The Twilight movies have often been compared to the Harry Potter films in that they were a popular book series that went on to become a successful movie franchise. The differences are that the Harry Potter were loved by adults and children, men and women and the Twilight books were mostly known to be popular with teenaged girls. This held true for the movies too, the ratio of girls seeing a Twilight movie compared to the number of boys is usually drastically different. The Harry Potter movies would also get positive reviews from movie critics, while the Twilight movies would usually get panned by them.
The Twilight movies HAVE gotten better with each new entry; but, not by leaps and bounds. Just a little but better. Eclipse is the best of the movie franchise so far, just barely.
Kristen Stewart often finds herself in the crosshairs of critics for her performance in the Twilight movies. If anyone had seen the movies “The Runaways” or “The Yellow Handkerchief” they would know that Ms. Stewart does possess some solid acting abilities. The problem is with the character of Bella, who continues to be one of the weakest and dumbest characters to ever grace the silver screen.
Despite every warning she gets, including from her true love Edward, she still insists being made into a vampire. In this new movie she is given one great reason after another why this is the wrong decision, in many different forms, yet she ignores them all. Her mother tells her how she looks forward to the day she gives her grandchildren, Bella just politely smiles at her. One of the best warnings she gets is from Rosalie, part of the Cullen family. In New Moon when the family votes on whether Bella should become a vampire, Rosalie votes against it by saying, “I wouldn’t wish this on anybody”. In the new movies, she keeps telling Bella, “You are making the wrong decision. We all never had a choice, you do”. When she is told how newborns blood lust is insatiable and she is likely to kill those she loves, that don’t faze her either. Bella simply answers, “There is nothing you can say, and Edward is my life.”
One of the better moments in the films is learning the back story of some of the Cullen family and how they became vampires. Some new facts regarding The Wolf Pact are also revealed. These highlighted moments are too few. The one on one scene between characters are dull, with the exception of one very good one between Edward and Jacob. When the army of new vamps finally does fight the Cullen’s and the werewolves, you feel it could have been so much more, which is shocking considering the good job director David Slate did with another vampire movie, “30 Days of Night”. Slade does manage to get a few laughs here and there too.
There is no doubt that Eclipse will be a monster hit this summer. Some fans say it will be the #1 money makers of the summer season, but these are the same people who said New Moon would out gross James Cameron’s “Avatar”. The movie is rated PG-13 for violence and is sure to sweep at next year’s MTV Movie Awards.
