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Eclipse (The Twilight Saga)

4/10

Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel, Anna Kendrick, Nikki Reed, Dakota Fanning

Director: David Slade

Teenage girls may go for this third film from Stephenie Meyer's best-sellers, but those unaffected by vampire Pattinson's charm or werewolf Lautner's rippling muscles should be warned that this is a very slow movie. And that much mooning goes on between Pattinson's Edward and Stewart's Bella while she debates the merits of marrying him before he gives her eternal, blood-craving life. Seems like a no-brainer, but love, it seems, conquers all.

Meanwhile, Stewart agonises at length after Lautner, too, declares his undying (though not quite in the same way as Pattinson) love. What will she decide? Aw hell, I never could keep a secret: she loves them both. But it's Pattinson who gives her a ring. 'It was my mother's,' he husks. Well, goodness knows where that's been then.

Plot? Ah yes. Not much to speak of, but another tribe, with a name that sounds like Quaaludes, are 'newly-borns' (fresh vampires) being assembled by Victoria (Howard) to gain revenge on Edward for the death of her mate, and eliminate his coven of vampires in the process. Time for rival suitors to band together in Bella's cause.

In the meantime, conversations between Bella and her father (Billy Burke) and mother put more brakes on the pace without contributing anything to the plot, which does finally burst into action with an all-too-brief pitched battle at the end.

The dialogue is pretty sappy throughout, though there's a bit of a running gag about Lautner's never wearing a shirt, and the occasional mischievously funny line. As Bella freezes in a mountainside tent, Lautner volunteers to keep her warm. 'After all,' he tells a sulking Pattinson. 'I am hotter than you.'

David Quinlan

USA 2010. UK Distributor: E1 films. Technicolor.
124 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 02 Jul 2010