When the rotating crew phenomenon brought Shore aboard for 2010's Eclipse, the famed The Lord of the Rings veteran took an entirely different stance. "I actually did some pretty thorough research. I like to read a lot, and I knew the story. I was really interested in it from a dramatic point of view," Shore stated. When asked about the previous scores, he added, "I found both guys' scores to be very good. Carter's was such a good score, and Alexandre's was just beautiful." It shouldn't be a surprise, therefore, that Shore's music, despite a clear decision to follow new thematic threads, combines the tone of the first two works. The Desplat piano performances directly carry over into a less classically formal structure more in tune with Burwell's, and the incorporation of synthetic elements, including electric guitar, from Burwell's music is reprised with some moderation by Shore. As such, the tone of Eclipse is a satisfying compromise that may not impress film score collectors that gravitated towards Desplat's highlights, but better serves the intended audience (even Desplat's more ardent supporters must acknowledge that his score was trashed by most of the aforementioned teenage girls, which arguably labeled the composer's direction with the franchise as a failure to understand the concept). There's nothing offensive about Shore's stance here, the romantic flair of his piano themes a bit more reserved and the action music more muscular. The cues of battle and rumbling gravity do resemble the Orc music from The Lord of the Rings, though not with the same propulsive cohesion. Also evident in Eclipse, not surprisingly, is a fair dose of ominous, deep string brooding more common to Edge of Darkness and other typical Shore dramatic thrillers. By "Mountain Peak" and "The Battle," the score generates metallic, pounding ambience that may equate the vampires in this story with marching Orc armies, but it gets the job done. Intriguingly, the brass in Eclipse are never afforded an opportunity to really open up the action material, leaving it slightly more atmospheric than hoped. Likewise, in his effort to restrain Desplat's overflowing romanticism, Shore does lose some of the gravity in conversational "eye gazing" sequences. These cues, which rely on strings, woodwind solos, and piano, could have used a touch of electric guitar, quite frankly, an instrument instead used as accompaniment to the evil Victoria in especially earlier cues. In "Riley" and, to a lesser extent, "Victoria," Shore employs distortion effects (on top of the guitar) that manipulate the music quite unpleasantly.

It's odd that none of the three accomplished composers in this franchise has yet been able to really combine the standard romantic sound of a piano and orchestra with the pop elements that are clearly the other half of the soundtrack equation for the concept. The song compilation album for Eclipse includes pop songs that are littered throughout the film, and it's strange to hear a score from Shore that doesn't make an attempt to bleed the pop band elements into the romantic orchestral passages as the audience would probably prefer. That doesn't mean that Shore didn't make an attempt to do that; he approached the group Metric to collaborate on a title theme for Bella that would connect the score's main thematic content with the primary song of the end credits. Shore explains, "I worked with Emily Haines and James Shaw of the group Metric, and Metric was a group that I had researched and felt that they would be good collaborators for this project. I asked them if they would be interested in writing with me, and the three of us created the song 'Eclipse (All Yours).' I actually like the collaboration of working with different artists." The result is the alluringly simple theme for Bella and Edward's continuously developing romance. Their scenes together in a meadow are provided lightly symphonic renditions, led by "The Kiss." Shore also reduces the theme to piano solo in "Compromise/Bella's Theme" as a nod to Desplat. The "Wedding Plans" cue offers optimistic combined variations on the idea before transitioning into Metric's enjoyable vocal performance of the song. The only other significantly recurring theme in Eclipse exists for the final member of the triangle, Jacob, a character that Shore wanted to provide special thematic attention to given the events of this film. This surprisingly basic theme is foreshadowed several times on album before receiving its own piano solo in "Jacob Black." The most intriguing thematic moment in Eclipse comes in "The Kiss," when the main theme for Bella and Edward is intertwined longingly with fragment's of Jacob's theme, a very well developed cue of soft conflict. Overall, Shore's score is adequately rendered and features impressive sequences, but it suffers from two major drawbacks. The lack of thematic continuity in the franchise continues to haunt it, and abandoning Desplat's theme altogether seems unnecessary. Additionally, Shore's score seems mechanical in its performances, lacking any of the engrossing passion that exists on screen. The absence of rock elements in the romance material is a minor quibble that adds to a general sense of disappointment. It appears as though this franchise will never really obtain the musical identity it deserves, regardless of what you think about its juvenile content.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download