Movie Review of 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,' Are You Team Jacob or Team Edward?

If someone were to ask me if I wanted to see a film about werewolves and vampires, normally I'd have stared blankly at him and walked away. But the King of Krump Lil C (popularly known in the film "Rize" and as a judge and choreographer on "So You Think You Can Dance?") indirectly got me to go see "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." This weekend, Lil C had been replying to Tweets debating with people about who's more "bucc" between the vampire Edward (played by Robert Pattinson) and the werewolf Jacob (played by Taylor Lautner).

Lil C's tweets included "Edward carez only for Bella, Jacob carez only for himself & hiz own happiness, which distract him from caring for Bella" and "itz not that Jacob Iz wacc, he'z jus not az mature and selfless az Edward. He'z young, hot headed, and selfish." The SYTYCD choreographer even went so far as to say he's a combination of Jacob and Edward put together although he clarified he was "Team Edward!"

Initially I didn't understand who in the world Jacob and Edward were, and I assumed they were talking about krump dancers. But the more the tweets argued about hugging and kissing, the more I knew something else was going on and scrolled down to his tweet about seeing the film. There were so many opinions about Jacob and Edward that I finally gave in, ate some Sour Patch Kids to keep myself awake and used one of my movie passes (courtesy of an Examiner.com contest) to see this film that I was convinced would be boring. Wrong!

Bella Swan (played by Kristen Stewart) is graduating from high school, and it's not just the usual ceremony and graduation party she's looking forward to. After graduation, she's decided to become a vampire and join her boyfriend Edward Cullen's lifestyle. Bella's father, Charlie Swan (played by Billy Burke), already doesn't like Edward, but he has no idea the boy is a vampire. Charlie would rather Bella date Jacob Black, who he thinks is going through a hard time because of Jacob's parents. What Charlie doesn't know is Jacob stopped talking to Bella because he doesn't want her to be a vampire. He'd rather her be a werewolf like him.

Historically the werewolves and vampires do not get along. Although there are no clear signs of who is a werewolf and who isn't at their high school, the very light brown, intense eyes from the vampires give them away immediately. (I'm assuming the book explains why they're able to hang around during the daytime because that was never explained in the film.) Bella continuously refuses Edward's marriage proposals, but what's interesting is Edward is so old school that he refuses to have sex with Bella until they're married and he insists on "courting her." Chivalry lives with this guy. Clearly Edward is just about ancient to practice this belief, and I like it. It's a nice change of pace from other romantic films.

However, there's more than romance going on with this flick. New vampires are on the scene, and it turns out in the first seven months of a new vampire's life, he or she is the hungriest. Young people are disappearing left and right in Seattle because of the newbie vampires killing them for blood. The more missing people show up on the news, the more suspicious the town gets, but they have no idea about the secrets going on at Bella's high school, including Charlie, who is a police officer.

When newbie vampires find out about Bella from a head vampire Victoria, Bella's life goes haywire. Jacob and Edward realize that if they don't work together to save her, Bella's innocence will be taken.

(Spoiler Alert: The problem I have with the challenge in this film is that Bella wanted to be a vampire anyway. I can understand why Jacob would want to protect her, but for Edward, he should've been happy as ever to have her join his world. Maybe he wanted to do it on his terms and he claimed he didn't necessarily want her to give up her world, but if she married him and completed her wish after graduation, she'd be doing that anyway.)

While I don't usually care for werewolf films or vampire films, I liked the special effects and fight scenes in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." The characters kept me interested in the conflict, and the history of the relationship between the two forces was fascinating. Jasper Whitlock (played by Jackson Rathbone) and Alice (played by Ashley Greene) were also intriguing to watch. Rosalie (played by Nikki Reid) made the story more human than even Bella could.

The tug-of-war going on between Jacob and Edward, who both wanted her to choose them willingly, was absolutely entertaining. While Edward played the role of the jealous, protective boyfriend, who Bella's mother said it seemed like he'd take a bullet for her (ironic considering he's bulletproof), Jacob wanted to sweep Bella off her feet. Remember Positive K's rap song "I Gotta Man"? Jacob had the attitude of the rapper and was being flat out disrespectful to Edward at every turn. What ya man got to do with me?

Jacob and Edward buckled at Bella's every whim, but there are two other women in this flick who have serious power over their men. There's only one weak women in the plot, but it takes time and a female member of the Vampire Gang to figure that out. Woman power!

The film ended with me wanting more and not knowing how I felt about Bella's decision. I understood why she loved Edward and Jacob both, but I was smitten with Jacob through most of the film. Her actions (especially in the tent) made me lean towards Jacob. Edward's calm demeanor during the tent conversation made me respect him more though. However, the fight scenes made me take both their sides. So am I joining Team Edward or Team Jacob? I can't say. But I can say this film gets 5 out of 5 stars. I look forward to the sequel, and I'm pretty sure it's coming.

So what team are you on? Team Edward or Team Jacob?