me wrong, it is far from a great movie and every damn time the movie turned its full attention to Edward and Bella I wanted to walk out of the theater in exasperated haste, but Slade makes everything else watchable. His opening scene reminded me of his work in 30 Days of Night, and the action sequences are all wonderfully shot, paced and actually have an element of surprise about them. I found myself getting a bit into the action stuff, the way the last two movies could not do. Slade is such a sure handed director that he knew he could find the good in the suckfest that is Twilight.
Taylor Lautner has a definite future in the genre of action movies. To say the guy looks good would be an understatement. The kid is great looking and he is ripped and built the way a 19 yr old kid should not be, but he also has presence. He is not a great actor by any means, but most action stars are not, but you are drawn to watching his stoic face. Granted it could be because he is acting opposite two disgustingly awful actors in Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. I am not sure where Lautner's career will take him, but I imagine it will take him very far into the realm of action movies and dramas where he kisses girls in the rain. Speaking of kisses, why is it that every time Bella and Edward kiss it is super awkward and not at all filled with heat, but when Bella and Jacob finally get their moment, it is an erotic wonderful kiss? I am not going to get into the debate of teams, or any of that nonsense, but on the screen, the chemistry between Stewart and Lautner is far more interesting.
Because it is Twilight there is a certain level of ridiculousness, especially any scene that forces Jacob, Bella and Edward to be int he same place, but this movie actually finds a bit of humor in what is my favorite non action scene, where Bella is freezing, but Edward cannot warm her up, so Jacob gets into bed with her to warm her up while Edward is there. It is the kind of throw-your-hands-in-the-air-ridiculous, but it is actually played for laughs. Lautner's swagger against Pattinson's bumbling scowl play well off each other and when the two guys are having a conversation, it is the only time Pattinson changes his facial expression. Perhaps Edward is not jealous that Bella wants Jacob, but that Jacob wants Bella. Just food for thought.
There are plenty of unintentional laugh out loud moments thanks to a horrible script, bad plot and somewhat awkward pacing at times, but overall Eclipse is actually semi-enjoyable. I like the idea of a human girl fighting her feelings between a werewolf and a vampire, but I would rather now have it covered in a Mormon gloss and not be aimed at the teenage girl demographic because I think there could be a lot more interesting and complex stories to tell about animals vs. human and life vs. death. Jacob makes these cases pretty well in the movies and to be honest, in the way the movies have played out, it seems Bella loves Jacob more, but that the stories dictate she must love Edward and so she does. Or maybe, there is no reason given as to why she loves Edward, other than that is the way the author wants it, which is just an awful way to go.
Final Grade: C
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