"Eclipse:" Third time's a charm

I went to the midnight show of Eclipse last night (early this morning, rather), and it was well worth my sleepiness at work today. I remember seeing Twilight at midnight in 2008, and it was on in like one theater, and we rolled up at 11:30 and still got a good seat! Those days are long gone. The film was showing in several different theaters all the way to 12:40 and many were sold out.

The third novel of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga has always been one of my favorites - yes, I know there are only four novels, but it still ranks at the top of my list. There's plenty of romance and action, and at the end, Team Edward wins once and for all sealed with a vintage diamond ring.

David Slade did an excellent job directing this film. Melissa Rosenberg's scripts have improved, too. Some very important back stories from the book, such as the Quileute legends and Jasper and Rosalie's previous lives, were incorporated wonderfully. I think that Twilight and New Moon were lacking a lot of the smaller but important details from the books.

The actors have also gotten much better. Robert Pattinson as vampire Edward Cullen is gorgeous and brooding as ever. Kristen Stewart is Bella Swan to a tee. Taylor Lautner is also getting better as werewolf Jacob Black - if only we could get him to reach Jacob's 6'5" he'd be good to go.

There were some great and well-delivered lines in the film, such as when Edward says to Bella about the seemingly always shirtless Jacob, "Doesn't he own a shirt?" Newcomers Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria and Xavier Samuel as Riley were also quite good. It was nice to see Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) get to say more than a few words so that we could finally see that Southern gentlemanly side of his we'd read about.

Some critics are being hard on this film even though I don't know how they can deny that these movies are continually improving. Since Breaking Dawn will be two films, I think they'll just keep getting better and better. I will be taking a second look at Eclipse this weekend, and I can't wait.