Bella (Kristen Stewart) remains caught between Jacob (Taylor Lautner, left) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) in The Twlight Saga: Eclipse, the third entry in the vampire romance series. (Kimberley French/E1 Entertainment) The contest to win Bella’s heart may be more serious than ever, but that doesn’t mean her romantic rivals are entirely without a sense of humour.

When Edward (Robert Pattinson) reluctantly delivers his beloved Bella (Kristen Stewart) into the protection of a typically topless Jacob (Taylor Lautner) midway through the third installment of the Twilight saga, the vampire rightly wonders, “Doesn’t he own a shirt?” Leaden and quip-less in the previous entries, the buff werewolf has also grown wittier. As they both watch over Bella in a tent high up on a snowy mountain, Jacob insists that it’s up to him to save her from hypothermia – by slipping into her sleeping bag and warming her up. “Face it,” he says with a grin to the pale-faced Edward, “I am hotter than you.”

Better staged and more briskly paced than its predecessors, Eclipse rates as the most assured piece of filmmaking the franchise has produced.

Of course, that debate will continue to rage on, seeing as the film franchise spawned by Stephenie Meyer’s young-adult novels has at least two more movies to go. In the meantime, Eclipse may find favour with more than the millions of Twihards already devoted to the series. Better staged and more briskly paced than its predecessors, yet just as swoony in its evocation of grand passion and impossible love, Eclipse rates as the most assured piece of filmmaking the franchise has produced. The fact that director David Slade, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and the cast allow for more moments of lightness than Meyer’s angst-ridden universe previously allowed actually makes the material seem richer and wiser.

That said, we’re not talking Chekhov here; we’re not up to the moral complexity or stylistic audacity of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, either. When we last left Bella and Edward, he had just proposed marriage to her. She agreed, on the condition that she too be made immortal, a stipulation that had already been decreed by the Volturi overlords with whom the couple tangled in New Moon. Edward remains unhappy about this part of the prenuptial agreement, due to the pain and suffering that will be caused by her vampirization.

As for the shirtless Jacob, he remains her furry second fiddle. Again and again, he implores Bella to choose him instead – “I’m gonna fight for you until your heart stops beating,” he says, well aware of the statement’s double meaning. Yet these enemies must help forge a temporary alliance between both of their supernatural clans if they are to save Bella from the threat posed by Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard, taking over the role from Rachelle Lefevre). Still seeking vengeance after Edward and the Cullens killed her mate James way back in the first movie – doesn’t the fall of 2008 feel like three centuries ago? – the red-haired vamp is returning to town with a freshly created army of bloodsuckers.

Scenes dominated by penetrating gazes and intense conversations far outnumber the action sequences, but like many aspects of the film, the latter are distinguished by a big step up in quality. Polished and exciting, they also feature less of the crappy CGI that even had Twihards cringing. Inheriting the director’s chair from Catherine Hardwicke and Chris Weitz, Slade – who won breakout performances from Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson in his 2005 indie thriller Hard Candy – has fashioned a more compelling work without neglecting the elements that have made Twilight the reigning pop-gothic melodrama of our age.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays the revenge-bent Victoria in Eclipse. (Kimberley French/Summit/E1)Of course, Slade has the advantage of having a more confident cast. Pattinson and Lautner have learned how to poke fun at their beefcake status while still investing their characters with the gravitas they require. As for Stewart – who was a tough, terse Joan Jett in The Runaways – she’s added several notes to Bella’s emotional repertoire, moving beyond the hesitant speech and hair-tugging tic that have made her so easy to parody. As a result, there’s considerable poignancy in the scenes in which Bella confronts the fact that her decision to be with Edward means leaving all of her mortal loved ones, including her parents.

It helps that, much like a certain young wizard, she’s facing a more adult set of dilemmas at this stage of her journey. Jacob is tempting not just because of Lautner’s impeccable abs, but because of the notion that he represents: namely, that she may have been wrong to believe in the romantic ideal of one true love. She must ponder the idea that she may experience many loves in a single lifetime, and be none the poorer for it.

Not that she’s suddenly gonna get promiscuous. Meyer’s much-analyzed abstinence agenda comes to the fore in a scene in which Edward cools Bella’s ardour despite her willingness to sacrifice her virginity before their wedding day. “I’m from a different era,” he says, applying the brakes. “Things were a lot less complicated.” He then produces the long-promised engagement ring, the sight of which inspired a chorus of oohs – and one cry of “It’s so ugly!” – in the audience at my screening.

Needless to say, there were no such expressions of dissent whenever Lautner appeared on screen. A shot of Bella nuzzling Jacob in werewolf form caused more approving noises – indeed, what could be better than being with a snuggly boyfriend and a warm Siberian husky at the same time?

Edward’s going to have to work pretty hard to outdo that. One solution: a new fun-fur wardrobe.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse opens June 30.

Jason Anderson is a writer based in Toronto.