Last week my wife dragged me out to see the movie Twilight: Eclipse the third movie based on the books by Stephanie Meyer. This review is based on someone who is not a fan of the books and had no real knowledge of the story like many of the fans may have.

Eclipse picks up shortly after New Moon with the trio of Bella (Kristen Stewart), Edward (Robert Pattinson), and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) back home in the Northwest with things returning to normal. They are as normal as things could be between an over sized wolf, a dead guy, and a whiny teenager about to have a threesome. This film was toted as being more action packed to attract more of a male audience that the past movies lacked. In this regard I think the director and the story fell short. The whole movie seemed to play out like an Abercrombie and Fitch ad come to life. Needless to say I was sitting in a sea of teen girls that giggled every time Jacob the werewolf came on to the screen sans his shirt. The action sequences that could be seen in all of the trailers were all at the end of the movie and lasted about five minutes. The special effects were not that strong although they were much better than the first two films. The only saving grace for the non-fans out there forced to watch Eclipse was the werewolf pack. They play a more major role in this movie and for the most part were fun to watch.

The main story(Short Version) in the film is that Bella is still human wanting to be a vampire and Edward is still a vampire wanting Bella to stay human with Jacob there wanting to steal Bella from Edward. Victoria also returns to wreak havoc on the Cullen clan and Bella for killing her mate. The Vampires and werewolves attempt a peace to fight off a common enemy.

There was a lot of filler and back story throughout the movie that gave details about characters’ pasts and how they came to be but most of it was just that: filler. I didn’t give a crap about the minor characters and their tragic past and it added very little to the film. I was constantly looking for my virtual remote control so that I could fast forward through at least two-thirds of the film. The actors are all pretty weak as well: Kristen Stewart whined, Robert Pattinson looked constipated, and Taylor Lautner was little more than eye candy for the “twihards” throughout the entire film.

I would say only watch this one if you are big fan of the books or are a female between the ages of 15 and 45. Overall I would give the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5.