Darker Days Ahead
Eclipse; Edgier, more substantial and slightly darker, the third installment of the Twilight saga is possibly the best one yet.

By ARIS ZARIL

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight franchise has always been a love-or-hate thing, and I continue to surprise myself to be among the few guys who actually do not mind catching them. What isn't there to like? After all, there are vampires, werewolves and Alice Cullen. Okay, perhaps more of the latter. In the third and latest installment, Eclipse, director David Slade (of 30 Days of Night fame) breathes new life into the franchise giving it the edginess and intensity sorely lacking before.

It's decision time for Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) as she has to choose between becoming a vampire by marrying Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) or admitting that she also loves shape-shifting best friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). While the three of them continue their love triangle, vengeful Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) creates a vampire army to wreck havoc and exert her revenge. 'Newborns', as they are called, are more dangerous than normal vampires who necessitate an uneasy alliance between the Cullen clan and the werewolf tribe.

The theme this time is clearly about decisions and their consequences. While Bella is determined to have Edward 'change' her into a sparkly vampire, the consequences of her decisions are in a way hinted by the Cullens, the wolf tribe and even her family and friends; what she could lose, and how things will change. Funnily even the Volturi's Jane (Dakota Fanning) has a line, "decisions, decisions..."

The actors must be growing into their roles as the acting feels improved in this installment. The addition of long overdue back stories for some characters, namely Rosalie (Nikki Reed) and Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone) and some history from the wolf tribe gives much-needed depth for the supporting characters. Jasper in particular gets more screen-time this round and a couple of sweet moments with Alice (Ashley Greene), who herself kicks some serious butt. While the whole 'love triangle' saga might be the core of the series, the constant repeating of "Face it, I'm better for her than you" and "You don't know that" can get on your nerves after a while. There were still however, a number of hilarious moments where the two hotties tried outdoing each other to get the girl.

David Slade's experience with blood-suckers seemed to have worked wonders for the movie. The result is an edgier, darker feel as vampire attacks are no longer restricted to out-of-focus and blurry shots. Here we see people getting attacked and ripped, yet there isn't as much blood as there should be (perhaps not to alienate the series' core audience). The vampires also seem cooler, CGI wolves are more realistic and the climatic battle between the Cullen-wolf alliance and the vampire army is (dare I say it) pretty awesome. Wish they made it longer though.

While it isn't by any means a breakthrough movie, Eclipse might possibly be the most accessible installment to non-fans of the series. However attracting skeptics to watch the movie remains the franchise's biggest obstacle. If the makers are able to keep improving in this direction, we should be in for an action-packed two-part finale (hopefully in 3D). Bring on Breaking Dawn!

3 1/2 Stars

Visit www.malaysiantoday.com.my to view an online gallery of the Twilight Saga Movie Marathon held recently by Nusantara Edaran Filem.