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After what feels like 109 years of PR hype and more tabloid puns than you can shake a crucifix at, the third instalment of the Twilight Saga has opened in the US to a staggering $250 million box office takings in five days.
Having survived New Moon (or The Big Sulk of ’09 as some critics were calling it) audiences returned on the promise of humour, more kick ass vampire action and of-course more shirtless immortals running around.
The teenage tantrums have been thwarted and with the overused dramatic sentence breaks also expelled, Eclipse finally hits it’s stride at supernatural speed.
Eclipse delivers slick-paced action and some of the hottest “leg hitch” action we are likely to get in a 12A certificate movie.
The story so far has led down a sinister path of revenge for our love-sick teens.
Fiery redhead vamp Victoria is out to avenge her mate’s demise and is drumming a new-born vampire army to take down the Cullen clan.
The threat of Victoria and her blood-sucking super army means the “veggie” vamps must put their differences aside and team up with the wolf pack to save Bella.
The third chapter of the saga also delves into the history of the Vampire and Wolf pack taking its audience for a welcome trip outside of the Edward/Bella bubble.
New director David Slade, who has worked with vampires before in the edgier 30 Days of Night, has brought the Saga screaming out of its teenage years and into adulthood with sex, marriage and love.
Kristen Stewart has played the stumbling klutz Bella Swan from the get-go with mumbling, doe-eyed innocence and an undercurrent of insecurity, which teenage girls have been able to relate to in their most ‘painful’ years of angst.
But Eclipse sees a change for our young heroine, knowing the only way to be with Edward is to become a vampire herself, she toys with the idea of marriage (a condition set by the victorian vamp before he will make her an immortal) and discovers there are some things still left to do while she has a pulse.
Hormones are raging and getting the better of the virginal couple. Realising Bella’s feelings for shirt-hater Jacob are more than just friendly, Edward starts to lose some layers for some PG13 action (Would that be classed as necrophilia?).
Thanks to the mass market of underage teenagers and Stephanie Mayer’s Mormon beliefs – sexual abstinence is cool and saving yourself until your married is so hot right now.
As Edward points out the “divorce rates for the undead are extremely low” so there must be some truth in abstaining.
Twilight fanatics will love the flashbacks stories of the vampires and the wolves and will be impressed at Rosenberg’s script, which have always been impressively true to the books.
For any non-obsessive fans Eclipse is still enjoyable and as long as you are not easily distracted by some terrible wigs or adverse to seeing your girlfriend getting hot for 18-year-old Taylor Lautner, you should enjoy the dark side of the Saga.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will be showing at FACT from July, 9.