Three Twilight films in and Bella is deep in a tangle of angst. She has been reunited with Edward but their forbidden relationship is threatened by an evil vampire seeking revenge. The love triangle ploughs on, too. Will she choose Jacob or Edward? But there is still another choice for Bella to make: mortality or immortality.

There's pleasure to be had in indulging a world so ridiculously far from the real one. In this world, you can have action, love and angst. All with its shirt off.

Bella sulks and pines, but she does it so well. Edward broods so deeply that his smile is almost a cathartic release. He weakens knees with intent gazes and chivalry so meaningful it turns rampageous.

And the romance … oh my, the romance. Swathed in sweaty whispers and dripping in unconsummated love, Bella and Edward's forbidden love tempers a more action-packed film than the first two.

As an army of newborn vampires comes hunting for revenge, all we want is another almost-sex scene so amped up it needs a pressure valve.

The intensity is sustained and passionate. It's the glue that holds the glop together.

That this masochistic teen romance is so desirable to young women is what makes the phenomenon hard to comprehend to the non-faithful. Even scary to some. Do we seriously want to be the damsel?

For such a darkened antihero, Bella lights up the screen.