The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed by David Slade
Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Rated PG-13
Release date: June 30, 2010

Hailing The Twilight Saga: Eclipse the best of the series isn’t the ringing endorsement it sounds. Hearing that won’t change the minds of any non-believers and if you are already among the following, you aren’t one that needs converting. It most certainly is, but it’s a pretty relative statement.

I have always taken the stance of non-participation in the popular recreation of Twilight bashing. Attacking the mob mentality of these zealots is a bandwagon that would be easy to jump on, but Lord knows I liked some awful movies when I was younger, so I’ve always given the series a fair shake. They haven’t been great, in fact they have been downright ugly at times, but I can see why so many fans like them. A little.

Eclipse starts off pretty promising. Dark and raining in Seattle, a young man is being chased and hunted by something. This is the first time in this series I got the sense that vampires are dangerous and anything but sparkly and cuddly. It turns out to be Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is still hellbent on exacting revenge on Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) for killing her boyfriend James in the first film. Her plan is to find and kill Bella (Kristen Stewart), presumably so Edward can feel what she felt when her boyfriend died. The young man ends up being a college student from Forks, Riley Biers (Xavier Samuel), who is turned and tricked by Victoria into helping her assemble an army of newborn vampires to help take down Bella and the Cullen vampire clan.

This, my friends, may just be the most brilliant thing that anyone in the history of the universe has ever created. Okay, so that may be a tad hyperbole. Still, this is pretty fantastic and you all must check it out immediately. Basically, someone on YouTube called The Station posted a new Choose Your Own Adventure-style game based on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Better yet, the game plays out with a good old Nintendo 8-Bit presentation.

8-Bit has been pretty popular lately with things like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog getting their own old school remakes. All are a lot of fun, but the interactive element here probably makes this one the best we’ve seen so far. That and the fact that it makes fun of a Twilight movie, of course. That will always win you some major cupcake points…with me, anyway.

Be sure to click on over to the other side to begin your very own adventure in the realms of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse!

In case you had not heard, the 2010 MTV Movie Awards aired last night. And in case you actually cared, they sucked as they have for the past five years or so… give or take and all that.

The problem with the awards is that they went from being cool to aiming at pre-teen kids as their audience far too much. Not only that, but then actually letting them vote, which leads to the most preposterous things you could possibly think of even nominating going on to take home the popcorn trophy and embarrassing true movie fans everywhere.

Even so, each year usually brings at least one or two things worth mentioning, and some exciting new trailers to check out. This year, the big world premiere trailers shown were for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Last Airbender, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

If you’re excited about that last trailer, then you probably actually loved this year’s MTV Movie Awards, but because we try to love all of our readers as equally as possible, we wanted to show them all off.

Click on over to the other side to check out all the trailers for yourself.

Recently it was reported that because Summit Entertainment had not decided earlier that their final movie in the Twilight franchise, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, would be split into two movies and because their actors had become stars, talents like Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz were holding out in hopes of pulling in a much bigger payday (Read: Will ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’ Re-Cast Cullen Kids Ashley Greene & Kellan Lutz?). It was also for this reason that the assumed-two-part film had not been made “official” yet, even though there was little doubt that all cast members would eventually rejoin the three main stars.

In a press release put out by Summit, the studio announced the return of the entire Cullen family, including Greene, Lutz, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, and Elizabeth Reaser. The release pointed out that the actors have joined Billy Burke, who plays Charlie Swan. Three new posters were also released for the next film in the series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, one of which can seen to the right.

Summer you say? Already? We thought it was like February still…no?

Yes indeed, that joyous time of year when movie fans can put their brains away to hibernate for a few months (for the most part), and bask in the glory that is the summer movie season. It’s time to re-open the cinematic buffet and, as always, this year will deliver all of the bangs and booms, the violence and sex, and the shocks and laughs that you the moviegoers crave when the sun is at its hottest.

This year is a little different than we’ve been used to — almost like a year off in terms of true spectacle. There’s more than your fair share of big names and sequels being released, but unlike last year and even next year, the summer won’t be dominated by them. Instead, there’s plenty of remakes, adaptations, and a mixture of all genres from the traditional action-packed firework festivals and comedies to less-traditional fare such as historical epics, science fiction horrors, cult classics-in-the-making, and psychological mind-benders.

Allow me not to waste anymore of your time. Grab the biggest, buttery bucket of popcorn and as many liter-o-colas as you can carry, then leap on over to the other side for your biggest and best guide to upcoming movies in our very own Summer Movie Mayhem 2010!