The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Directed by David Slade

REVIEWED BY MARGARET AGNEW

It's not your average teenage girl's dilemma.

Just before high school finishes, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) must decide between the love of an eternally teenage undead vampire and the love of a native American werewolf. A cynic might say she has to choose between necrophilia and bestiality, but despite my job, I am not that much of a cynic.

I know I am not that jaded and cynical because British director David Slade better known for more hard-edged fare such as Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night totally sucked me into his teenage vampire-werewolf-human love triangle.

This is, without a doubt, the best film so far in the Twilight series.

Eclipse opens with every-girl Bella and sparkly, square-jawed Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) canoodling in their flower-filled glade, discussing marriage and when to change Bella into a vampire, as you do.

When Edward promises to turn her into a vampire only if she marries him first, Bella accuses him of blackmailing her into marriage, which he is. In fact, throughout the film, Edward continually tries to control her movements, watches her sleep every night and even disables her truck so she can't visit her former best friend Jacob Black, aka Teen Wolf (Taylor Lautner).

No wonder both Bella's parents and Jacob worry about the intense relationship. No wonder there have been screeds of comments about Edward's controlling, domineering boyfriend dynamic in the blogosphere.

Bella is wary of marriage, having grown up with divorced parents, but Edward points out with a smile that the vampire-human divorce rate is somewhat lower.

Her dad Charlie (Billy Burke) wants Bella to cool the obsessive intensity with Edward and urges her to visit Jacob. Jacob has been hanging with his growing wolf pack and refusing to return Bella's calls since the events of ifNew Moonnfnte. He's still in love with her and violently objects to her plans to turn vamp.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, the vengeful Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) is raising an army of bloodthirsty ``newborn'' vampires to attack Edward's ``vegetarian'' Cullen coven. Yep, there's a vampire battle royale afoot ( or should that be ``a fang''?). Even the Volturi have sent a bunch of deputies to witness it, lead by the evil Jane (a suddenly grown-up Dakota Fanning).

It is a rare second sequel that doesn't suck, and an even rarer vampire movie that keeps blood-letting and sensuality to a minimum. And yet, here we have it. Surprisingly, this is the most satisfying Twilight movie yet.

The love triangle is explored in depth, with our loyalties often torn between the passionate, ever-nude Jacob and the broodingly ardent Edward, just as Bella is dithering.

Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg does a good job of condensing Stephenie Meyer's book, and has a nice sense of humour, too. ``Doesn't he own a shirt?'' Edward mutters, when Jacob turns up as usual, half-naked. Later, when Jacob is called upon to stop Bella from getting hypothermia with his body heat, he milks the experience, telling the marble-skinned Edward: ``Well, I am hotter than you.''

On the action front, there are bigger and better fight scenes. More werewolves and vampires are added to the mix, plus the werewolf CGI is more convincing.

Within the two-hour runtime, there are a few moments spent exploring the backstories of Rosalie and Jasper and how they became vampires, which is fun for fans of the books. Altogether, it's a more powerful, rich and entertaining film than its predecessors, even if you don't get to see more than a few glimpses of minor characters such as Bree Tanner.

This is, as always, Bella's story and we can almost feel her emotional torment as her two loves risk their lives to protect her. Interestingly, the film also makes you wonder whether she may be choosing the wrong guy.

While the uninitiated should see the first two Twilight movies first to make much sense of it, Eclipse is a surprisingly complex film that does a great job of upping the ante on an unholy trinity.

- © Fairfax NZ News