Vampires meet the CW. Wait, that already happened with Buffy, um how about: Extremely cold vampires meet the CW (WB)?

For the quality of this film there are too many known faces in it. First you have Josh Hartnett playing the main character. He's been in a bazillion things and while watching the movie you associate him with those things. Then you have the chick from ER, Melissa George, playing the second character. For me it was too many faces to believe the story. Next time, pick some low key actors and it will be a better go around.

Ok, there's my beef with the casting, now for the movie. Overall, not a bad try. Of course, as with most movies, a decent hour of action/thriller/suspense/CW has to end, and the way they ended it was really really really lame. It kind of killed the mood for leaving the theater.

During the action/thriller/suspense/CW hour there was too much emphasis on the love story between the two main characters. Honestly, I paid to see this movie to watch people torn apart by vampires, not watch two people fall back in love. Not to mention the love story was truly soap opera quality.

The evil guys? They were pretty good. Tore through their prey after playing with them, and scenes were luckily left in with people getting their heads chopped off by axes, sweet. There was even a great scene from above that reminded me of Grand Theft Auto 2, where a character is running down the street with people being mauled all around them, white snow turning red, bodies being ripped apart and dragged down allies.

So overall, cut out the ending, in fact just leave about 10 minutes early, and you have a decent, but over dramatic, vampire movie. I recommend it in theaters, or once it is out on DVD, but not both.

Hide Full Review

WolfZ pretty much covered all the bases here. While the movie had a lot of good moments, the melodrama parts really killed the momentum. I've never read the comic...er, graphic novel, but I'm hoping that it was a little bit more subtle in the relationship between the two leads. The movie really just kicks you square in the balls with love here.

That being said, I loved the vampires. Not all the ones on-screen, but the somewhat hidden mythology surrounding them. I think this is where a lot of people had trouble with the "there's no story!" bit because nothing is really explained. Do you really freaking need it to be? Where'd they come from? Why do they have their own language? Why have they been around so long and not been discovered, etc, etc. Who fucking cares? Sometimes less is more, in my opinion. And really, think about some of the classics...Night of the Living Dead? The Thing? What's the story with those monsters? It's not always needed, dammit.

Like I said there were some great moments...my favorite is still the scene with the young lady who's been captured for bait.

Girl: "Please God!"

Head Vamp: "Gaaahhhhd?"

-looks around, up in the sky-

-somberly shakes head-

Head Vamp: "No God."

Also the aforementioned Grand Theft Auto 2 scene was visually impressive. The acting is decent fair, I guess, though I have to give kudos to Ben Foster who played "The Stranger." He apparently consulted a Cajun dialect coach (on his own dime) to make the character that much more of an outsider. Also Danny Huston as head vampire Marlowe was good stuff. He just oozed psycho.

If it wasn't for that ridiculous Blade 2 super dramatic ending it would be easier to rate it higher. And what was with all the pointless slo-mo? Geez louise, walking in the snow shouldn't be so poignant!

Hide Full Review