I was especially excited to see the third film installment in The Twilight Saga, Eclipse, since it was my favorite book in the series.
Eclipse expands on and continues the love triangle with Edward Cullen, the vampire, and Jacob Black, the werewolf, fighting over the human, Bella Swan. Edward, although conflicted with his desire for Bella to lead a normal life, is trying to make her agree to marry him, though Bella is afraid of early marriage from seeing her own parents’ marriage fail. Meanwhile, Jacob attempts to show Bella that she loves him and would be better off leaving Edward.
During Bella’s struggle to realize what she really wants, the revenge seeking vampire, Victoria, is stirring up trouble in Seattle that will soon cause both the enemy vampires and werewolves to work together to save Bella, and the rest of their hometown of Forks.
Eclipse was thrilling right off the bat when we see a young man leaving a restaurant and being attacked by a vampire. I thought the movie did a good job of incorporating those parts of the story that occurred away from Bella’s perspective, including that one. The film had a lot more action than in New Moon, and the fighting between the werewolves and vampires was exciting and the CGI was well done.
Unfortunately for many Twilight lovers, Eclipse is such a long book that many parts of the story had to be brushed through and some scarcely touched on. I was relieved to hear that the fourth, even longer book in the saga, Breaking Dawn, would be split into two parts.
One of the parts from Eclipse that I was most disappointed to find missing was Jacob’s line near the end, revealing why the movie is called “Eclipse.” Also, Edward literally having Bella kidnapped to keep her from Jacob, which I think is a major argument for those who are “Team Jacob,” never happened either. On the other hand, I was glad that vampires Rosalie and Jasper’s interesting backstories were included.
Like in the other two films, the acting was not superb, but fun. Something that I didn’t find at the novel at all was that Bella stated in the movie that she wanted to be a vampire for reasons not related to Edward. It was also fairly easy to tell that the snowy mountain background was green screened, which really distracted me.
One of the best things about Eclipse, and why it’s my favorite part of the series, is the hilarious tension between characters, mostly between Edward and Jacob as they fight for Bella’s love, such as when Edward bluntly asks Jacob if he owns a shirt. The scenes when all three of them were camping out on the mountain together in one tent, some of my favorite in book, were extremely entertaining, and caused the theater to erupted with laughter. I also loved when we were shown more of Jacob’s tribal history.
If you like the Twilight Saga or enjoyed the first two films, you are certain to love Eclipse as well.
Aran Kirschenmann, 14, is a contributing writer for the Bellevue Reporter and a freshman at The International School in Bellevue.
