It has become one of the fundamental questions of recent times; first there was whether you sided with Aniston or Jolie after the break down of Aniston and Pitt’s marriage, then the Lost finale divided fans, now, with the prowess of David Slade’s directorial power in the latest Twilight instalment, the reigning question is not if it’s cool to like Twilight, but just whose team you’re on.
For those who aren’t quite up-to-speed with the saga so far, the story follows the basic boy meets girl formula, except in Stephenie Meyer’s worldwide best-selling series the boy happens to secretly be a century-old vampire who wants to kill said girl but instead falls madly in love with her. The second film sees his attempts to try and alleviate her life of any unnecessary danger and so enters boy #2 who tries to console girl but is spurned when boy #1 returns. Did we mention that boy #2 is also a werewolf? Hmm, not as simple as we thought.
Eclipse signals crunch time for Bella (Kristen Stewart) who must chose which boy she loves most; will it be her cold-bodied vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson) or lovelorn werewolf best friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) (who, thanks to a witty script, tells Edward ‘I’m hotter than you’, fuelling the team-argument between Twilight fans). Whilst marriage proposals, stray kisses and hormones battle between the three leads the Cullen clan and the Quillette werewolf pack have to decide whether to unite against the deadly Victoria, a vampire thirsty for revenge and Bella’s blood.
Unlike it’s predecessors, Eclipse allows the back stories of characters who have, until now, been very much part of the background to be explored. Thanks to this not only are we shown the origins of the Quillette pack but the human lives of Rosalie and Jasper are also probed. The film remains consistently faithful to both Eclipse and Stephenie Meyer’s latest novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner with only deletions and alterations being utilised to ensure the film meets a trim two hour run time.
Although some directorial shots can, at times, be a bit hit-and-miss and some of the wigs used for female cast members can be questionable, the film retains the light-hearted banter of its two predecessors whilst becoming somewhat darker than both Twilight and New Moon. All that remains left to decide now of course is whether you’re Team Edward or Jacob…
Best performance; Robert Pattinson as Edward.
Best song; With an already-hugely popular soundtrack to it’s name it’s hard to pick a favourite. Stand-out tracks include The Bravery’s ‘Ours’ and Muse’s ‘Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)’
Discussion feed