screen


OPINION NEWS FEATURE SOUND CHOW SCREEN OUTSIDE CULTURE


JULY 8, 2010 / THE SOURCE WEEKLY / 23


emotions. Now, with Eclipse, director David Slade (30 Days of Night) brings his horror movie background to the series. In Eclipse, Slade uses a colorful and emo-


tional score to turn up the intensity. The use of familiar but effective horror movie orchestral strings takes the suspense up a notch. Also, the Eclipse soundtrack is an indie rock dream: Beck, The Bravery, The Dead Weather, Metric, Flo + the Machine; it’s phenomenal. One flaw in the film, at least for people


who have not read the books, would be references that don’t make sense out of context. For example, the story of shape- shifters is incredibly long and drawn out in the book, but in the film, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg cuts out 90 percent of the story, which speeds the narrative, but leaves some storylines dangling. In Eclipse, Bryce Dallas Howard


HOW MUCH WOLFMAN ON VAMPIRE VIOLENCE MUST WE ENDURE IN THIS TOWN? FILM REVIEW To Love and Be Loved in Return


The Twilight Saga: Eclipse proves to be the best of the series BY ANNE PICK


Hundreds of pre-teen and teenage


girls, moms, a few boyfriends (who were dragged kicking and screaming, no doubt) and a horde of twenty-somethings who know better than to love Twilight, but do anyway, stood in line outside of Old Mill 16 on Tuesday night for the midnight premier of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The weather gods decided to give us a taste of what Bella goes through while camping out in the cold in the film. It’s officially summer, but I’m pretty sure it was warmer in November when I was standing in line for the debut of New Moon. But it was worth the wait and the chill. Besides, as the Source Weekly’s


FILM REVIEW On a Bender


The elements go haywire in The Last Airbender BY MORGAN P. SALVO


Director M. Night Shyamalan became a


Hollywood success with the hauntingly su- pernatural Sixth Sense in 1999 before stum- bling badly with critical disappointments like The Village and The Happening, and now The Last Airbender, which again veers far from his earlier success. It doesn’t help that he’s hamstrung himself with the sub- ject matter; this family-friendly adventure flick is based on a successful Nickelodeon animated TV series. The story kicks into gear when the Fire


Nation launches a brutal war, leaving Aang (Noah Ringer) caught between combat and courage. He soon discovers that he’s the lone Avatar (not the blue, James Cameron kind of Avatar, though) with the power to manipulate


all four elements. He teams up with brother and sister (Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz) and a flying behemoth that looks like a big sheep to restore balance to their war-torn world. Most of Airbender is dark and hard to


see, with some cool but hardly spectacular visuals. The unnecessary 3D is distracting and headache-inducing. An evil ship, gi- gantic monitor lizards, hoards of shower- ing ice and water, plumes of fire and gush- ing winds all collide in deafening thuds to little effect. Shyamalan’s overblown mysti- cism attempts to mix spirituality with mar- tial arts and the result is simply tiresome. A bulk of the action includes the characters getting all kung-fu-ey, then shooting one of


DEAR M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: WE WOULD LIKE MORE NINJAS.


the elements from their hands and it’s hard not to laugh when Aang gets all hopped up on the elements, causing the arrow tattoo on his head to light up into a neon mohawk. As for the dialogue, the three lead kids all confusingly talk like suburban white kids playing in the backyard. Airbender opens against Twilight’s


Eclipse, yet Shyamalan seems optimistic, telling reporters, “I’m hoping after they see Eclipse, they’ll come see our movie.” Hmm.


Good luck with that because Airbender is little more than convoluted kid’s stuff and even children can spot that.


The Last Airbender ✩✩✩✩


Starring Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jack- son Rathbone, Jessica Jade Andres, Dev Patel Directed and Written by M. Night Shyamalan. Rated PG


senior Twilight correspondent, it was my duty to be there. Eclipse is far and away the best film of the


Twilight series, which was to be expected. (Most Twi-hard’s cite it as their favorite novel of the series.) In this installment, Bella and Edward are graduating from high school and dealing with Bella’s impend- ing vampire transformation. In addition to sorting through the repercussions that come with the change, Bella’s also stressed about an evil vampire seeking revenge and is caught in the ultimate love triangle. The acting has improved by baby steps, but definitely not by leaps and bounds,


though all of the actors feel more comfort- able in the skin of the characters created by author Stephanie Meyer. Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner all breathe life into their respective charac- ters, and are at their best in the series. Unlike other book-to-film series, each


Twilight film has brought a new director and a new style. The first Twilight film, di- rected by Catherine Hardwick (Thirteen), had a campier feel. New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass), took a more cautious approach, but the colors in New Moon were more vibrant, perhaps because they had to match the film’s high


(Terminator Salvation) replaces Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria, a character who comes to the forefront in this third film. Victoria is the brains behind the newborn vampire army’s plan to destroy Bella and the Cullen clan. The doe-eyed Howard has an inno- cence about her, which makes her portrayal of the hell-bent on revenge Victoria less be- lievable than the more sinister Lefevre. The film’s darker tone seeps its way into


nearly every aspect of the film, which can be attributed to Slade. The romance is more intense and more adult and the Cullen clan looks darker. Slade’s horror background benefited the film well during its rapid-fire action sequences and moments of chaotic vampire destruction. The cinematography was amazing; from the beautiful, majestic mountain shots outside of Forks, to the rapid crane shots around Jake and Edward when they’re fighting over Bella, a moment when it seemed that the Twilight Saga had finally hit its stride.


The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ★★★★✩


Starring Robert Pattinson,


Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. Directed by David Slade. Rated pg-13


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