Eclipse

directed by David Slade

One of the big attractions of being an immortal vampire is remaining unchanged by the passage of years. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is getting in some early practice by living a life that's barely changed since New Moon. She still wavers between Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), her relationships with friends and family are as awkward as ever, and she's still under threat from other vampires.

This time around Bella is seeing Edward once more, and the tension between them is as strong as ever. Bella wants to become a vampire, but Edward remains against it. The other members of the Cullen family are drafted in to help explain their origins and their different points of view as they try to get Bella to think twice before asking them to turn her. Meanwhile in Seattle someone is raising an army of newborn vampires that has begun to rage out of control, attracting the attention of the media. As this is going on the shadowy Volturi turn up to impose their gothic dress sense and sinister glances on the scene. We're led to wonder whether the Volturi have come to stop the new vampires, or if they're up to some other mischief.

The Cullens certainly don't want the Volturi coming to Forks to clean up their mess, especially when they haven't fulfilled a promise they recently made to that powerful vampire clan. So they decide they must put aside their differences with the werewolves and work together to fight the renegade vampire army.

The plot allows for plenty of attractively-choreographed action scenes set in picturesque countryside. It's pretty enough to delight members of the Washington State tourist industry. The effects are impressive, so this is a movie with a good deal to feast the eyes on.

Edward and Jacob continue to antagonise each other and there's a great scene when the two of them are obliged to get up close and uncomfortable and discuss how they really feel about Bella and each other. Will she choose the right man? There's a sense that she's about to make an irreversible life-changing decision without thinking it through properly. The theme of choices recurs throughout the movie as Bella and her classmates approach graduation.

Eclipse isn't all about heavy talk and serious consequences. There's humour, such as when Charlie Swan (Billy Burke) tries to give Bella "the talk". This is an entertaining movie, although it's not deep by any means. Edward gets the chance to show his old-fashioned romantic side, when he's not busy engaging in macho posturing with Jacob. For an old vampire he behaves a lot like a teenager.

The chief attraction of this lightweight movie is the way it looks, although it also has an engaging mix of action, romance, and suspense. However if you can't deal with moody, over-dramatic teenagers it's one to steer clear of, since this episode of the Twilight saga does nothing to tone down that aspect of the stories.