Review: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) wants to avenge the death of her lover, James, at the hands of Edward (Robert Pattinson), by killing Edward's one and only love, Bella (Kristen Stewart). To achieve this, Victoria raises an army of vampires, a savage pack of voracious new bloods. To defeat said army, the Cullens must form an uneasy alliance with Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and the rest of the werewolves.

Overall, the acting was good, but for me, Pattinson's performance took the cake. Being uninitiated, I didn't expect much from Mr. Pattinson, but the man can actually act. He imbues the character of Edward with a great deal of nuance, appeal and likability. One of the scenes that impressed me, is one where Edward, Jacob and Bella are in a tent very high up in the mountains. Bella is about to freeze from the sub-zero temperatures, Edward, being "cold-blooded", can't hold her to keep her warm, so he grudgingly lets the warm-blooded Jacob get under the flimsy covers with the shivering Bella, to keep her warm. With Bella asleep or seemingly asleep, Jacob and Edward get to talking, it is in this conversation about how if certain things were different, perhaps they'd like each other, that the bucket-loads of appeal and nuance that Pattinson gives Edward, are most apparent. Pattinson's performance in this scene is pure magic. To me, anyway.

Claude Debussy's classic piano solo, "Claire de Lune", was used quite nicely in the scene where Bella enters the Cullens' posh abode to spend the night with Edward. It added appeal to the scene. "Claire de Lune" was also used quite nicely in the brilliant "Man on Fire". It's such a beautifully emotional piece of music. Also in this scene, Sia's immensely beautiful song, "My Love", was used to great effect when Edward and Bella are kissing and Edward being the gentleman that he is, politely refuses to go further. Sia's song enhances the beauty and importance of Edward and Bella's relationship. And then there's the score by accomplished composer Howard Shore. Mr. Shore provided the jingles quite effectively. I couldn't help noticing the strong similarities between the score for "Eclipse" and that for "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy", which was also scored by Shore. Did he merely recycle the themes he created for LOTR? I don't know.

The visual effects and animation were well done. There's a scene where Bella is standing next to Jacob in wolf form and there's contact between her and the wolf's fur -- nice. This image of Bella standing next to the abnormally huge wolf, reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke". An ecological tale, where there are wolves just as large, on whose backs the titular character rides, albeit, not at the same time. And then there were the fights, the gore was tempered, but there was enough to give the fights impact. The editing, choreography and camerawork were impressive -- you could actually see what was taking place.

The dialogue was fairly interesting, Jacob said something interesting about "imprinting" -- something to do with falling deeply in love. I'd quote him if I could remember what he said.

If this film has a fault, it's that it gets a bit monotonous and repetitive to see Jacob and Edward jostling for first place in Bella's heart -- just a tad drawn-out, nothing major. Watching Edward and Jacob fighting over Bella, I couldn't help asking myself, "Do people agonize this much over love in real life?"

"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" is definitely worth a look.