Eclipse (film)

Eclipse is the third installment of the brilliant 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, 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 PG-12A in the UK.

Plot
This movie begins with Riley Biers, from Forks (though the surname is not stated in the book), coming out of a door while under the rain, at the time he is quite calm. As he slowly enters a number of alleyways he is knocked on the ground several times and starts running, only to find himself at a dead end. He keeps on running until he reaches a pier, unable to jump into the water. He is attacked by Victoria, who bites him in his right hand and causing him to transform into a vampire. It is believed that Victoria chose Riley because he's from Forks, and could be a 'guide' for the newborns. But in the book, it begins with Bella Swan reading Jacob Black's note, saying about that the situation "doesn't change anything". It is also explained that Victoria is set on destroying Edward's mate, Bella, and is therefore creating an army of newborn vampires under the forceful and unruly control of Riley. The newborns are extremely messy in their feeding, much to the growing dismay of the people of Seattle, the Forks police (including Bella's father, Charlie Swan), and the Cullen family. Back in Forks, Edward and Bella discuss the complications of becoming an immortal vampire. With her dreaded 19th birthday coming, Bella will soon be two biological years older than Edward, and she wants to be changed. Because of the human events that she would be missing and her sudden disappearance, Edward refuses to change her immediately. Bella makes the effort to keep in touch with Jacob, but he will not return her calls. Charlie urges Bella to do it, allowing Bella the freedom (she had been grounded harshly for riding a motorcycle in New Moon) in return for her company with Jacob. Charlie is covering the disappearance of Riley. Edward suspects his disappearance to be associated with the newborn vampires. Furthering his suspicions is the intrusion of Riley in Bella's room, stealing a scarf (red blouse in book) with Bella's scent on it. Victoria wants Edward to feel what she felt by killing James so she tries to kill Bella to get at him.

Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that Jacob and the werewolves would never harm her, but he is still unconvinced, and she gets to La Push to see him, and returns home unharmed. During one of these trips, Jacob confesses that he loves her and forcibly kisses her. Bella punches him in the face and sprains (breaks in book) her hand on his face. When Edward finds out, he threatens to break Jacob's jaw if he ever kisses Bella again. When Bella's father came out, Jacob akwardly explained that he kissed Bella and then she broke her hand punching him in the face. A few days later Bella tries to get Edward to make love to her before turning her into a vampire. Edward initially who refuses, explaining to Bella that he could very easily kill her, although he tells her that he wants to, too. 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. Bella and the Cullens realize that the murders in Seattle are being committed by Victoria and the army she has creating. The Cullen family joins forces with the La Push werewolf pack in order to combat this threat. 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, as a 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 forget their mutual hatred.

In the morning, Jacob overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and becomes very distraught and outraged. He runs off, causing Bella to get after him, Edward's disagreement notwithstanding. 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 insists that he will unless she gives him a proper reason not to. Furious, she asks Jacob to kiss her, and while doing so, she realizes that she loves him as well. Edward finds out about this, but isn't angry, to Bella's surprise. Bella realizes that she loves Edward more than Jacob. Victoria eventually finds Bella's hiding spot, and Edward kills her pulling off her head, whileBella distracts her by stabbing herself, as in the Quileute legends. Seth kills her partner Riley ripping him apart. The Cullens and the Quileute werewolves, meanwhile, destroy her "army", though Jacob is injured saving Leah Clearwater from a newborn she was attacking. Several members of the Volturi arrive to destroy what's left of Victoria's army, only to kill the one newborn who surrendered. They are also told that while Bella hasn't become a vampire yet, but that the date for her transformation has been set.

Bella visits Jacob in his home, 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) wait patiently outside, though Leah keeps on saying that she could handle it just now, until Paul asks her to shut up and give it a rest. Carlisle comes out, and Bella walks in to tell a tired Jacob that she has chosen to be with Edward instead of him. Heartbroken by her choice, Jacob reluctantly agrees to stop trying to come between her and Edward, since he also has a feeling that Edward passed his tests. Bella and Edward meet in his meadow, where she tells him the wedding has been handed to the care of Alice, and Edward answers her that the wedding will be hold on a month before Bella's birthday. Then Edward asks why she is trying to make everyone else happy by having a wedding, Bella has decided to do things responsibly and tie herself to him in every human way: marriage, making love, and then turning. They decide to inform Charlie about their engagement, which Bella declares as highly dangerous, and that it's a good thing he's bulletproof. Edward responds to this with a smile and gives her his mother's ring, and the credits go to the screen.

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.

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



Soundtrack
On May 7, 2010, http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ confirmed the first single to be featured in Eclipse original soundtrack: "Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)" by Muse, Stephenie Meyer's favorite band. The song was released on May 17, and the soundtrack is now available, since June 8th 2010.

Score
Academy Award winner Howard Shore from Lord of the Rings composed the score for Eclipse.