When it comes to the Twilight Saga films, one goes into not expecting any kind of Academy Award winning story telling or even acting. When one goes and sees a Twilight film, the only thing you care about is did the film makers stay true to the books.

In the case of the three film versions so far, the answer is yes. As each book of Stephenie Meyer’s four-book phenomenon has hit the screen each has become increasingly close to the books as to not the the fandom down.

Eclipse, the third film following last fall’s New Moon, is pretty much faithful to the book on which the film is based and even added scenes that come directly from the Eclipse novella, “The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner,” to expand the film’s action and scope.

The film opens on a rainy night in Seattle, a young college student (Xavier Samuel) is walking presumably home after studying but is attacked by a quick and unseen assailant. He quickly collapses on the ground writhing in agony as if he were burning, a close up on his hand reveals that he has been bitten. This particular scene was nice to have as it explains some context to the story later on. A little bit over a year transpires between the opening of the film Eclipse to when we first see Edward and Bella.

When we finally see our Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) they are in their meadow with her trying to study and him distracting her by kissing her and constantly asking her to marry him. She always politely refuses.

The basic gist of Eclipse is that there have been violent killings going on in Seattle that the Cullens believe are being caused by untrained newborn vampires what they don’t know is who created them and why. Soon it is revealed that it is Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) is creating them as revenge against Edward who killed her mate James in the first Twilight movie. To protect Bella, Edward and the Cullens work with Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and his werewolf gang forming an uneasy alliance.

Of course the central plot to this and has been since New Moon is who will Bella chose, Edward, her one true love and soul mate or Jacob, her best friend that could give her a full and happy human life? In my opinion, she should chose Edward, he is a gentleman while Jacob seems to push his way into Bella’s life.

Anyways, we all know that Bella chooses Edward and finally agrees to marry him. Yeah, yeah we know that she is also in love with Jacob but hey, she loves Edward more.

I think Team Jacob needs to get over the fact that Bella chooses Edward. I mean the final book, Breaking Dawn, makes it quite clear who she chooses and she is totally not heart-broken with her choice.

But what about the movie? Is it better than its predecessor’s? Yes it is.

First off you have David Slade who is the director, who knows a thing or two about directing horror flicks. He directed 30 Days and 30 Nights a film about an Alaskan town savaged by vampires.

The action sequences are really great and really enjoyed seeing vampires beat up and tear each other apart as well as werewolves too getting in on the action.

I love that the secondary characters like Rosalie (Nikki Reed) has way more to do than they ever had in the previous two films. It was nice to get Rosalie’s back story included. It could have been so easy to cut that. Same thing with Jasper’s (Jackson Rathbone) back story but I think it helped explain the characters more for people who have either only seen the films or got shafted in how they were being portrayed in the films.  It was nice that Jasper was more important in this film.

Of course Melissa Rosenberg did a nice job with all the scenes that fans wanted such as the proposal scene and the tent scene.

Pattinson, as usual, is still good as Edward. Ever the gentleman, he only wants Bella to be happy and Pattinson conveys that well. I think it helps that he still has hot chemistry with Stewart as Bella. Stewart is much better in this film as I think she really is growing into playing Bella. No more awkward screaming or terrible over the top line delivery. She actually was pretty good in this one from her interactions with Edward and his family and Jacob with his and of course her human friends. Anna Kendrick once again delivery a nice comedic relief performance as Jessica, wished there was more of her but alas I think that was as much time devoted to her character in the books.

Speaking of chemistry, you know who doesn’t have chemistry Stewart and Lautner. Their pivotal kiss right before the battle it felt so cold and empty like the snowy mountain top that they were on.

As for the new Victoria, Dallas Howard was fine and menancing enough to be scared of her but really wished we could have seen what Rachelle Lefevre could have done in the role. Samuel was good as Riley, the vampire that Victoria created. Dakota Fanning was quite chilling as Jane, one of the Volutri who has come to Seattle to make sure everything is under control.

The character of Bree Tanner (Jodelle Ferdland) while a blip in Eclipse, is of course a major character in her own novella, and I expected more scenes of her but the actress the convey all that was going on her character’s head in the book well with her short screen time. Speaking of short screen time, I really was hoping that Elisabeth Reaser would have more to do as Esme. Here’s hoping she will be in Breaking Dawn.

I am looking forward to Breaking Dawn, albeit not two parts of it, but I will take it anyway I can as long as it gets made and is true to the book (but they can cut the Jacob parts out so it can be one movie).