Eclipse (film)

Eclipse is the third installment of the Twilight Saga movies, based on Stephenie Meyer's novel with the same name. The movie was released on June 30th, 2010. It played at the Los Angeles Film Festival one week ahead of its official release in the U.S. The world premiere was June 24th, 2010 at the Nokia Plaza in Los Angeles. The film follows 2008's Twilight, and 2009's New Moon. Summit Entertainment officially greenlit the film in February 2009. Because New Moon was released only seven months before Eclipse, and director Chris Weitz was still committed to the movie's post-production, though he did not direct the third film. Eclipse was directed by David Slade.

Principal photography started on August 17th, 2009 in Vancouver and ended on October 29th, 2009. The movie was rated PG-13 in the US and 12A in the UK.



Over all, the movie got excellent reviews, and many critics said that this was the only installment of the Saga that reached out to entertain people not already fans of Twilight.

Plot


The movie begins with student named Riley Biers (but his last name is not mentioned in the book), coming out of a bar in the pouring rain. As he slowly enters an alleyway, he is knocked down several times by a shimmering figure and starts running until he reaches a pier, which stops him. Then Victoria bites his right hand, starting his painful transformation into a vampire. It is later explained that Victoria chose Riley because he is originally from Forks, making his knowledge of the area precious to guide the other newborns. Victoria is determined on destroying Bella, in order to take revenge on Edward for killing her mate, James, killed in Twilight. She planned to create an army of newborn vampires under the forceful and unruly control of Riley, whom she also seduces to win his loyalty and devotion.

Edward Cullen and Bella Swan appear in their meadow, while Bella is reading aloud the poem Fire and Ice (included in the novel), and negotiating with Edward, asking him to change her into a vampire, while Edward asks her to marry him first. She endlessly turns him down, because of her issue with teen marriages. (Her parents married right after high school, and ended in divorce.)

As the newborn army grows, they are extremely careless in their feeding, much to the growing dismay of the people of Seattle, the Forks police (including Bella's father, Charlie), and the Cullen family. News and columns about the murders and disappearances on the topic fill the newspapers. Back in Forks, Edward and Bella discuss some of the complications of becoming an immortal vampire. Also, Bella makes the effort to keep in touch with Jacob Black, but he refuses to return her calls. Charlie ungrounds Bella (she had been grounded for leaving Forks for three days to secretly save Edward from killing himself in New Moon) on the condition that she spends time with Jacob and her other (human) friends.

Charlie is investigating the disappearance of Riley, while Edward suspects his disappearance to be associated with newborn vampires in Seattle. Further proving his suspicions is the intrusion of Riley in Bella's room, stealing a red blouse with Bella's scent on it. On one occasion, Alice has a vision of Victoria's return and Edward takes Bella to Jacksonville to keep her safe while the Cullens and the wolves chase her. The last chase ends with Emmett almost crossing into Quileute territory. Paul stopped Emmett from crossing the boundary line, which resulted in a confrontation between the wolves and the Cullens. Bella finds out about this and goes down to La Push for a visit. Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella convinces him that Jacob and the werewolves would not harm her. When Edward catches Riley's scent, he suspects that someone is making a plan and agrees to team up with the werewolves to protect Bella and Charlie. From then on, Bella begins to spend more time at La Push. During one of these trips, Jacob confesses his love for her and forcibly kisses her. Bella angrily punches him in the face and breaks her hand, while Jacob feels no pain at all. When Edward finds out, he threatens to break Jacob's jaw if he ever kisses Bella again. When Charlie came out to stop the tension (not knowing what happened), Jacob awkwardly explains that he kissed Bella without her permission and that she broke her hand when punching his face.



A few days later, Bella, Jasper, Edward and Alice graduate from Forks High School and Alice invites the seniors to a party at their house. Jacob and his friends, Embry and Quil crash the party, and Jacob gives Bella a handmade bracelet as graduation present moments before Alice catches a vision of the newborn army coming to kill them. Jacob and Sam agree to join forces with the Cullens to fight off the threat. Eventually, Bella realizes that the newborn army has been under the secret control of Victoria. The Volturi have also been aware of this, but they decide to stay put and let them do what they were created for, i.e. end the Cullens, before the Volturi end them.

Bella tries to get Edward to make love to her before turning her into an mmortal. Edward initially refuses explaining that he could very easily kill her, although he tells her that he wants to. Eventually, upon realizing how much it means to Bella, he says that he is willing to try in the future as long as they are married first. Despite an aversion to marriage, Bella realizes that spending an eternity with Edward is more important to her than anything else and accepts his proposal.



As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward and Bella camp up in the mountains, where they are later joined by Jacob and Seth Clearwater, to wait out the fight. Bella, being human, starts to freeze in the harsh weather of the mountain. Jacob warms up Bella, much to Edward's chagrin. During the night, Bella overhears a conversation between Edward and Jacob, in which they temporarily fo.

In the morning, Jacob overhears Edward and discussing Bella their engagement, and becomes distraught. He threatens to join the fight and get himself killed because he feels that Bella doesn't love him, and that him being dead would it be easier for her. When Bella begs him not to, Jacob demands a proper reason not to. In an attempt to prevent his death, she asks Jacob to kiss her, and while doing so, she realizes that she loves him as well. However, she also realizes that her feelings for Jacob are not to be compared with her love for Edward. Edward finds out about the kiss via Jacob's mind, but isn't angry with Bella. Jacob still goes and joins the fight, promising that he'll be back, but gets injured while trying to protect Leah Clearwater.



Victoria and Riley manage to find their hiding spot and a fight to the death ensues. Seth bites chunks of Riley's body off, but is swatted away by Riley. Riley and Victoria gain the upper hand and are about to execute Edward, Bella distracts them by cutting herself, using her blood to catch their attention, as in the Quileute legend "The Third Wife." Seth uses this distraction to sneak behind a hill, drag Riley away and kill him. Victoria's survival instincts start to make her leave, but Edward gets her stay by insulting her about James. Victoria returns to the fight, only to die at the hands of Edward. Several members of the Volturi arrive to destroy what is left of Victoria's army, only to kill the one newborn who surrendered: Bree (although her name isn't mentioned). The Cullens ask for mercy for Bree, but that doesn't stop Jane from ordering Felix to kill her. They are also told that while Bella hasn't become a vampire yet, the date for her transformation has been set.

When Bella goes to visit the injured Jacob, she is welcomed by loud screams coming from the house, as Billy and the rest of the wolf pack (other than Sam, who is inside with Carlisle and Jacob) waiting patiently outside. Carlisle comes out of the house and says that Jacob will make a good recovery. Billy and Carlisle then shakes hands, showing that they can now start to trust one another. After the treatment, Bella walks in to tell an agonized Jacob that she has chosen Edward instead of him. Heartbroken by her choice, Jacob reluctantly agrees to stop trying to come between them, since he also has a feeling that Edward passed his tests.



Bella and Edward meet in the meadow, where she tells him the wedding has been handed to the care of Alice. Then Edward asks why she is trying to make everyone else happy by having a wedding. Bella answers that she has always felt like she belonged in Edward's vampire world and has also decided to do things responsibly, by tying herself to him in every human way: marriage, making love, and then becoming a vampire. They decide to inform Charlie about their engagement, which Bella declares as highly dangerous, and that it's a good thing he is bulletproof. Edward responds to this with a smile and gives her his mother's ring. The movie ends with Bella and Edward embracing each other in the meadow.

Marketing
On March 10th, 2010, Summit Entertainment released a 10-second teaser trailer and announced that the full trailer would be released March 11th, 2010. The trailer also premiered before Robert Pattinson's other movie, Remember Me, on March 12th, 2010.

Home media releases
Eclipse will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 4th, December 6th in the UK.

Trailers
Both the teaser and full trailer can be viewed here. The song playing in the background of the first trailer is 'Calamity' by Two Steps From Hell. On April 23, 2010, Summit released one final trailer of Eclipse.

In the second trailer, the song "Underworld" by Two Steps From Hell is used as well.



Music
The Eclipse soundtrack was released June 8th, 2010 and includes "Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)" by Muse, Stephenie Meyer's favorite band. She was very excited knowing that Muse would be on the Eclipse soundtrack.

The Eclipse score was composed by Academy Award winner Howard Shore from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.