With today’s release of the third “Twilight” movie, you have to say this about the soapy series: It’s sort of like the fur on Taylor Lautner’s hunky dog-boy character Jacob; it grows on you.
If you go
“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”
3 out of 5 stars
Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke
Director: David Slade
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and some sensuality.
Running time: 124 minutes
Twi-hards didn’t mind that the two previous installments, “Twilight” and “New Moon,” seemed so stiff and corny to many with no devotion to Stephenie Meyer’s unbelievably popular teenage fantasy novels. Still, even if you’re mystified by the intensity of this whole pop culture phenomenon and don’t get why girls (and their mothers) swoon over the gangly, dentally challenged Edward (Robert Pattinson), “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” is a marked improvement. To say it’s the best of the film adaptations isn’t much, given how slow and dour the predecessors were. But the continuing chronicles of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her supernatural suitors works better for at least four reasons: There’s more plot movement and thriller action contained in the third source book. A less earnest script by returning screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg contains sharper, more humorous dialogue. The franchise’s young stars are getting to be more expressive actors. And, most importantly, incoming director David Slade (“Hard Candy,” “30 Days of Night”) brings a more forceful energy and faster pace.
The well-worn Pacific Northwest love triangle continues. A human high school girl still feels caught between her two fellow graduating seniors — who just happen to be a vampire and a werewolf in an ancient tribal rivalry.
Edward gets the edge. She’s now committing to let her vampire turn her into one too. The audience yelps with delight when Bella’s immortal beloved presents her with a ring during a formal proposal, even as he refuses her pre-marital sexual advances. Awww, he’s so old-fashioned! The warm-blooded and perennially shirtless Jacob is not pleased when he gets wind of their engagement. He lands a major smooch on Bella — sans lupine incisors and paws — to remind her of what she’d be giving up.
Oh, yeah. And as this adolescent romance unfolds, that old vengeful vampire Victoria (now played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is harnessing an army of “newborn” vampires led by a new character Riley (Xavier Samuel). They’re out to kill Bella and target the Cullen coven, Edward’s vampire family. Only with the help of Jacob’s wolfpack will the Cullens have a chance to protect Bella.
Returning characters each get a scene or two to represent — Billy Burke as Bella’s protective dad, Dakota Fanning as a Volturi henchman plus Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Ashley Greene, and Nikki Reed as the Cullen clan.
Fans will be partial to an “Eclipse” that, for the rest of us, is not yet quite the total package.
