THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE

THE TWILIGHT SAGA:  ECLIPSE (Rated PG-13 for some sensuality, plenty of intense action & violence)   OK, let's face it.  If you are a teen-aged girl who has read the lush novels by Stephanie Meyer and seen the earlier two movies at least half a dozen times, you won't be disappointed by this one; however, if you're like all the other people who find both the books & films a bit too schmaltzy, overly complicated with too many characters bouncing around through the protracted conflict in the life of the heroine, Bella (swoony Kristin Stewart). Well

In this most recent addition, after graduation, the question finally erupts:   should she become a vampire and hook up with the 109-year-old "teen" vampire, Edward (pale, sensitive Robert Pattinson) or should she play it safe and stick with her other friend, American Indian Wolfman Jacob (muscular hunk Taylor Lautner)? 

This episode presses the conflict forward while battles rage among the followers on both side, from the vampire clan to wolves about the size of small elephants.  (They grow them BIG in the state of Washington!)  In & out of the physical battles are lengthy discussions between Bella & her two swains:  should she remain a virgin through all this, should she maintain a split friendship, while all sorts of other minor problems also are to be resolved. 

David Slade directs with one aim in mind: to sustain this as a glowing, emotional fantasy for his well targeted audience (which left me trapped in a sea of passionately involved pop-sucking teens), never missing a beat - an updated and slightly better version of the earlier episodes.  But he goes just a step too far with one unintentionally hilarious winter scene (the seasons come & go without any obvious transitions). Bella is freezing in a snowbound tent with Edward.  He, of course, can't raise her temperature, but Jacob can & does (the movie's loaded with propitious entrances & exits); so he slips between the blankets to huddle her protectively - just to keep her alive, of course. 

It seems his aim in life is to save the woman he loves from any & all forces that might work against her, while pale, sensitive Edward simply offers an aura of affection that seems to satiate.

I'm eliminating all the peripheral complications among the various clans simply because I haven't read the books nor kept the memories of the earlier films close to my heart - suffice it to say they're all over the place, interfering in separate, alternating, tete-a-tete sequences.

The ultimate question remains: who gets her and how does she reason it out?  After 2 hours & 4 minutes, my final reaction is:  who cares? 

Three down, one more to go

One nice thing about the film:  the Washington Northwest with all its glorious forests &  snow-capped mountains helps arouse some aesthetic interest when the plot sickens - uh, thickens.  (Grade:  C-)