sammi says

"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" lived up to my expectations. The best book in the series translated into the best "Twilight" movie yet. Go figure that the movie with the most supernatural activity seems to be the most realistic.

In case you've been living under a rock, here's what's happening in this installment...Edward and Bella are back together after Edward's plan to leave her to a normal life fails. Jacob is still in love with Bella and is not happy with her decision to be turned into a vampire. Victoria, still bitter after Edward killed her mate in the first "Twilight" movie, creates an army of newborn vampires to seek vengeance on the Cullen family and kill Bella. The vampires and werewolves team up to save Bella's life.

This is the first "Twilight" movie to step away from Bella's perspective for a few scenes. We got to see what was going on in Seattle with the newborn vampires, their leader Riley (major hottie, Xavier Samuel) and the red-haired villainess, Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard). I think this really helped break up the intense mood set by the Edward-Bella-Jacob love triangle.

Robert Pattinson finally brings the undead, Edward Cullen back to life. In the first two films Edward was always sulking in the shadows, brooding and silent. This time he is full of genuine emotion. He was secretive, jealous, vindictive, sly and despite all of that he had captivating moments of lightheartedness. Just a few months ago Robert, Kristen and Taylor had to go to Vancouver to reshoot the infamous "tent scene" and I'm so glad they did. Granted, I don't know what it looked like before, but Rob stole the show and lit up the screen. He made Edward human and it made the entire film.

We finally got to see Bella grow up. "New Moon" showed Bella's immaturity while "Eclipse" portrays Bella as composed, decisive and even a little funny. A monologue at the end of the movie (that wasn't in the book) really makes the whole movie, even series, believable. Bella basically puts it out there and makes you understand why she's choosing Edward and not for the obvious reasons. I thought Kristen Stewart made Bella much more likable in this movie. My only complaint was with her terrible wig.

More vampires and less werewolves really seemed to agree with the film. But I thought the addition of Leah and Seth Clearwater (Julia Jones and BooBoo Stewart) was wasted considering they're barely in the movie, at least not in human form. I remember really liking Seth's character and his relationship with Edward in the books. I thought after Edward and Seth's victory there should have been some recognition of their teamwork. I realize Seth couldn't phase into a human but I would have accepted a scratch on the head or something. Am I the only one?

The battle was pretty cool. I was surprised at how violent things actually got. I've never seen so many headless vampires. It was pretty gross. It was totally creepy seeing *spoiler* Victoria's head lying next to her body and Edward setting her on fire.

Bringing on David Slade as director was a great idea. The film was dark without taking itself too seriously. It was fast paced and left you wanting more. "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" could stand on its own outside of the series as an exciting and romantic film.