Josh Miller takes on the third installment of "The Twilight Saga"

As of this writing it’s the fourth highest grossing film of 2010, yet holds a 4.8 on imdb and a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. No matter how hard they try, critics can’t stop this franchise. I found the first two films abysmal in almost every way, but I did feel "New Moon" fleshed out the characters a bit more than the first film.

With that said, "Eclipse" stands as the best film in the series…But that’s not to say it’s particularly good.

Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) are now officially a couple and Bella is determined to have Edward change her into a vampire after graduation. Edward, meanwhile, is determined to have Bella marry him. Bella’s father Charlie (Billy Burke) wants Bella to spend less time with Edward and more time with Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who feels Bella is in love with him and would be making a mistake letting Edward change her.

While the film’s main focus is the love triangle between the three, the plot this time revolves around Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard, replacing a no-name actress) assembling an army of vampires to seek revenge on the Cullen clan.

The latest director to tackle the franchise, David Slade, handles this material much better than his predecessors, particularly the action scenes, but he also reinforces my opinion that no director could make this dreck convincing.

Slade achieves in the film’s main battle scene what Catherine Hardwicke and Chris Weitz failed to in their films, which is achieve a genuine sense of excitement and suspense even. Ah hell, it’s an entertaining scene. Slade achieves something unheard of in directing one of these films, but even he can’t overcome the poor script and insipid dialogue.

Nearly all the characters in these films are caricatures of people I hated in high school. Bella is such a childish, selfish protagonist you have to wonder why a vampire who is over 100 years old would even bother with her. Even more remarkable is that Jacob, despite actually being Bella’s age, seems much more emotionally intelligent than Edward. I can’t fathom how people take this plot seriously as a “love story,” when not a single moment seems natural and not a single aspect of the “romance” seems poignant.

I noticed in the previous film that Stewart and Lautner had more chemistry than Stewart and Pattison and even offered a hint of credibility for a brief moment. While Pattinson and Stewart seem more comfortable around each other than ever before, there’s still awkwardness between them that isn’t there between her and Lautner.

Melissa Rosenberg (who has no business calling herself a writer) seems to have lightened up slightly on the melodramatic, repetitive drivel that’s supposed to serve as dialogue but having not read the books, maybe that’s because Stephanie Meyer did.

With that said, there’s still enough gag-worthy dialogue to complain about. Jacob’s description of “imprinting” to Bella is so juvenile and clichéd, I won’t even bother typing it. With that said, the film lightens up a bit when it skates close to self-parody; I’m not going to lie, I giggled when Edward blurts out “Doesn’t he own a shirt?” upon seeing Jacob.

After watching all three of these films I began to notice how cheeky the Twilight films can be sometimes, as if they know and expect the stupidity of their audience. An example; when Rosalie (Nikki Reed) is explaining to Bella that once she’s changed, there’s something she’ll want more than Edward, something she’ll kill for. I know she means blood, you probably know she means blood. Why then must she elaborate on it further by saying “blood!?”

If they don’t know the stupidity of their audience, they certainly share it: When Bella’s mom notices the “intense” connection between Bella and Edward; she remarks “You’re different with him. He moves, you move. Like magnets.” Oh, what a cute piece of dialogue. Except it makes no sense, because magnets f****** repel each other!

As for the acting, it has improved over the course of three films. Pattinson doesn’t look nauseous in every scene, which I applaud him for. There’s actually some convincing acting between Pattinson and Lautner when discussing what’s best for Bella inside a tent, if one ignores some of the ridiculous dialogue between the two. However, the confrontation between them after Jacob kisses Bella is laughably unconvincing until Lautner’s hilarious delivery of “I kissed Bella. And she broke her hand. Punching my face” makes up for it.

Bryce Dallas Howard, a capable actress, doesn’t do anything miraculous as Victoria, but she doesn’t embarrass herself either. Finally, I must give credit to Billy Burke. He has such a likeable presence throughout these films and he comes off so naturally as a caring father, he’s one of the only actors to emerge from this series unscathed.

Lastly, the wolves look more realistic in this film. The special effects are still not particularly good, but don’t remain in the realm of a live-action Scooby-Doo film either.

I’ve heard people say about this film “it’s better than the other two, but it’s still Twilight.” In many cases, this would be an unfair critique indicating a bias. In the case of this film, it’s an accurate assessment. "Eclipse" is much better than the previous two films, but it’s still a part of the poorly written, lazily acted mess that Twilight is.

I will admit that Eclipse is more entertaining and more capably made than the previous two films and as Eclipse is much more of an action film than the previous two, I can actually see a bit of the appeal that has previously escaped me.

With that said, "Eclipse" is still not a good film by any means as it’s plagued with the problems

of the first two. Yes, each film has been somewhat better than what came before it but it’s like

saying the stomach tumor was better than the brain tumor.

GRADE: C-