What I say here doesn’t make a blind bit of difference. If you’re a fan of the Twilight series you’ll be at the cinema this weekend with ticket in clammy hand. If you’re not you will roll your eyes, make a quip about bloodless vampires and congratulate yourself on your superior tastes. Nothing I say could possibly change your mind. Having seen Eclipse, I can confidently say that this is not a film to change your mind either; the fans will be pleased and everyone else will be as disinterested as ever.
Still, Eclipse is definitely a huge improvement on New Moon thanks to an adaptation that plays like the highlights package of a book that passes the 600 page mark. This time there is a feeling of forward momentum as new director David Slade (30 Days of Night) switches between Bella, the Cullens, the wolfpack and the newborn army creating havoc in Seattle.
This cherry picking approach is clearly designed to appease the fans while trying not to lose the interest of any casual viewers that have been dragged into the cinema. To a certain extent, I think this works; there is certainly less time for Bella and Edward to engage in any heavy duty navel gazing and thanks to the addition of the newborns there is a little more in the way of murderous chaos going on (only a little mind you).
Although David Slade sticks slavishly to the look created in the first two films by Catherine Hardwicke and Chris Weitz, he does have a good eye for an arresting image and he brings a new dynamism to the (disappointingly brief) fight sequences.
Less successful is the decision to include the two "origins" sequences in which we flashback to see how Jasper and Rosalie Cullen became vampires. These will delight fans but will seem like needless detours to everyone else. But therein lies the rub! The fact of the matter is that Twilight is a hugely divisive pop cultural phenomenon- with its detractors almost as passionate as its devotees. The only duty the film series has is to please the fans and in this respect Eclipse has succeeded. Isn’t that enough?