I should start by saying that I was dragged to this movie on opening night. Thankfully opening night was a Wednesday, so the theater wasn’t as mobbed as it could have been. This was really my saving grace.
Before I comment on the movie, I must comment on the things that happened before the movie. I saw Eclipse with my mom and sister. My dad felt left out, so he took my niece to see Toy Story 3, which was playing at the same time. However, we had to arrive at the theater over an hour early so we could brave the line of angst-ridden tweens who are obsessed with one or the other of the main characters in the Twilight Saga. This is a summary of the stuff I saw/encountered:
- Someone asked if the 4 year old would be coming into the movie. No we are not taking a 4 year old into a PG-13 movie she’s not old enough to understand and will easily be bored by. She actually said to me “Oh I thought she might be a Twilight fan”. Are you kidding? She’s 4. YOU ARE CRAZY and shouldn’t be allowed to have children
- The theater had set up chairs for us to use while we waited in line for the theater to open. Seated next to us was a group of 4 maybe 13-year-olds. (I say maybe because kids are looking younger and younger to me, and yes that DOES make me an old lady.) They all have on these bracelets, the rubber kind that were made popular a few years ago by the LiveStrong Foundation. Except these bracelets said “I <3 Justin Bieber” … I tried to covertly take a picture but the chick closest to me kept moving her arm.
- When we got into the theater I realized I was sitting next to the only grown man at this showing. Was he there with his teenaged daughter? Nope. He was there with his same-age girlfriend.
- The remainder of the theater had an average age of about 15 (my mom, sister, and I raised the average significantly). There was an occasional teen guy, obviously dragged there by his girlfriend. Some tried to cover their faces, others embraced this as a challenge. It was entertaining. Especially the dude in the Edward shirt LOL
- Before the movie started, a woman came into the theater to sell Twilight t-shirts. OMG they’re selling t-shirts here? It’s like a concert. Only not. I think the most entertaining part of this is that people were screaming with excitement about this prospect, but not a single person purchased a shirt. I guess they should have asked their parents for more money!
sorry so grainy!
- The movie started and I swear I lost some of my hearing when Jacob first came on the screen, shirtless of course. I’ve never heard girls shriek at such a decibel before. It’s mind blowing.
Anyway that’s all of my observations. I was expecting the shrieking, I was expecting the tweens, but the other stuff was just icing on the cake. Now onto the movie:
It was good! I could have waited to see it a week or two, but I definitely enjoyed it. The acting was significantly better this time, although Kristin Stewart is terrible regardless. The special effects were also pretty awesome. The plot is the one thing that bothered me (well besides the fact that the whole thing has blatant Mormon overtones and the fact that the main female character is so unbelievably weak. But those were just a given). I mean, you could remove this entire movie/book and nothing would change in the saga. We’re still left where we were at the end of New Moon – Bella and Edward are going to get married, Jacob is in love with Bella.
Regardless of the negatives, it was still well worth my (sister’s) $11. Very entertaining – 4 stars.
Melissa 
