After a long wait for the release of Eclipse, finally I got to see it upon its screening in the US but here in Dubai because someone awesome decided to have one night show of Eclipse one week earlier from its official release in Dubai on July 8th. I have seen Eclipse twice and still have hopes of watching it again only after watching Twilight and New Moon back to back just to die of a Twilight Saga over dose or go into shock till Breaking Dawn is out in 484 days, 15 hours and 40 seconds according to my custom made counter which is I think is trying to tell me that will be after a year and a half or so (WTH!) I suddenly felt that rush of fear of growing older which overwhelmed Bella as she woke up from the Granny nightmare in New Moon! I'm turning 38 next month and I guess this means I will be approaching 40! (my Gosh! Carlisle change me now!)So for now I have decided to be an advocate of living in the moment as our dear Rpattz advises in Remember Me and count my blessings for I have watched Eclipse “yey!”
The movie certainly captured Bella’s sinister situation being the target of Victoria, the hungry newborns and the polished Vultories, thanks to David Slade who brought his monsters from 30 Days of Night to our innocent Lion and Lamb Twilight zone. Not that he is responsible for slashing our violet and lavender meadow dreams with rated 13 invisible blood because after all these are the ideas of the master mind Stephanie Meyer manifested on screen.I’m thankful to all the
romantic moments that the film included. They were all great on Edward’s part and a bit weird on Bella’s who seemed to cover up some hard feelings for his desertion in New Moon or may be trying to teach him a lesson and weigh her alternatives. I remember “it has always been him” was when she made her choice but again Jacob deserved his chance too, I guess. I must say that the slow pace of New Moon was made up for in Eclipse with a racy calculated pace with what seemed like an equally assigned room for each group of characters very mathematically done which how men do it I guess (sorry I just love Catherine Hardwicke I could really lose myself in the pace of Twilight).The colors, the CGI and the new looks of the vamps were very cool and a clear attention for details was obvious as the lenses were better, the vamp skin texture and shatter and the wolf transformations and body symmetry were perfect and aesthetically pleasing. When it comes to the sound tracks and the score I don’t know why the main musical theme was in favor of the Jacob scenes. Edward and Bella didn’t own the background music in my head like they did in Twilight where the music stood by itself as an element of the movie's huge success or like in New Moon where Bella’s suffering was reflected in the sad tunes of its score.
I l
oved Jasper and Charlie, they stole the screen at least for me during their scenes. I’m completely relieved Bella’s wig looked natural though I missed its natural flow with the wind. I’m definitely hoping for a long haired Bella that Chris Weitz depicted in Alice’s vision for New Moon but without the maiden dress. Which brings me to the elimination of Bella’s wedding dress that was supposed to appear at the end and was replaced by Bella's acceptance of the ring in the final scene.
I would have loved to see Edward carrying Bella on his back to the meadows or have them do a double summersault on a tree or something instead of their state of immobility. Don’t get me wrong I loved their scenes but those kids need to move around instead of posing statuesque most of the time. The movie was great! It ranks second best after Twilight for me (personal reasons to quote Edward)and I’m definitely heading for a third combo viewing any time till I get my creepy Apotamkin hands on the DVD!images source
15 comments:
Love your review.
Your comment about men vs. women-- wow, very perceptive. I think you do have something there. Men do zero in on more action and fast pace, indeed.
I am so with you on your assessment of how everything was centered around Jacob-- the music themes, etc. This was a major digression from the book.
And now that you mention it, Edward and Bella do just seem to be motionless as statues throughout. The action portion of the movie was just the opposite-- it moved so fast, you could hardly see what was going on! That is one reason I was thankful that the theater was sparsely populated-- and with very respectful viewers at that. It gave me the chance to fully concentrate viewing the movie. I was very focused throughout my viewing. I was trying to see as much as I could as the scenes were flying past my visual field.
I was also a bit taken back by the first meadow scene-- as the camera closed in on Edward and Bella-- I couldn't really tell how they were positioned and it came off as very weird as the camera panned in so quickly. I will have to wait until I see it again before I will be able to settle that scene in my mind. But that had to do too with the fast pace in the movie. The camera hardly lingered anywhere.
Until the end of the movie, when the camera zeroed in on Esme, she looked rather grotesque with her hair pulled back-- in the scenes where they were preparing to fight or just finished with it. It wasn't until they closed in on her when she was trying to save Bree, that you could see her beauty. Rosalie was gorgeous in this one. I don't know what they did differently, but she was beautiful.
I really liked the movie. I think that given how obsessed I am with this saga, I am going to have a much more critical eye. Therefore, I really had to be objective and give some leeway. If I had been doing it, things would have been much different-- and subjectively shown from my viewpoint. Given that fact, I have to agree that David Slade did a good job and attempted to add his touch to the mix at the same time giving as much to the fans as he could.
Catherine Hardwick's Twilight really does start things off well and it is her excellent casting that gives the subsequent directors the prime ingredients to tell the additional stories.
I too can hardly wait til that DVD comes out. This movie deserves many additional viewings.
Love, love, love your review. You so do the movie and the saga justice.
Jan I'm so biased to women I'm so feminist and I claim twilight as woman zone. I just got back from my third viewing of Eclipse and it was as enjoyable as the first viewings could only watch twilight at home before I left. there were several men viewers enjoying the film so i guess target achieved!I think the material in the books do control the appeal of the film to audience new moon was affected by the gloom and the lack of before and after trauma Edward and Bella scenes that could have compensated for the pain and of course the time management of it. The directors must have fan advisors and meyer and the cast to give their views prior shoots to gurantee all is ok i guess i m being too nosy lol!
Rosali looked beautiful because her eyebrows were shaped really nicely and it made her eyes stand out and the straight wig made her look younger thhan the wavy one i guess.
Did I say they mentioned the cold one in Eclipse at the council hope u remembered me then :D I had so much fun and laughed at the witty dialogue loved it when Edward told jake to run with Bella with the look I ran with her u won't outrun me lol! he expressed jealousy that's mixed with maturity so well. can't get over how great the bedroom scene and the tent scene were. don't know what to do when this is over..
Sorry i had to copy past all ur comments Jan because there was an html error that prevented my blog posts to show on some browser so i had to repost my review!
Ohhhh-- so that's what happened! I was seeing my words with "Apotamkin said." I thought it looked like you were having one nice conversation with yourself here!!
I was also trying to post a reply to another comment and I couldn't get it to go so I will just comment here.
I do recall exactly where they refer to the Cold One in the movie-- Billy was telling the story of the third wife around the campfire and when they mention the cold one they showed a very creepy vampire whose crazed vengeful wife later came back to drain a few more of the villagers. I did think of you-- and I was thinking of you off and on throughout my viewing. I could not wait to get back home to send a comment or two to you so we could talk about the movie.
There were only 3 men in the theater when I went-- one obviously a boyfriend, another husband, and a son/brother.
Edward acted very mature and settled in this movie. Jacob acted very immature. Even though Edward was jealous and rightfully, he admitted to it and really showed that his love for Bella was much deeper than Jake's.
I know that the powers involved in this movie try to do as much as possible to please their core audience-- us fans-- but evenso, we are all so different and different things appeal to different people. It just isn't possible to make it so it pleases everyone entirely. I think they did as well as they could and I know we have a long wait until both of the BD's are out. I don't know what we will do-- it will be a real vacuum== empty hole, won't it? Hopefully we will have gradually gotten ourselves to that point and it won't be totally painful.
I noticed our previews were for the final installment of Harry Potter which will also be shown in two parts and probably will wrap up at about the same time or just a few months before. Although I have seen a few of the Potter films, I never got into it as some did. I know if I were to get the films and watch them all in order, I would probably enjoy them too.
Such is life for us mere mortals-- everything comes to an end eventually!
it's going to be a long wait but i'm sure they will spice it up with shoots, interviews and set shots as usual which is pretty exciting to look forward to as well.
I'm not into HP too but saw a few not in order. Rob was a teen then it is hard to believe how time flies! Woobie made a brief appearance yesterday she made me notice the error on explorer it wasn't displaying the blog because of the review had errors that messed up the page on that browser i had to delete it and repost again differently to fix it. hope she read it too and would join us too soon:)
Our dear Woobie is a smart little chick, Apotamkin. She's more than likely already figured it out and is working feverishly to catch up on 3 weeks of "The Cold One of Egypt." And simultaneously attempting to get her home in order after her mom's visit.
Right, Woobie? I can sympathize with your situation-- trying to get it all caught up.
About HP-- if I do decide to play catch-up and view that series in order, it will only be to see how Rob fits into the mix! Hard to believe how long ago that was and how much Rob has changed in appearance. Even Harry Potter has grown from a boy to a man-- amazingly.
We do have all the extras to look forward to until we see the finale of BD-- so all is definitely not lost yet-- much to look forward to over the next year and a half. Exciting!
After seeing New Moon< I was still undecided if I liked the directing style of a woman or a man better. It felt kind of 50/50. Now after Eclipse, I am sure. Yes Catherine Hardwick is a little better at it for me too. And for the action there was in the first book (since written out of Bella's perspective) she did quite a job already, if not even a little too much (thinking of the weird tree climbing). David Slade did a great job when it comes to the visual impression. The set looked believable at all times. Hard to believe it was filmed indoors at a lot of times. The wolfes looked totally awesome! That's one of the reasons why I have to vent about certain makeup letdowns. To me Bellas wig was a huge disappointment. It lokked very fake to me. What they did to Elizabeth Reeser I cannot fathom. She has a rather big forehead already, to build her hair up even higher was seriously UNsmart, lol. Always seemed as if the contacts weren't right for her either. I was very happy with all choices of clothing for the movie. Even the stories of Rosalie and Jasper. The three females that changed Jaspers life had some really beautiful gypsi looking dresses on. Jasper looked much better in Eclipse then in New Moon. Much more a believable match for Alice.
I loved all action scenes. Great job David, and cast having to show-fight! Now to the romantic scenes... hohum, might I say. Way too short, teehee. I think Catherin would have done a much much better job here. I needed to see more pain in Bella while turning down Edwards request to marry him. I mean, c'mon now. We know she wants to, all she is afrait of is what others, especially her parents think about it. Bella in the movie seemed more willing to torture Edward and let him struggle, wich was not the impression I had from the book.
The marry-me-Bella-...-please Edward in the meadow was so stunning it took my breath away.
All in all, the movie is awesome with a few flaws that just made Twilight my favorite so far. But all three are importent to me.
My modem was broken for a few days and right now I only have a temporary one that needs to be exchanged again. It's still going to be a while with the catching up on stuff. But at least I can stop by to read news every day.
Loved both your reviews! I feel home again, lol.
B
After seeing New Moon< I was still undecided if I liked the directing style of a woman or a man better. It felt kind of 50/50. Now after Eclipse, I am sure. Yes Catherine Hardwick is a little better at it for me too. And for the action there was in the first book (since written out of Bella's perspective) she did quite a job already, if not even a little too much (thinking of the weird tree climbing). David Slade did a great job when it comes to the visual impression. The set looked believable at all times. Hard to believe it was filmed indoors at a lot of times. The wolfes looked totally awesome! That's one of the reasons why I have to vent about certain makeup letdowns. To me Bellas wig was a huge disappointment. It lokked very fake to me. What they did to Elizabeth Reeser I cannot fathom. She has a rather big forehead already, to build her hair up even higher was seriously UNsmart, lol. Always seemed as if the contacts weren't right for her either. I was very happy with all choices of clothing for the movie. Even the stories of Rosalie and Jasper. The three females that changed Jaspers life had some really beautiful gypsi looking dresses on. Jasper looked much better in Eclipse then in New Moon. Much more a believable match for Alice.
I loved all action scenes. Great job David, and cast having to show-fight! Now to the romantic scenes... hohum, might I say. Way too short, teehee. I think Catherin would have done a much much better job here. I needed to see more pain in Bella while turning down Edwards request to marry him. I mean, c'mon now. We know she wants to, all she is afrait of is what others, especially her parents think about it. Bella in the movie seemed more willing to torture Edward and let him struggle, wich was not the impression I had from the book.
The marry-me-Bella-...-please Edward in the meadow was so stunning it took my breath away.
All in all, the movie is awesome with a few flaws that just made Twilight my favorite so far. But all three are importent to me.
My modem was broken for a few days and right now I only have a temporary one that needs to be exchanged again. It's still going to be a while with the catching up on stuff. But at least I can stop by to read news every day.
Loved both your reviews! I feel home again, lol.
B
Ahhh, apearently I am technicaly challenged today. Guess I should take my time and reread. Sorry about the typos and double post, I don't know what happened. Guess I still got Edward on my mind...
Great review. Quite refreshing; nice to hear there are others like me out there that actually like Catherine's rendition of Twilight (wouldn't know it after hearing all the bashing she receives in the US). Did not like New Moon Movie at all, and still today I do not own the DVD...felt to cheesy, choppy, and James Bond'ish (if that is even a proper description). Glad to see Eclipse redeem my faith in book-to-movie translation. The Cullens, wolf pack, Humans look great, better acting...Agree, only exception was Esme/Elizabeth wig and makeup....poor thing, she look ghastly like the bride of Frankenstein! Cheers, Twi-gal
Great to see you are back, Woobie!
Excellent review, too.
I really am pleased with the way the movies are developing. They are never going to be perfect but I do think that they have done their best to attempt to incorporate as much as possible to keep the fans satisfied.
Hope you get your modem situation sorted out. We can't lose you now because of computer problems-- LOL.
Twi-girl
Catherine Hardwick is awesome. She really had a vision when she put her touch on Twilight. And she is the one who found the cast that is absolutely instrumental to the Saga-- without which any subsequent director would absolutely fail in bringing the saga to the screen.
Good to see you here.
Jan
Woobie hope ur modem gets fixed asap we miss u! glad we r all on the same page when it comes to Eclipse!
@anonymous thank u for stopping by and commenting it's rare that I get follow up comments from anyone other than my dear stalkers Jan and Woobie in action above:)I'm so glad we value the effort of a great director and I can't wait to see her new film Red Riding Hood which I think is going to be a challenge to men directors again. come again anonymous :)
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