I'm sorry in advance...this one got kind of long. *blushes*
As a Twilight fan, I was looking forward to this movie a great deal. I read the books in 6 days after I saw the first film, and I was totally blown away. It was safe to say that I was firmly Team Edward (I got breathless when Bella got breathless, and I'll admit there was some small and ignored part of me that was head over heels for him when I first read the books). But when I went to watch the film again after reading the books, I found that Robert's Edward was much moodier and angrier than the Edward I had seen in the books, and I didn't like him as much. I still haven't decided if I read a happy Edward because that's what I want to see or if the books really are less depressing than Rob's portrayal of Edward. At any rate, it took me a while to reconcile the two.
I immediately jumped headfirst into internet fandom, and discovered that I could check a Twilight website, http://www.lionandlamblove.org/, daily along with my Harry Potter website, http://www.mugglenet.com/ (and you can bet I'm excited for that movie to come out too!). And so it became a habit. I'd been checking Mugglenet daily for years; now I check them both once every day or two. When there's a lot going on, or when I'm particularly in the mood, I will check them both daily and watch and read almost every post. When I get out of it for a few days, as I did before Eclipse came out, I found it almost impossible to catch up. At one point I had about 15 tabs open of stories I wanted to read (mostly interviews I wanted to watch) at some time or other. It took me a week or two to finally catch up, but I made it.
I bring this up because that greatly affects my experience in watching the movies. I started watching interviews when the biggest thing out there was the 2008 Comic Con panel. Now there are probably 4 billion interviews with each Twilight actor and it's a little bit more daunting. I like checking them every few days so I can keep up with what's going on and not miss something important. For example, I take a deep interest in who writes the score for the movies. When it was announced that Alexandre Desplat was scoring the next Harry Potter, for example, I was disappointed because I didn't much care for his New Moon score. However, my biggest problem with the New Moon score is that it feels too magical, so he may be perfect for Harry Potter. But if I didn't check the website daily, that tidbit would pass me by. It's the same with Twilight. So when I heard Howard Shore was scoring Eclipse, I was thrilled. His Lord of the Rings scores are some of my all-time favorites, and he didn't disappoint. Listening to the Eclipse score (when it finally came out the day of the movie!) gave me a lot of deja vu as I heard traces of the LotR score in there, but as he's such an excellent composer, you forgive him the similarities in sound. I got Desplat's score for New Moon and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button within a couple weeks of each other and I can no longer distinguish between them. When I hear a song on my shuffle that is clearly by Desplat, I try to guess which soundtrack I think it's from and half the time I'm wrong. (which in my opinion shows that the New Moon score was inappropriate, as it was nothing like Benjamin Button, which was delightfully magical in its own way)
But I digress. It is perhaps a little known fact that I am obsessed with movie soundtracks. My Zune playlist is probably 75% movie soundtracks because I just love them. I love hearing a song and being able to watch a movie or a scene in my head. No other type of music can so clearly evoke an image and an emotion just by listening to it. As such, a good score can make or break a movie for me.
Still, I digress. I have a lot of movies to get through tonight so I can't afford to spend it all in a lengthy discussion of movie soundtracks (as much as I'd love to!).
The whole point of all of this is that I did not enter Eclipse as an innocent bystander. Far from it. I was armed with nearly every interview the cast has ever given, plus articles, pictures, ads, and all sorts of things the average moviegoer would not have seen prior to watching the movie. I admit most of the people who went to see it at midnight like me probably had read the books, but even that is not a given.
A moment to return to the books vs movies discussion: I barely remembered Eclipse before I saw the movie. To be frank, I've never actually made it through all four Twilight books a second time. I read all 4 in 6 days the first time. Then I tried to reread them and only got part of the way through New Moon before I put them down. (my husband came home 3 weeks after I read them, what can I say?). A few months later I tried again, and again stopped partway through New Moon. Then last fall I tried again, and I very nearly made it! I finally made it through New Moon and Eclipse another time, but I only got a few chapters into Breaking Dawn before my attention involuntarily shifted again. I used to be better at rereads than I am now, but I can't seem to sit down and reread anything anymore. It makes me sad. Anyway, I tried yet again this summer. I got 3/4 of the way through Twilight before I gave up. James showed up and it was no longer about Bella and Edward. How boring, right? lol I happened to watch Twilight and then New Moon in preparation for the release of Eclipse around that time, so I had the brilliant idea to simply skip ahead to Eclipse and see if I could finish from there. Well, I got one chapter in before I yet again gave up, so that's where I was when the movie came out.
As such, I remembered very little from Eclipse. Even after I first read it, all I remembered was that there was some huge epic battle, and Bella betrayed Edward for Jacob. I couldn't STAND Jacob when I first read the books. He was a huge, ugly, brutish bully that always acted like an asshole around her. Edward was the dream standard of a man, always patient and loving and kind and gorgeous, whereas Jacob was just a jerk. That's probably why I didn't remember much from Eclipse. I was so pissed that Bella kept thinking about Jacob when I wished she would just forget about him and move on with Edward. I have more appreciation for her plight now after watching New Moon. I went into New Moon convinced that I would hate Jacob. Then Taylor Lautner in all of his muscley hunkiness walked on screen and didn't look intimidating or mean at all and I kind of saw where the Team Jacob fans were coming from... I was sort of in between the two. Funny how all it took was a new interpretation of Jacob for me to see that.
But it also relates to how Rob plays Edward. In the book, it is a clear win of Edward over Jacob. Edward is endlessly patient and loving and mature and for god's sake he's so gorgeous it's hard to breathe around him. Jacob is young and reckless and can be mean-spirited when in a bad mood. At least, that's how I saw them. Perhaps it was my bias skewing my reading? lol Or perhaps I'm right. Hard to say--I'm always trapped in my own brain. But Rob plays Edward with such brooding intensity. He hardly ever laughs, and he delivers all his lines with deep anguish and a furrowed brow. I'd say one of my favorite scenes from Twilight the movie was when Edward spiritedly dropped out of the sky to jump on Bella's truck, and he skips down in a very giggly mood and is utterly playful with no hint of brooding. That scene makes me so happy every time, because that's how Edward should be. There are unfortunately none of those scenes in New Moon. I read soon after watching New Moon that Rob saw how stiff he was in that movie and tried to lighten up for Eclipse. That gave me a lot of hope, because I was tired of watching him ruin everything I loved about the character. I mean, he fits in some ways, but he sees Edward differently. To him, he's had 90 years to be lonely and hate himself. Then suddenly Bella comes in and he doesn't know how to feel. I actually watched him say after Twilight that he believes that Edward is actually anguished that Bella makes him happy, because he's upset about how to be happy. I was like WTF NO! That explains a lot. He's not just a bad actor. He's just a bad judge of character. All of his brooding is entirely on purpose and portrays the character as he sees him. To the rest of us, he just looks grumpy all the time for no particular reason. Why's he upset about being happy, again? I respected his acting a bit more when I understood where he was coming from, but that doesn't change the fact that I believe Edward is a fundamentally different character from the actor who plays him. It leads to differences in our expectations, and as such, I am frequently disappointed in Rob's performance when I watch him play Edward.
Because I've had so much trouble rereading the series and maintaining my own characters independent of the actors (when you watch 2 interviews a day and have read the whole series once, it's hard to keep them separated), Edward in my head is now some approximation of the joy of the book and the brooding of the movie. It's the same with Jacob and Bella. I saw Bella as completely helpless and reliant on Edward, and Kristen's perception of the character is one of strength and courage. Perhaps because I am so helpless and reliant on my husband (or at least I was before this monster of an underway!), I see her differently. So now Bella is somewhere between my vision and Kristen's.
For Jacob, I'm not so sure Taylor and I have different interpretations but just that he doesn't really fit the role. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like him as Jacob most of the time, but if you're following a strict reading of the novels, he's nothing like Jacob. Jacob was supposed to grow about a foot and a half between Twilight and Eclipse...and Taylor's leveled off at about what, 5'7 or so? Don't quote me on that, by the way--I may know a lot about them but I'm just making that up. He's a whole hell of a lot shorter than Rob, but I don't want to sell him too short by saying he's 5'4, so 5'7 seems like a nice compromise. At any rate, he's supposed to be 6'7, so he's just not physically the right body type to play the character. Losing that foot of height makes a huge difference. He no longer towers over Bella, looking indestructible. Instead, he stands at almost exactly her height (they're literally like the same height in real life) and is just extra muscly. Taylor did a fantastic job of bulking up for the role, but he did only what he could control. He can't control how big he is, only how much muscle he adds to his frame. So he looks a lot smaller. And his voice is softer and more velvety than the husky roughness described in the novel, so Taylor presents an entirely softer, sweeter, more loveable Jacob than the book. I mean, even when he's yelling and trying to look tough and angry, he just looks adorable. Like the alpaca. :-D
ANYWAY. I still haven't even gotten to the movie. See, this is why it's so hard for me to sit down and do this in a quick sitting...
I came out of New Moon crying that it was definitely better than Twilight! So much better acted! So much better directed! My oh my how wonderful! Then a week went by and I went to see it again, and I realized that it was exactly like Twilight. Same poor line delivery, same brooding faces. Only with a bad score. And I didn't really like the Volturi (I'm sorry, Dakota Fanning is no evil vampire). And it was just...not that great. I listened to the score for days on end, and realized that while I liked the score itself, I hated it in the movie. What I had at first taken to be wonderful sweeping themes, were really just inappropriately scored and overly magical orchestrations thrown up behind what could have been a much better movie with the right music. Twilight's score by Carter Burwell was edgy and therefore firmly grounded in reality. I personally think that's what draws people to Twilight--the idea that in a normal life, vampires and werewolves are running all over the place and you would never know. So when strings and harps started floating around behind Bella's desolation scene, I was like Huh?? Listening to the score didn't make me think of Twilight at all. It was just pretty to listen to. I realized it most when a Twilight song came on after I'd been listening to New Moon for so long and all of a sudden I was there, transported back. I was watching the first film, I was obsessed with Edward, I was in love with the whole series... and then a New Moon song came on and it was just there. That's when I knew it wasn't right. And ever since that moment, I've disliked New Moon as a part of the series.
You think I've given enough backstory yet? lol
Long story short, I went into Eclipse with mixed expectations. I loved the books as a whole, but my enjoyment seemed to be waning exponentially the more time passed from that initial reading, thanks largely in part to watching the movies. Plus I couldn't remember much from the specific Eclipse plotline to make me particularly excited about this film. What I loved about the books was how much I saw myself in Bella and my husband in Edward. Okay so maybe he's not quite as perfect as Edward (no man is--Edward is clearly a character written by a woman for a woman), but it's uncanny how similar we are to their relationship. So of course their love story is the focus for me, all throughout the books. Despite the distractions of him leaving, of Jacob trying to make his moves, of various vampires trying to kill Bella, through everything--the only important thing is Bella and Edward being in love.
But I find that when I'm looking towards one of the movies, I dread those intimate scenes that I love so much in the book. Rob's just going to be brooding, and frowning when he tells Bella he loves her, and it's just going to be stupid. So when I started seeing previews and interviews about the fighting scenes in Eclipse, I was thrilled! At least if the acting sucked, the plot was mostly action anyway! We were saved! lol With David Slade in the director's chair and Howard Shore conducting the orchestra, we were sure to have a winner.
I was not mistaken. I have only seen it once, the night it opened. I'll admit I don't remember much. I figured I'd go see it again, but as my only plan was a vague idea that I would see it with my husband when he came home, I never did make it back. (I figure I'll be going sometime in the near future :)!!) So this will be a bit vague, I apologize.
I walked out with the impression that it might, in fact, be the best movie of the three. But I cannot say that with any certainty because it wasn't until my second viewing of New Moon that I realized just how much I disliked about it. So I reserve judgment on that. No silly fangirl squees from me about how it's the best movie ever. It's probably not. And I'm okay with that.
HOWEVER. It was amazing!! Rob was soooo much better. He was smiley and cheerful and actually acted a bit. I saw several interviews afterward where he said that he felt like the farther along we go, the more Edward goes from being this distant 100yo vampire to being a 17yo. And the closer he gets to being a normal 17yo, the more emotion Rob had to play with. Because that makes sense?? Whatever. The point that should be taken from such an exchange is that Rob should get better with every movie, because he'll inexplicably feel like he can actually show Edward's emotion more with each film. Finally! So Eclipse is much easier to watch thanks to Rob's newfound freedom to actually express himself on screen. Yay.
I found that Eclipse confirmed my thoughts on Jacob. I hated him, hated him when I first read Eclipse. I couldn't stand that he was even in the story, and then when Bella kissed him! (oh hush, I know you know the plot by now) I was sooooo mad. I just couldn't believe she'd done that, that she had betrayed Edward by doing that. Stepping back and viewing it in light of the movie makes it easier for me to understand, because when I'm not completely obsessed with Edward (Rob makes it surprisingly easy to be detached lol), I can see that she's really only doing it get Jacob to stay and not fight. So fine, whatever, I get that, but I still hated that part. But like I said, Taylor's Jacob is much easier for me to relate to, and the more I think about it, the more I think I should probably be Team Jacob. Not because of Taylor's abs, thank you very much, but because Jacob also represents my husband. Edward represents the amazing pedastal I put him on, but Jacob represents his personality. At least, how it's described and not how it's shown. He's supposed to be always happy, the warm one that always brings a smile to her face. That's my honey! So why do I prefer Edward's grumpy brooding to Jacob's jocular warmth? Probably because I like to see a man show his emotions, at least in theory. As I like Taylor's Jacob more than I like the Jacob in the book and I like Rob's Edward less than I like Edward in the book, they're more or less equal when the movie's over. I think it's strange that I went from thinking about Edward in casual thoughts ("ooh, it's cloudy, I'm glad, now Edward can go to school!") to being neither Team Edward or Team Jacob after watching the movies.
But my goodness this is not a review of the series! Move on to specifics!!
David Slade was AWESOME!! I loved his use of close-ups, coupled with wide shots. And he shot the action sequences so well, like a dance but still showing the grit of the moment. He was perfect for this film. 2 huge thumbs up for him!!
As I said, I enjoyed Howard Shore's score. The thing that surprised me the most was that I walked out not having noticed it at all. It's such a quiet, unobtrusive score compared to the last two. Both of them had at least one moment when a big orchestral theme took center stage in an almost theatrical way, to the point that you noticed it as its own entity in the film (Bella's Theme in Twilight and all the parts where the New Moon theme played in New Moon, or the weird magical part during Bella's desolation scene, or just...etc lol). I had been listening to the soundtrack for a couple of weeks before I watched the movie, and I bought the score album a few hours before the movie came out. I listened to a few peeps and was surprised to hear that it was mostly piano and soft strings. A change from previous movies. There are a few tracks that contain the beautiful Jacob's Theme, but it's not by any means a running theme in the film. Other than that, there isn't really a running theme. And even having listened to it for 2 weeks, I didn't come out with any sense of a main theme. I suppose that is the purpose of a good score--to support the plot and action in an unobtrusive way, so that you leave thinking about the movie and not the music. I'll have to watch it again to see how I feel about it, but I believe it was a good addition to the saga. At least Howard Shore listened to the previous scores--Alexandre Desplat admitted to not even watching or listening to the Twilight score before he wrote for New Moon because he wanted it to be original. No wonder it sucked so much!
I also felt the actors did a better job overall in this one. I was quite swept up in things rather than getting bogged down in thinking about how they were acting a scene, which is certainly an improvement over New Moon.
I also liked the vampire contacts this time. They had this wonderful glow to them that really made them pop. And while we're talking about vampire effects!! The shattering effect was AMAZING!!!!!! It wasn't in any of the previews, and for good reason! I was so thrilled when I saw that! I'm finally about 2/3 of the way through Eclipse now (as of the last couple of days, so there's hardly any hope for me finishing it), so I don't remember how it's described in the book. I don't even care. It was amazing! If you go for one reason at all, go to see the way vampires get crushed and torn into pieces! I'm totally in love with that effect!
I just remembered that, as you can tell... I'd forgotten just how great that was.
Also, I was unsure how Bryce Dallas Howard would be as Victoria, but she was great. She has the perfect beauty to play a vampire. I think she's more appropriate for the role than Rachelle Lefevre was, if just by looks. And Rachelle played her so wild, which was a little weird (though I'm sure a lot of that was Catherine Hardwick too). Bryce was perfect. So dainty and yet so feral. Very good. Xavier Samuel as Riley also had an excellent face to pull off a vampire. They were great.
Which reminds me, did I mention how much action there was in this one? It was great. It starts off with this very gritty scene with Riley, which sets the tone in an excellent way. Just excellent in every way. *nods slowly as the memories come back*
A comment about the entrance of Jacob: lol. It makes me really happy when I can see how a scene has been contrived to please its audience. I noticed the same thing with Edward's entrance in New Moon (and Twilight was pretty obvious too). In Eclipse, Jacob's first scene is with him leaning up against his bike looking like a total badass. Well, as much of a badass as Taylor can. :P The badass rock song swells up as the camera pans up his attitude-filled stance, and you can just tell the scene's been engineered to please its audience. The titters that skittered across the audience were proof of that. Edward had a similarly "badass" entrance in New Moon, although his was less geared toward being a genuine badass and more toward just making a big entrance. It amused me, but in a good way. I like it when they're comfortable with being that obvious about it.
So I've remembered a lot more as I've sat here and thought about it. I'd say it's clear that there were a lot of things I liked about the movie. I came out of it extremely happy but trying to be reasonable, so I can't say what my conclusion would be after a few more showings. I know this is the worst thing ever to put on a review, but I'm going to have to reserve judgment until I see it again. As I think I've made clear, there are a lot of things tangled up in this. Book expectations, expectations from the two previous films, knowledge of the cast and crew... because it's been almost 3 weeks since I saw it and I've seen 3 movies since then, it's hard for me to keep the movie itself separate from all of that. Let's just say, I really enjoyed it at the time. I came out thinking it was probably the best of the 3 but I was going to reserve judgment until I was off the high of seeing such an enjoyable film. Because I enjoyed it so much, and because I plan to shell out another $8 or $9 to go see it again (not to mention popcorn! hehe), it's obviously worth a high recommendation. So I'll give it my full blessing, 5 wereponies!
RATING (out of 5 rainbows and ponies): 5 wereponies!
CONCLUSION: very happy ending
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