The Twilight Saga: Eclipse gives the central love triangle its fullest treatment while delivering the vampire-werewolf conflict with a physical scale and a dramatic urgency the earlier films had not achieved. David Slade's 2010 film is the saga's most consistently entertaining, and its ability to develop the central romantic conflict with dramatic intelligence while simultaneously delivering the action sequences the franchise's commercial context requires gives it a tonal range the more narrowly focused earlier entries did not attempt. It is the entry that most clearly demonstrates what the franchise was capable of when its creative and commercial ambitions were in alignment.
At a Glance
Director: David Slade
Runtime: 124 minutes
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel
Release: 2010
Critics Rating: ★★★ (3/5 stars, the saga's most dramatically balanced and most action-oriented entry)
Audience Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, widely considered the saga's best entry)
Plot
As a newborn vampire army created by the vengeful Victoria threatens Forks, the Cullen family and the Quileute wolf pack form an uneasy alliance to protect Bella. Meanwhile, Bella must choose between Edward and Jacob, a decision the film develops with more dramatic specificity and more emotional honesty than the earlier entries had allowed. The consistent use of the external threat to force the central romantic conflict toward a resolution is the picture's most intelligent structural choice, giving the action sequences a dramatic function that the more atmospherically focused earlier films had not always achieved. The screenplay handles the source novel's most dramatically rich material with a confidence and a clarity that makes Eclipse the saga's most narratively satisfying entry, and the balance between the romantic and action-oriented elements is maintained with a discipline that the more tonally narrow earlier entries could not have achieved.
Characters
The film gives all three members of the central love triangle their most fully developed treatment. Lautner's Jacob is given the most emotionally direct arc, his declaration of love for Bella and his eventual acceptance of her choice giving the character a dignity and a warmth that the saga's more action-focused entries do not always allow. Pattinson's Edward is given more dramatic complexity here than in the earlier films, his willingness to step aside for Bella's happiness giving the character a generosity the earlier entries had not always suggested. Stewart's Bella is given the saga's most demanding choice, and her handling of the central romantic conflict with a specificity and an emotional honesty that the more atmospherically focused earlier films had not permitted makes this her most accomplished performance in the franchise. Xavier Samuel's Riley is the most sharply drawn new antagonist, a newborn vampire of menace and pathos whose relationship with Victoria gives the action sequences a human dimension that the more anonymously staged action of the earlier films had not achieved. The ensemble's collective strength is the picture's most reliable dramatic asset, and Slade draws from each performer exactly what the scene requires.
Meaning / Themes
The central concern is the relationship between choice and identity. Bella's decision to choose Edward and become a vampire is the saga's most consequential dramatic event, and the treatment of this as a choice with costs, including her relationship with Jacob and her human life, gives it a dramatic weight the earlier entries had not fully developed. The most valuable thematic achievement is the treatment of Jacob's love for Bella not as a rival claim to be dismissed but as an alternative whose value Bella acknowledges even as she makes her choice. The picture is also the saga's most honest engagement with the love triangle's emotional reality, refusing to resolve the tension between the two relationships with the ease that the more romantically focused earlier entries had allowed.
Direction
Slade balances the saga's established romantic register with a more action-oriented approach that gives the newborn army sequences a physical scale and dramatic urgency the earlier entries had not attempted. The tonal range is the saga's widest, accommodating the romantic intimacy of the tent scene, the comic energy of the Edward-Jacob confrontations, and the physical scale of the newborn army battle with a sureness that makes the transitions feel entirely natural. The picture never allows the action sequences to overwhelm the romantic register, and the discipline with which Slade maintains that balance is the most consistent directorial achievement.
Slade's direction is the saga's most action-competent, staging the newborn army battle with physical clarity and urgency the franchise's earlier action sequences had not matched. The tent scene, in which Edward and Jacob are forced into proximity while protecting Bella, is the franchise's most purely enjoyable passage, demonstrating a sensitivity to the material's comic and dramatic potential that gives the scene a lightness and a wit the more dramatically serious passages do not always achieve. Howard Shore's score gives the film a more orchestrally ambitious sonic identity than the earlier entries, maintaining the saga's emotional register while giving the action sequences a musical grandeur that suits their expanded scale. The picture's visual grammar is more conventionally polished than Hardwicke's original, a trade-off that gains commercial accessibility at the cost of atmospheric distinctiveness.
Eclipse received the strongest reviews of the saga on its release and was a major commercial success, grossing over $698 million worldwide. Critics praised the balance of romantic and action elements, the three leads' performances, and Slade's direction. It is now regarded as the saga's most accomplished entry and the film that most clearly demonstrates what the franchise was capable of at its creative peak. The tent scene is consistently cited as the saga's most purely enjoyable passage, and the picture's reputation has remained the most stable of the five entries as the saga's cultural reassessment has gathered pace.
Final Verdict: The saga's most consistently entertaining entry and its most dramatically accomplished. The three leads are given their fullest material, Slade's direction is the saga's most action-competent, and the tent scene is the franchise's most purely enjoyable passage. Eclipse is the saga at its most confident, and the entry that most clearly demonstrates what the franchise was capable of when its creative and commercial ambitions were working together.