By Scott Muoio

When you have a newborn baby in your life it isn’t often that you get to visit the theater to see a movie. It takes a special occasion, such as your job letting you leave at 2pm the day before a holiday, in order to take the plunge. So when opportunity knocks one must answer, even if happens to be the third installment of the Twilight saga on the other side of the door.

But alas, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is easily the second best film in the franchise. Rather than dilly-dally with superfluous set-ups and lead-ins, as is common in most sequels, Eclipse gets down to business straight away.

Using a handful of exciting and well choreographed fight scenes, copious amounts of agonizingly cringe worthy romantic interludes, and enough bad acting to make the cast of The Bachelorette blush, Eclipse finally feels like the blockbuster the saga desperately needed. The breathtaking Pacific Northwest vistas enhance the proceedings even if they do appear to be at least half computer generated. The plot, on the other hand is exceedingly svelte even though the numerous speeches, especially in the movie’s first half, make it seem bogged down and serious. But with enough intentional and unintentional giggle worthy moments Eclipse is almost always entertaining.

So in the end, who cares if a vampire “army” is but a handful of clean cut kids with red eyes wearing ‘90s era grunge clothes? What’s the big deal if a completely different actress is now playing the last episode’s main villain? And so what if the best actor in the cast, Robert Pattinson has little to do other than stand around and look silly? At least he gets some hilarious homoerotic chitchat in with the half naked wolf boy hunk. And that’s the magic of Twilight – teenage girls get to squeal with prepubescent delight and I get lots of great fodder to write a fun review.

Director: David Slade

Producer: Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt

Writer: Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay), Stephenie Meyer (novel)

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Bryce Dallas Howard, Billy Burke, Dakota Fanning

Original Music: Howard Shore

Cinematographer: Javier Aguirresarobe

Editor: Nancy Richardson, Art Jones