This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is superior to its two predecessors in every possible way. The mythology finally feels comfortable in its own skin, aware of both its strengths and limitations, and appears to be striding confidently into the future. Like the Harry Potter franchise, it apparently took Twilight a few films to get up to speed.

With her high school graduation only weeks away, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has a significant decision to make: accept vampire Edward’s (Robert Pattinson) proposal of marriage and go through with her plan to become a vampire too, or admit that she also has strong feelings for werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), Edward’s sworn enemy. Either choice will grievously hurt someone she loves.

Meanwhile, just up the road in Seattle, Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard replacing Rachelle Lefevre) is creating an army of young, powerful vampires to hunt down and kill Bella in revenge for the loss of her mate at Edward’s hands. As she and her minions sweep down on the small town of Forks, vampires and werewolves carve out an uneasy alliance to protect the one human they both care about.

Thankfully, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse doesn’t have the problem that plagued its predecessors—it isn’t mind-numbingly boring. Director David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) is used to making thrillers bending toward horror, so he knows how to ramp up the PG-13 tension, including making this the most violent (yet bloodless) of all the films. Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who seemed incapable of finding a dramatic bone in her body for the first films, has really come into her own here, even going so far as to add a lot more humor, both effectively and appropriately. Though she does not even attempt to explain the who/what/why (she assumes you’ve seen the previous films and remember their salient points) a series of flashbacks explaining the origins of Forks’ supernatural residents enriches the mythology. Ultimately, however, Eclipse is just more of the same. A plot synopsis of the last two films would be indistinguishable. All the more reason to praise Eclipse’s dramatic arc, as it proves just how much better New Moon could have been.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is full of more sullen glances and morose looks. This has to be the dullest love triangle ever set to film. We may sympathize with the difficulty of Bella’s decision, but now that we’re three films in, she just comes across as indecisive and careless. Great swaths of the film are taken up by conversations representing every possible permutation between the threesome. And though Bella continues to be utterly unworthy of all the adulation heaped on her, she is, at least, somewhat humanized this trip around the block. That’s saying quite a lot since Stewart’s Bella has so little personality, she might as well already be one of the undead.

The Twilight films tend to attract two separate but equally rabid fan bases—teenage girls and thirtysomething women. One such woman is Sarah, an accomplished archeologist and dear friend. I asked Sarah to explain why Twilight has become such a phenomenon with women of all ages. The mythology, she informed me, is the embodiment of the romantic ideal. The men in this ideal are quintessentially perfect—beautiful, profoundly strong, single-mindedly devoted, chivalrous protectors—and thus interchangeable. Sarah is married, so she well knows (in a way most of her teen compatriots cannot) that the ideal is every bit as much an unrealistic fantasy as the existence of supernatural shapeshifters. But then again, most ideals are. For the few days one is lost in the pages of Stephanie Meyer’s books or the two hours one is absorbed in the film, anything—including a chaste, courtly love of unblemished purity—is possible. A woman never loses the dream for the perfect romance, Sarah told me. Just because it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean the desire for it ever fades.

© Copyright 2010 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.

Directed by David Slade
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dakota Fanning
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and some sensuality.
Running Time: 124 minutes