'Twilight' times three: Recaps of all three vampire films
TWILIGHT
3.5 stars out of 4
"Twilight" is about a girl who falls desperately in love with a handsome teenage vampire, so you have to accept some storytelling liberties. Wait, there are vampires who drive convertibles?
But the film works ... "Twilight" is as forthright as its heroine, who comes across as an appealingly real teenager, pensive and intelligent. The story doesn't fuss around with phony complications and teases: It makes the points it wants to without much dawdling.
And Bella is bright enough that she figures out what Edward is with just a few clues and a simple Google search.
"How long have you been 17?" she asks him.
"Awhile," he admits ...
"Twilight" builds to a biggish action finish that isn't quite as appealing as what went before. Indeed, its fans are more likely to swoon over the tender moments in which Bella, as in the best vampire movies, offers her exposed neck to Edward.
He, gentleman vampire that he is, has to fight the temptation to sink his fangs into her. And that makes a fine case that restraint is more tantalizing than just jumping right in. FULL REVIEW
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
2 stars out of 4
This new "Twilight" movie is only for the diehard fans. For anyone else, it's a long, melodramatic slog, hardly scary at all and missing the offbeat touches and disorienting passion that made the first so surprisingly enjoyable ...
I conferred after the film with two technical advisers in the eighth grade, "Twilight" experts Bella (yes, that's her real name and she had it before "Twilight") Grigsby and Cheyenne Hixon. Both said they loved this film even more than the first.
I respect their expertise, but admit that I miss the idiosyncratic touches director Catherine Hardwicke brought to the first. New director Chris Weitz ("American Pie," "About a Boy") is much more mainstream, much more polished, and, I think, tone deaf to anything more than the literal interpretation of the book.
Therefore we get overripe dialogue - "You're everything to me;" "You're my only reason to stay alive," etc. - set to syrupy strings sawing away in the background. There's magic in proclamations such as those, but a little of that goes an awfully long way. The first "Twilight" was wise to that, but this movie goes on and on. FULL REVIEW
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE
3.5 stars out of 4
All through "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," vampires, shape-shifting werewolves and at least one actual human being hammer this point home to Bella Swan, she who would like to become one of the undead, and quickly: Don't make any rash decisions.
She won't listen to any of them, though. She heeds only her urgent, troubled heart, while she still has one. A typical teenager, other than the vampires and werewolves she hangs with.
"Eclipse" gets that, grounding its fantastical story in the superheated realities of mundane teenage life. The film - probably the best in the series, and a definite rebound from the bland second one - will make its intended audience swoon at the romantic triangle in which Bella finds herself.
And in a nicely written epilogue after the big action showdown, it makes it clear that her decision isn't just about Edward vs. Jacob: She has other reasons, which we'll let her explain.
Director David Slade ("Hard Candy," "30 Days of Night") does a fine job adapting Stephenie Meyer's third novel in the series (the fourth, "Breaking Dawn," will be split into two parts, of which fans are already well aware). FULL REVIEW