Review Time: I'm in the middle about the Eclipse movie

[December]

Didn't love it, didn't hate it -- or maybe loved some parts and hated others. This is a thread where you can meet up with fellow fans who were in the middle about the movie and add your middling-enthusiastic review.

Please remember that this is a review thread, not a discussion thread. If you have a different view about the movie, there's a suitable thread for you to post your own review on. Please respect others' opinions.

[Amanda Beth]

I can't believe I'm posting here but... man I'm SO in the middle.

I think my hopes were just WAY too high. I felt like the entire plot was SO rushed, that you lost a LOT of the relationships that were changed and formed. Beyond Edward stopping Bella by disabling her truck, you don't see the desperation he has to keep her away from Jake. She jumps on the bike with him in front of Edward! The ENTIRE kidnapping ordeal is missing, and I think that is an extremely important part of Bella and Edward's relationship! She finally puts her foot down by sneaking off to see Jake, and proves to Edward that he can't decide her entire life. It also shows her and Jake conspiring against Edward, giving them a bit more of a closeness.

Also, Bella's entire relationship with Alice is missing. Their scenes from the kidnapping are missing (and therefore the Porsche), Bella wanting to get married in Vegas but Alice begging her to plan it is missing. Alice is supposed to be Bella's best friend and that never comes to fruition.

And I know there were rumors that Rob and David Slade didn't see eye to eye on Rob's acting methods--and I think I see that kind of coming through. I didn't like Rob in Eclipse! He seemed forced and uncomfortable in the emotions he was expressing. I think David should have just let him be.

Again, I think my hopes were just too high on it. I loved it because it did stay true to the story, and being able to see outside of Bella's POV(Volturi, Riley, Victoria) was awesome...but I'm disappointed for the reasons I've listed above.

Hope I'm not alone.

[n0vaice]

Same here, and I don't know if its me or the movie...
I wasn't thrilled about the movie, before and after watching it.

So many stuff to comment about...

[MiVidaLoca]

Strictly comparing it to the other movies, I thought it was good. Comparing it to the book, I was really disappointed. For once I saw that extreme favoritism towards Jacob, they make Edward look like a jerk and a push over. I only felt real emotions coming out of Jacob of the 3. The messed up all my favorite scenes if they included them at all. I hate that they can never have bella be Girly, when she met the Cullens she was in jeans and a shirt instead of the skirt and blue blouse. At the graduation party she should have been in a nice skirt outfit Alice got her but of course she is in jeans and a button up shirt at the party. Watch at her wedding she is going to wear white jeans and a white button shirt with black skater shoes.
Why there was even a book on Bree I don't know since we saw like 1 and a half minutes of her and nothing like in the book. Both books. I could go on but I am tired. Plus I am going to Forks tomorrow and staying at La Push and I need to get ready. I will end up seeing the movie again a few times I am sure.

It was my favorite book so I am sure I am being anal, but I really was let down. Like I said, comparing it to only the movies, had I not read the books, I would have really enjoyed it. But since I have read the books I was pretty let down.

[MiVidaLoca]

I posted in the didn't like thread but I guess my post would have been more suited here. I liked the movie in comparison to the other movies but in comparison to the other books I was really disappointed.

[vegasirish]

I'm definitely middle of the road on Eclipse; I'm so strongly middle of the road I had to register for the forums just so I could get this off my chest. I liked Eclipse, and yet it is my least favorite of the three movies. So much was in there and so many individual things worked, and yet as a whole it left me feeling not as emotionally attached as I was to Twilight and New Moon. I saw the entire trilogy last night and Eclipse was the only one that didn't grip me. It is really weird; the acting is better all around (Taylor and Jackson gave wonderful performances, and Rob was perfect in the tent and proposal scenes), the important scenes were in there, flashbacks were good, lots of humor (the birds and the bees talk is classic), wonderful action sequences, the stunning opening sequence with Riley's transformation, some wigs were fine and others weren't (I really wish they would put Jasper's hair back to what it was in Twilight), costuming for Alice was better than New Moon and David Slade had a wonderful color palette (no blue filter like Twilight). Overall, it was a very solid film - and yet I left feeling a little empty.

My biggest problem with it is the fact that no explanation was ever truly finished. Everything was rushed and choppy. The importance of imprinting is brought up, but it isn't completed and emphasized because they just grazed over the Sam, Emily, Leah triangle. The fact that Jacob is an Alpha and should have been in charge is brought up, but the speech is so chopped up and garbled it is incoherent - no mention is made of the importance of lineage and why Bella would be calling him "Chief Jacob." Rosalie's back story is shown, but her devastation over not being able to ever have children is glossed over. Even Jasper and Alice are slighted, when no explanation is given as to WHY Jasper left Maria; the way it was scripted it was like he was still with Maria when he happened to meet Alice and went off with her! And lastly, with no flashback during Bella and Jacob's kiss and then NO discussion of it at his bedside (we didn't even need to see it, if she had just been allowed to talk with Jake about it) it felt like she never even saw him as a viable option - when in the book, she is torn up by the fact that she can see what a wonderful life they would have had and yet she still chooses Edward. The script totally dissed that valid option. The menace of Victoria just wasn't there; BDH was serviceable. And when her head was ripped off and she was laying on the ground, the people in my theater laughed. No nose/fist bump between Seth and Edward meant no chance for regular movie-goers to see that a bond developed between them. And so, I left feeling a little disconnected from it all. It's good, but I won't be seeing it 5 times over this extended weekend like I did New Moon (on a non-holiday weekend).

It has been brought up on several threads that Melissa Rosenberg seems to favor the character of Jacob over Edward, but I have a slightly different take on that. I really feel the problem is more subtle - I think she doesn't like Edward. And Eclipse cemented that for me. She actually seems to write Jacob just the way I picture him in the books, and Taylor brings him to life perfectly. Taylor, quite frankly, completely nails his portrayal of Jacob and he is given the script to do it with. He was jealous, petty, angry, desperate and so wonderfully in pain at the end of this movie. But Rob is given NOTHING to work with. This movie was a little better for him - as I mentioned, he nailed the tent scene and the proposal - but has anyone else noticed how whenever MR wants to add some action or shake things up, she takes Edward down! Felix got to beat him up in New Moon, Riley and Victoria actually have him in their grasp in this one, and even during fight training they put him with Carlisle - who beats him. Edward is one of the strongest Cullen fighters because of his mind-reading and yet MR has him losing fights right and left. She has Bella riding off on a motorcycle with a werewolf right in front of Edward, apparently in some feminist bid for freedom (or a snit - who knows?), hurting Edward in a way our Bella from the books wouldn't. It really feels to me like MR has no respect for the character of Edward and has it in for him.

Any way, that is my (long) take on this movie and my Rosenberg rant. I know the above mostly seems negative, but I'll emphasize again that I did like Eclipse - I just didn't like it as well as the first two movies (even with the problems they had). Individually things were good, but the way they were put together left me a bit disappointed.

[xx-topaz]

I am extremely on the fence with Eclipse. I just walked out of the movie, and I don't know how to feel about it. I agree with Amanda Beth, the relationships were rushed. Edward's distrust in the wolves is almost completely gone, he lets Bella hop on he bike with Jacob!! Would that ever happen in the books ? NO !!!

I also found that Bella was extremely angry towards Edward sometimes. It didn't seem in character for me. When Bella leaves with Jacob on the bike, when Edward let's Jacob know about the marriage, Bella was angry towards Edward. I didn't like it.

It also annoyed me that the compromise about marriage and Edward changing Bella happened right away, that doesn't happen until midway through the book.

Overall, it was an okay movie. Definitely best out of the three, but that doesn't change the way I felt about the adaptation from the book. There were some parts that I absolutely loved: The Charlie sex talk, Alice and Jasper training scene, the chase scene when the Cullen's and wolves are chasing Victoria, the proposal, the make out session BEFORE the proposal, the tent scene.

But it didn't flow well for me, and there was no emotional attachment to the movie, which I did feel towards Twilight and New Moon, even though they weren't as well made.

Hopefully my opinion changes when I see it a second time, but who knows.

[gamb1t]

Is it just me, or does Melissa just not like the character of Alice. Out of all the other Cullens other than Edward, she had the biggest part in the books. Yet, she hardly had any screen-time in this movie. I know they have to cut certain stuff out of books for adaptations, but if they are going to give backgrounds on other characters, shouldn't we have been introduced to what happened to all the other Cullens and not just Rosalie and Jasper? Maybe this wasn't only limited to Eclipse, but it would seem that sense back-stories weren't in the other 2, maybe David Slade added them? Just food for thought...

[MiVidaLoca]

I just got back from forks and can I say, The oceanside resort on First Beach in LaPush is awesome!

Anyway, I need to see this movie again, so other things I thought of that didn't jive with me. The talk with Rose. I totally felt like even after the talk rose still had so much distaste for Bella, in the book that was a turning point. They weren't great friends after that, but you felt most of the animosity melt away. I didn't feel that in the movie.
The movies never capture the friendship with Alice.
It was nice to see the other characters evolve more and I do agree that Taylor really nails Jacob. In fact I think the did awesome with casting all the wolves, they just really make the movie. You can feel the warmth and brotherhood between them.

I don't like how Bella saw Jacob get hurt, and having him turn with her there, she never passed out and bree was just off unattended you really didn't get the feel of the newborn and how hard it was for her not to attack bella.

I thought the tent scene was for the most part good.
I didn't like the new victoria. she didn't seem "evil" enough. She looked to kid like and not dangerous. The other actress I thought was better in that role.

I hate that they always make it look like edward can't fight and how that whole scene played out.

That is just more I can think of. I know seeing it I was to much in the zone in comparing it to the book. I did that with New Moon to so when I see it again when I get back home (im on vacation now) I am hoping I can just sit back and enjoy the movie more.

[xx-topaz]

MiVidaLoca I totally agree with you. I didn't feel that Alice and Bella's relationship was well represented at all. There was no kidnapping, although we do get a flash of Alice's porche. No explanation as to of how she acquired it.

I disliked how Rosalie and Bella's talk played out. Rosalie storming off during a Cullen talk, and Bella following her out onto the balcony. I suppose since they didn't include the kidnapping scene with Alice that they couldn't have Rosalie and Bella chatting when Bella went to sleep, but I just think that that part of the book is just a building block for two really important relationships between characters. And it was completely lost to those who have only seen the movies.