THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE
(Blu-ray)

Release date: December 6th 2010
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 121 minutes

Director: David Slade

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Elizabeth Reaser, Peter Facinelli

Based on the third novel from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, Eclipse continues the love story between Edward (Robert Pattinson), a vampire who has been 17 for a while and Bella (Kristen Stewart) a soon-to-be high school graduate who is accident prone and has a tendency to fall into his arms.

The movie picks up with Bella contemplating Edward’s proposal. Although reluctant and worried about what marriage will mean for her, she is more interested in Edward turning her into a vampire than walking up the aisle so they agree to a comprise; no vamping before marriage (Edward is a bit old fashioned like that).

But before Edward’s psychic vampire “sister” Alice (Ashley Greene) can get to work planning the big day, there’s news of a series of brutal attacks in the local area and it looks as if a vampire has been staking out Bella’s home. Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) is back and has vengeance on her mind, determined to pay Edward back for killing her mate James (Cam Gigandet) in the first movie. The red haired vamp hasn’t come alone; she’s sired an entire coven to help her carry out her plan.

There’s also the Volturi to deal with. They arrive in Forks, lead by Jane (Dakota Fanning) and lay down their ultimatum that if Bella is not turned soon, they will take matters into their own cold hands.

Meanwhile, werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) continues to make himself a nuisance and professes his love for Bella with a kiss. When Bella kisses him back she realises she loves him too, but Edward more.

The running theme in the movie, as well as the novel is the idea of choices. Bella is faced with them again and again and each time has to decide what is best for her; life as vampire or life as a human, being with Edward or Jacob, getting married or not getting married and ultimately choosing what to do to end the ongoing battle with Victoria.

Eclipse is a word-heavy movie which is longer than it needs to be. Much of the dialogue from the book repeated here and often its feels as if scenes are in the movie because they are in the book rather than time being carefully taken to craft a screenplay which would do the story justice while at the same creating a thrilling movie. Still, it’s an improvement on New Moon but nowhere near as good as the first movie. With Breaking Dawn now in production as a two-part finale (ala Deathly Hallows), fans can only hope that the old saying is true…it’s always darkest before dawn!