Movie Quote: "Screws fall out all the time. The world is an imperfect place." -John Bender, The Breakfast Club

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Twilight Saga: Eclipse


I didn’t need Edward’s telepathy to know what the teens in the theater were thinking, nor Alice’s psychic ability to know if the Twilight Saga: Eclipse would be successful. Just about every girl in the room was hyperventilating, and the third installment of the vampire series earned about $176.4 million in six days of North American sales alone. According to CNN, the movie made $30 million dollars in just the first three hours it screened.
The movie series that revamped (pun intended) the supernatural trend has furthered the cultural phenomenon, illustrating the relationship between characters Bella and Edward --and Jacob. The entire movie seemed like a game of tug-of-war for Bella’s affections. Not unlike the novel, but as a movie it was lacking action, which was awkwardly confined to the first five, and last ten minutes of the film. Director David Slade, known for horror movies like Hard Candy, was well represented in the first scene, as vampires in a rain-soaked Seattle eerily attack an unfamiliar character. Overcompensation to lighten his thriller-mood may explain why the majority of the movie was gushy and maybe too romantic for the plot, which focuses on a vengeful Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) creating a newborn vampire army to destroy Bella and the Cullen family. Howard replaced Rachelle LeFevre, who played the redheaded villain in the first two movies, but her replacement was unfortunately too sweet and sympathetic to be taken seriously as a murderous and heartbroken vampire.
The movie does highlight characters that were previously ill represented. Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) and Rosalie (Nikki Reed) are given time to share their past in order to help the Cullens fight newborn vampires, and help Bella make the right choice between life and immortality, respectively. But once Jasper’s past as a Southern Confederate is revealed, Rathbone’s accent becomes heavy and makes me question the consistency of his voice in the previous movies. Overall, the effects were decent and the hype will sustain. It should be interesting to see Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart tying the knot in the first part of Breaking Dawn though. I can just see the tabloid pictures of them filming in costume with captions questioning their matrimony.

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