By Linda Winsh-Bolard
Eclipse picks up roughly where the last sequel left: Bella and Edward are back together in Forks, WA.
While they are getting ready for graduation, still stuck in between vampire-human love or vampire –vampire love, Seattle is experiencing unusual surge in murders.
Dr. Carlisle Cullen has guessed that the murders are the work of still angry Victoria who has created an army of “newborns” to get back at Edward, his coven and Bella.
It turns out that vampires are most dangerous, least human, in the months after they were created.
One of the Cullen’s coven, Mike, lived through this when he was changed, during the Civil War no less, by a beautiful woman he thought needed his help. Mike fell in love with her; she used him to help her to turn the war by creating and killing new vampires. He eventually understood that she had used him, while learning in the process a thing or two about new born vampire armies. Mike’s knowledge will be useful to Cullen’s coven.
This is just one of the side stories in this sequel. Along with vampire cameos there is also a bit of Native American mystique-sorry, that bit chafed quite a bit. I suppose, film writes would be shocked had they ever sat by a real fire with some real Native Americans.
The entire plot is build on the need of two males, neither quite human, to fight over and protect the still human Bella. What makes Bella be so important remains unclear.
Moreover, the constant repetitions of verbal fight between Edward and Jacob are tedious. Even though they come with a lot of exposed male torso (doesn’t he own a shirt?, asks Edwards watching the perfect abs Jake shows during the Washington state winter. I was thinking more along the lines: how come he is not freezing to death?).
Perhaps chastity is the way to go. Bella remains chaste. There a nice little moment when Edward, who is something like 150 years old, tells Bella what courtship was like in his days. He calls those times simple. Clear, I guess, things were so much clearer then. Trust me, as one who was there, there is quite a bit of excitement in courtship that is always watched by chaperones and the entire “society”.
Jacob says to Bella: when you imprint somebody (fall in love with) nothing else matters, and it equals Bella’s statement to her father: Edward is my life. It summarizes the substance of this movie.
Both statements are suitable for a teenager, the rest of us should be able to recognize the difference between ranging hormones and life as it is; along with love, friendship and honesty (not even you would I love so much, should I not love my honor more, says an old French proverb).
Of course, we all know what it is like to be in love with the idea of love, we all have experienced that. Naturally, to all women the idea of being fought over, indeed over and over, by two attractive males with super natural powers is enchanting. Add to it that neither man actually asks Bella for sex, just for chaste adoration from afar, and both promise undying love regardless what she does, and you have a little hot pot of sexual tension.
Bella gets to refuse marriage, repeatedly, and still keeps Edward.
That beats even a Victorian novel.
If males like this movie, it must be for the competition between males over a female. Something they actually might experience in their lives. Unlike, say flying through the air or having perfect abs.
Oh, and if you “always stumble through life, never belonging” do not chose a way out that is attached to drinking human blood. Society frowns on such choices and awards them with life long prison sentences.
That’s about all there is.
I wish, I could say there was some wonderful filmic depth to it but save for the beautiful wolves and adequate fighting tricks, there really is nothing memorable about this film, either in picture or in sound.
The same goes for acting and staging. It’s adequate and not at all unusual. The only thing that stands out it is the Collin’s house- a glass structure filled with light and views of nature that surprises. Albeit, it seems most unsuitable dwelling for vampires who dislike sunlight.
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Billy Burke, Dakota Fanning, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Anna Kendrick
Director: David Slade
Screenwriter: Melissa Rosenberg
Based on the novel by: Stephenie Meyer
Producers: Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt
Executive producers: Marty Bowen, Greg Mooradian, Mark Morgan, Guy Oseary
Director of photography: Javier Aguirresarobe
Production designer: Paul Denham Austerberry
Music: Howard Shore
Visual effects supervisors: Nicholas Brooks, Kevin Tod Haug
Costume designer: Tish Monaghan
Editors: Art Jones, Nancy Richardson
Rated PG-13, 124 minutes
