‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’
Director: David Slade
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner
Rating: PG-13
Grade: ?????
The third film in the “Twilight” series is the best to date, but that’s faint praise considering the previous installments. The cast’s development of their now-iconic characters as well as new director David Slade’s camera work make “Eclipse” a marked improvement, but the film is stunted by its source material.
The lesson here appears to be that practice sometimes makes mediocre, but it’s not really Slade’s fault. He does his best, adding actual action sequences with brutal beheadings — though no blood, since these vampires are PG-13.
There are bright spots, including some all-too-brief diversions into the backstories of a pair of Cullen vampires, Rosalie (Nikki Reed) and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone). Also worth noting: It’s becoming clear that Stewart has quietly been doing some impressive work as Bella. While some might write off her performance as half-asleep, she’s actually showing remarkable restraint with the dialogue’s overwrought romance-novel nature.
If only Taylor Lautner had such skill.
