Eric the .5b (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} point5b) wrote,@ 2007-10-20 23:51:00 |
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Sketchy Review: 30 Days of Night
Going to re-read the comic, but first, my impressions in semi-organized fashion.
I'm going to lead off with disappointments, I'm afraid. But there's some tastiness in there.
First, is it the screenwriters, the directors, or the producers who have broken hearts and the strange certainty that if some horrible, traumatic event had happened to them, they'd have been able to win back their significant others' love?
Seriously, that's the first thing that jumped out at me. The early scenes where in the comic we see Eben and Stella look over the burned cell-phones, smooch, and then watch the sunset don't have Stella. Instead, Eben's with his deputy (they don't smooch). When we finally see Stella, she's getting ready to catch the last plane out of town. It turns out that they've separated, and their friends all want to know why.
I had a bit of a sinking feeling at that point. I knew they would pad the original story, but I didn't think they'd change something as central as that. And as I said to my friend Dani afterwards, don't they do that in every movie, lately? Actual long-term relationships seem to be becoming like pregnancy in movies - something that's almost never just established as part of the situation and depicted, no matter how short the time-frame of the story. Just like nearly any movie with a pregnant major character (aside from Fargo) will have her go into labor and give birth, any movie with a long-term couple will have some problem (and a resulting crisis) in their relationship. Seriously - if I watch a movie and a couple is introduced, there seems to be a silent count-down to the revelation that Something Is Very Wrong.
Stella misses her flight, and the friend who got her to the airport too late offers to put her up for the month - "but the condition is that you're going to have to tell [my wife and I] what's up with you two."
He never learns. We never learn.
That's one way to graft an alien sub-plot into the story without warping much of the rest, I guess.
In end, they get back together. Well, naturally, a little before the end of course, as the movie at least kept the original ending...
Second, it's a jump-fest. Worse, it's a jump-and-be-deafened-by-audio-punishment-f
Again, this is padding, and it's part of a mixed effect. There's some really nice survival-horror moments as we see the band of survivors try to keep hidden and maneuver for safety, which was a welcome addition - but a lot of the tension came from the fear that something is going to go wrong, and the payoff won't be something so much horrifying as painfully, startlingly loud.
Third, apparently someone hated all the interactions among the vampires in the story. In the movie, there's no politics and no pissed-off bigwig arriving to say "What were you idiots thinking?" Instead, they're just a pack of feral, if playful creatures. Aside from the little girl who wants to play, only their leader has any dialog whatsoever, and only two lines of his are in English; I wasn't sure what language he was supposed to be speaking as he gave a few little soliloquies to his snarling posse. The rest of the vampires just hiss, howl, and generally act like some a two-legged pack of wolves or big cats. Admittedly, there's some nice work put into this depiction, particularly some bits of body language and the enthusiastic, malevolent pleasure the actors put into their depictions. (To the point where the one reference to the misery of undeath from the story comes off quite falsely.) It really does work as a depiction, aside from one unintentionally comic moment where a vampire off by himself makes a few pointless cries and snarls without reason and in a terribly happy manner, as if just for the pleasure of the noise.
(Of course, I later found myself wondering how the Hell this crowd of vampires managed to hide and convince the world they didn't exist. I just keep imagining the leader, somewhere in Eastern Europe, face-palming as one of his cohorts screams gleefully while chasing a victim, waking half the city. The best excuse I can come up with is that they're letting out centuries of stifled howls and harrying-cries...which would suggest that maybe that one vampire really was just enjoying the sound of his own voice. :) )
Fourth, like another flawed movie, the last War of the Worlds remake, it satisfyingly establishes the horror of the situation. Once they finally stop being coy with the vampires (which they do for a hair too long, really, and they shamefully pass up the "march on the town" shot, even though they have someone apparently see just that thing!) and show them ravaging the town, it's nightmarish, but in a horribly lucid way. This goes back to the second impression, though - there's really no need for the jump-fest, because the other elements of the movie can bring the fear.
Fifth, the violence is brutal, especially the violence by human beings. I approve of this, actually. Violence frightens them - there's a nice bit early on where Eben has to forcibly arrest the wannabe-Renfield, and the bystanders are frozen in shock, even cringing - and they don't find fighting to kill easy or pleasant. These things emphasizes that they're just people against cruel, nightmarish things beyond human capacity. There's some heroic effort, but people get palpably hurt. It admirably grounds the awfulness of the situation.
Decapitations are not easy for these characters. In fact, a squick-warning to Bruce and other folks who seem to have similar boundaries to me: while others happen off-camera, one decapitation towards the end shows a second ax-blow actually hit a man's neck and dislodge his head further in very convincing fashion. It fit, but I don't think I needed to see that.
Sixth, for all its faults, it's one of the rare survival-horror movies I've seen where you actually want most everyone to make it. They're decent people who don't suddenly become cold-blooded, selfish bastards because it's a life-or-death situation. They aren't stupid, but they try to help each other and anyone else they can, and there's a refreshing lack of the stereotypical and not-especially-realistic "people in tense, confined place" interactions most movies have happen. When folks do act unwisely, it's not out of cowardice or hostility, but compassion or love. Even the one guy (as there's always one guy) who doesn't earn this sort of sympathy is more tragic than anything.
Seventh, there's action on the edge of Bourne Supremacy-hectic-ness, but unlike that movie, the camera does regularly catch up and show things happening too fast to entirely follow, instead of just bouncing around to suggest things happening too fast to follow. I have to appreciate that.
Eight, I really like that thing where you suddenly realize that something significant is happening in the background of a shot, slightly out of focus. I like being startled by that.
Ninth and last (but not quite least - that was #8), I learned that there's something remarkable about Alaskans - their blood doesn't dry or freeze, even after most of a month. Really, a full month in, we see vampires looking for any remaining survivors still covered with fresh, wet blood...
Going to re-read the comic, but first, my impressions in semi-organized fashion.
I'm going to lead off with disappointments, I'm afraid. But there's some tastiness in there.
First, is it the screenwriters, the directors, or the producers who have broken hearts and the strange certainty that if some horrible, traumatic event had happened to them, they'd have been able to win back their significant others' love?
Seriously, that's the first thing that jumped out at me. The early scenes where in the comic we see Eben and Stella look over the burned cell-phones, smooch, and then watch the sunset don't have Stella. Instead, Eben's with his deputy (they don't smooch). When we finally see Stella, she's getting ready to catch the last plane out of town. It turns out that they've separated, and their friends all want to know why.
I had a bit of a sinking feeling at that point. I knew they would pad the original story, but I didn't think they'd change something as central as that. And as I said to my friend Dani afterwards, don't they do that in every movie, lately? Actual long-term relationships seem to be becoming like pregnancy in movies - something that's almost never just established as part of the situation and depicted, no matter how short the time-frame of the story. Just like nearly any movie with a pregnant major character (aside from Fargo) will have her go into labor and give birth, any movie with a long-term couple will have some problem (and a resulting crisis) in their relationship. Seriously - if I watch a movie and a couple is introduced, there seems to be a silent count-down to the revelation that Something Is Very Wrong.
Stella misses her flight, and the friend who got her to the airport too late offers to put her up for the month - "but the condition is that you're going to have to tell [my wife and I] what's up with you two."
He never learns. We never learn.
That's one way to graft an alien sub-plot into the story without warping much of the rest, I guess.
In end, they get back together. Well, naturally, a little before the end of course, as the movie at least kept the original ending...
Second, it's a jump-fest. Worse, it's a jump-and-be-deafened-by-audio-punishment-f
Again, this is padding, and it's part of a mixed effect. There's some really nice survival-horror moments as we see the band of survivors try to keep hidden and maneuver for safety, which was a welcome addition - but a lot of the tension came from the fear that something is going to go wrong, and the payoff won't be something so much horrifying as painfully, startlingly loud.
Third, apparently someone hated all the interactions among the vampires in the story. In the movie, there's no politics and no pissed-off bigwig arriving to say "What were you idiots thinking?" Instead, they're just a pack of feral, if playful creatures. Aside from the little girl who wants to play, only their leader has any dialog whatsoever, and only two lines of his are in English; I wasn't sure what language he was supposed to be speaking as he gave a few little soliloquies to his snarling posse. The rest of the vampires just hiss, howl, and generally act like some a two-legged pack of wolves or big cats. Admittedly, there's some nice work put into this depiction, particularly some bits of body language and the enthusiastic, malevolent pleasure the actors put into their depictions. (To the point where the one reference to the misery of undeath from the story comes off quite falsely.) It really does work as a depiction, aside from one unintentionally comic moment where a vampire off by himself makes a few pointless cries and snarls without reason and in a terribly happy manner, as if just for the pleasure of the noise.
(Of course, I later found myself wondering how the Hell this crowd of vampires managed to hide and convince the world they didn't exist. I just keep imagining the leader, somewhere in Eastern Europe, face-palming as one of his cohorts screams gleefully while chasing a victim, waking half the city. The best excuse I can come up with is that they're letting out centuries of stifled howls and harrying-cries...which would suggest that maybe that one vampire really was just enjoying the sound of his own voice. :) )
Fourth, like another flawed movie, the last War of the Worlds remake, it satisfyingly establishes the horror of the situation. Once they finally stop being coy with the vampires (which they do for a hair too long, really, and they shamefully pass up the "march on the town" shot, even though they have someone apparently see just that thing!) and show them ravaging the town, it's nightmarish, but in a horribly lucid way. This goes back to the second impression, though - there's really no need for the jump-fest, because the other elements of the movie can bring the fear.
Fifth, the violence is brutal, especially the violence by human beings. I approve of this, actually. Violence frightens them - there's a nice bit early on where Eben has to forcibly arrest the wannabe-Renfield, and the bystanders are frozen in shock, even cringing - and they don't find fighting to kill easy or pleasant. These things emphasizes that they're just people against cruel, nightmarish things beyond human capacity. There's some heroic effort, but people get palpably hurt. It admirably grounds the awfulness of the situation.
Decapitations are not easy for these characters. In fact, a squick-warning to Bruce and other folks who seem to have similar boundaries to me: while others happen off-camera, one decapitation towards the end shows a second ax-blow actually hit a man's neck and dislodge his head further in very convincing fashion. It fit, but I don't think I needed to see that.
Sixth, for all its faults, it's one of the rare survival-horror movies I've seen where you actually want most everyone to make it. They're decent people who don't suddenly become cold-blooded, selfish bastards because it's a life-or-death situation. They aren't stupid, but they try to help each other and anyone else they can, and there's a refreshing lack of the stereotypical and not-especially-realistic "people in tense, confined place" interactions most movies have happen. When folks do act unwisely, it's not out of cowardice or hostility, but compassion or love. Even the one guy (as there's always one guy) who doesn't earn this sort of sympathy is more tragic than anything.
Seventh, there's action on the edge of Bourne Supremacy-hectic-ness, but unlike that movie, the camera does regularly catch up and show things happening too fast to entirely follow, instead of just bouncing around to suggest things happening too fast to follow. I have to appreciate that.
Eight, I really like that thing where you suddenly realize that something significant is happening in the background of a shot, slightly out of focus. I like being startled by that.
Ninth and last (but not quite least - that was #8), I learned that there's something remarkable about Alaskans - their blood doesn't dry or freeze, even after most of a month. Really, a full month in, we see vampires looking for any remaining survivors still covered with fresh, wet blood...
