ECLIPSE Tent Scene: Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner Connect While Kristen Stewart Thaws Out

Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson in David Slade's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

The Tent Sequence in Stephenie Meyer's novel Eclipse is many twihards' favorite. It's also quite possibly the most discussed scene found in the movie version, partly because it had to be reshot in order to solve some "blocking" issues.

Although overall I found Eclipse a marked improvement over New Moon, I also found the Tent Threesome segment one of the worst sections in the novel — or in any of the Twilight novels, period.

That was chiefly due to the unconvincing chat between the vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson in the movie) and the werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner).

Freezing Bella (Kristen Stewart) is too out of it while cuddling up against Jacob's hot bod to say anything at all, but (unfortunately) she still manages to record in her head every bit of corny dialogue exchanged between her two men.

For while Bella thaws out, Edward and Jacob discuss their love for her, how they'll fight for her no matter what, and how they would actually like each other if Bella hadn't inconveniently sandwiched herself between them.

Of course, Edward selflessly wants what is best for Bella. That has been his chief characteristic from the get-go and in my view that's exactly what makes his character so fascinating and the books themselves worth reading. Even so, I felt the Tent Sequence dialogue and the blossoming werewolf-vampire connection didn't ring at all true, especially considering that Jacob comes across as a manipulative, arrogant, selfish jerk. Uneasy alliances, after all, are a part of life — without the need for "you're a nice guy" declarations.

Worse yet, the Tent Sequence also sets the stage for Bella and Jacob's Kissing Scene, the most cringeworthy moment in any of the Twilight books.

I fully understand what Meyer was trying to convey by having Bella realize the depth of her feelings for Jacob and I got the Wuthering Heights parallels as well. All the same, I found it mind-boggling that an author would choose to ruin her narrator-protagonist by turning her into a wishy-washy, easily manipulated bouncing doll.

The chief problem is that Eclipse lacks the dark, borderline-psychotic dramatic intensity found in Emily Bronte's Gothic novel; hence, Bella comes across as a befuddled tease instead of a pathological case. As a consequence, she seems unworthy of someone as obsessively devoted as Edward.

Eclipse would have been infinitely more satisfying had Bella opted for her vampire and all that entailed without needing a hard-bodied, hard-kissing werewolf on the side just so she could be 100% sure. In fact, Bella's emotional maturity in the first Twilight book is her main appeal while it also helps readers to understand why a 105-year-old (or whereabouts) vampire would fall so madly in love with her.

While reading Twilight — which, much to my surprise, I actually liked very much despite several narrative flaws — I rooted for Bella when nomadic vampires tried to have her for brunch. By the end of Eclipse, however, I'd become an ardent member of Team Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard in the third movie; Rachelle Lefevre in the first two), who's out to tear Bella to pieces and throw away the crumbs.

Below are three interesting takes on the Tent Scene — featuring, of course, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner — in David Slade's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse:

"Eclipse’s best scene happens in a tent where permanently shirtless Jacob and permanently pale Edward, bitter enemies till now, finally lay their cards on the table and find common ground in their love for Bella. It’s a scene which could have been filled with romantic platitudes, but instead it’s laid out with a kind of naïve honesty in which both characters confess their failings and decide the girl they care about is more important than whatever prejudices they hold against each other. It’s also the place where Twilight finally establishes that Bella, till now mostly a bland pawn, actually has some say in things." Josh Tyler at Cinema Blend.

"But alas, no force, no matter how utterly rational its arguments, will keep Bella from her destiny. Which, obviously, is Edward. Or is it? Eclipse goes to great pains to invent ways to perpetuate the film’s romantic rivalry, inserting scenes like the one in which Bella, on the verge of freezing to death in a tent high up in the mountains, is saved when Jacob arrives to heroically spoon her body temperature back to its proper level. (Eclipse is being hyped as the first 'guy-friendly' Twilight flick, but no film which includes a climactic spooning scene can rightly claim such a distinction.) Edward, meanwhile, with his poor vampire circulation, is powerless to help." Thomas Leupp at Hollywood.com.

"Much leads up to a scene in a tent on a mountaintop in the midst of a howling blizzard, when Bella’s teeth start chattering. Obviously a job for the hot-blooded Jacob and not the cold-blooded Edward, and as Jacob embraces and warms her, he and Edward have a cloying cringe fest in which Edward admits that if Jacob were not a werewolf, he would probably like him, and then Jacob admits that if Edward were not a vampire — well, no, no, he couldn’t. Come on, big guy. The two of you are making eye contact. Edward’s been a confirmed bachelor for 109 years. Get in the brokeback spirit." Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Needless to say, Ebert's take on the scene is my favorite, for Leupp's criticism doesn't feel quite right.

I mean, wouldn't most guys enjoy a "climactic spooning scene" featuring a very good-looking woman such as Kristen Stewart? Or would they rather watch Taylor Lautner's Jacob spooning with Robert Pattinson's Edward?

If so, Ebert does indeed have a point.