*400th post* Doesn't He Own A Shirt?

Hello I am the movie encyclopedia and if no one else will see it, I will.

Well that was a surprise? The Twilight Saga: Eclipse doesn't suck. It's still no award winner (despite what the MTV Movie Awards keep telling it) but believe it or not I actually enjoyed it. Not in an "OMFG guys greatest film ever!!" enjoyed like the people sitting next to me but a "Well this is gonna suck *two hours later* hmm..." kind of enjoyed. I could attribute it to a lot of things but I think the most obvious would be David Slade taking the helm. Usually I wait till the end to talk specs but I figure since he's such an integral part I might as well bring him up now.

David Slade, whose previous two films 30 Days of Night and Hard Candy, took over as director for this installment of the billion dollar franchise and boy is the series better for it. Slade is best at two things as a director: finding beauty in nature and close shots. Well Twilight's best quality is the Vancou...I mean Washington landscape and the camera has been relentless in the past two films with shoving the camera in the face of the characters so it's good that it's in the hands of a professional. The scenery is gorgeous in this film and every time you see a mountain in the background or he pulls out enough where you can see the landscape it's beautiful. And in the close shots he lessened the cheese factor and went more for either wit or intimate. But his contribution to this film was very necessary and it added a lot to the film.

The plot shouldn't really matter at this point. If you are going in to see Eclipse then there is a good chance that you have already read the books and know everything that's going to happen. But for those boyfriends/husbands/friends who get dragged into it kicking and screaming here is the jist:

Bella Swan, our heroine, is conflicted. She is in love with Edward, a 109-year-old vampire but she also has feelings for childhood friend and werewolf Jacob Black. Bella doesn't know who to choose and with graduation coming up in a month she's gotta figure out who she wants to be with. It also doesn't help that Edward and Jacob hate each other.

While all this is happening, a bunch of mysterious murders have been happening. The culprit? The red headed vampire vixen Victoria. She is pissed at Edward for killing her lover and so she plans on taking him down and getting her revenge. How so? Her and her army of new vampires are going to kill Bella so that he will know how she feels inside. When they hear this news, Edward and Jacob decide to team up to protect Bella.

The action scenes are actually pretty cool and the CGI looks much better than the first two. The acting is still abysmal though. I'm pretty sure that's never going to change. Kristin Stewart slurs a good number of her lines and Pattinson is still dull as ever. The always shirtless Lautner (why I picked the Edward quote) is actually pretty good in this movie and has a lot of charisma. It always sucks though that either Edward or Bella or both are on the screen as well. The support cast ranges from great to decent with some standouts from Bryce Dallas Howard and the brief spot from Anna Kendrick. It's not horrible overall.

Look if you love Twilight than what I say doesn't matter. You will see this movie and love the heck out of it. I can't stand Twilight but I still enjoyed it. Not an award winner and certainly not a great film but a step in the right direction for the series. Who knows...by the time the last film comes out it might be a three and a half/four star film...

MY VERDICT: RENT IT