twilight saga: Eclipse – Review

Review by Philly

Hot-blooded werewolves vs. cold-blooded vampires

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – the third installment in the supernatural sexual-abstinence series that pits hot-blooded werewolves against cold-blooded vampires, with mopey-blooded Bella Swan in between – begins with a poem.

It’s Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice,” and Bella (Kristen Stewart) recites it, splayed in a field of violets alongside her pallid beau, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). “Some say the world will end in fire,” she says, “some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire . . . .”

And that’s as good (very good) as the writing gets in Eclipse , easily the least compelling, least fun entry in the saga thus far. It’s not long before Bella is declaiming, “Wow, that’s really pretty!” when Jacob (Taylor Lautner), the wolf boy with abs of steel, hands her a token of his love. Or later, breaking up one of the frequent spats between her dueling suitors, Bella leans in to push Edward and Jacob apart and says, “Stop! I’m tired of this. From now on, I’m Switzerland.”

As in neutral territory? Or as in neutral delivery? The Twilight star’s line-readings have become like Edward and his bloodsucking kin: They lack a pulse.

Review by Cleveland

Bella Swan, you two-timing Tessie! Must every great love story take the shape of a triangle? Couldn’t we get a rectangle or a trapezoid?

Bella loves Edward, but she loves Jacob, too, just not as much as she loves Edward. But Edward knows that, and Jacob knows that, and Bella knows they know. Egads. It’s like Ross and Rachel eternally rebooting their relationship on “Friends.” Can you really make a movie out of this frustrating baseline premise?

No. You can make three.

“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” explodes into America’s theaters today. The third screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s phenomenally successful supernatural series arrives only seven months after No. 2. It picks up with the pending high school graduation of Bella (Kristen Stewart), who must weigh Edward’s marriage proposal against Jacob’s confessions of love and devotion. She is also the target of a hungry group of vampire “newborns,” and once again plays a dangerous pawn in the great vampires vs. werewolves showdown.

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Review by The Globe And Mail

Anyone who has followed the Twilight series knows that heroine Bella Swan is a young woman caught in an awful erotic dilemma: She wants to sleep with her dreamboat vampire lover, Edward, but if he gets too turned-on, he just might sink his teeth in her and vampirize her by accident.

Pedestrian types might think of practical solutions for her problem (a Hannibal Lecter-style no-biting mask? Condoms for fangs?) but that would miss the point. Devotees of Stephenie Meyer’s immensely popular Twilight books and the previous two hit movies understand that Bella and Edward’s dilemma is spiritual, not a prurient practical problem. Their story is about a quest for human love that transcends death.

A secondary concern, raised by Edward’s athletic romantic rival, raises another eternal question: Beauty or Hotness?

The faithful will be relieved to know that The Twilight Saga: Eclipse introduces no vulgar innovations to the story, or for that matter, respite from Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattison) putting their retinas at risk with the intensity of their yearning gazes.

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