







Writers: Ben Templesmith, Brian Nelson, Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie
Director: David Slade
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster
Length: 113 Minutes
When Dave and I caught this flick I was super stoked to see it. I mean, the comic was AWESOME. Amazing premise, great story, great art, a can't miss project, right? I mean, surely the producers (Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert - Xena!) would stick by the original property and not pull the usual stunts that Hollywood suits tend to do and put a different spin on it, right? I mean, surely they wouldn't have the invading blood-suckers speak a vampiric language all their own that sounds like a drunken Frenchman after an epileptic fit, right? Surely they'd keep the showdown between the young vampires and the old school, elder Nosferatu, right? They'd just follow the original property, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.
SPOILER ALERT!
This movie sucked.
END OF SPOILER ALERT!
I'm sorry, it's the purist in me. The guy that loved Sin City because it was damn near shot panel for panel in its greatness. There was no need to add or take away anything; Its excellence was well established. Well, the same SHOULD have gone for 30 Days of Night. The formula was there. They should have just followed it and the film would have been amazing. Why mess with perfection? In messing with perfection they created a perfect mess. If they'd have stuck with the story even the sub-par casting would have worked. I don't mind Josh Hartnett, not at all. I find him to be a serviceable actor with the right script. He brings what he brings and he was fine in the role of Eben Oleson. Melissa George was non-descript in her role as Stella. But Danny Huston as badass vampire, Marlow? Man, not for one second did I believe him. Not at all, he was way miscast as the leader of vampires. I found myself laughing when he was on-screen because I didn't buy it. I think it was the ridiculous 'language' they had him speaking. Or maybe his hair-cut or his clothes. Or just him. I didn't believe it for a second.
I suppose on its own it's an OK horror flick. People that didn't read the book thought the movie was quite good. Then I let them borrow the comic and they came back wondering why they strayed so far from the comic? How cool would it have been to have the face off between the upstart Marlow and the elder vampire Vicente? Badass! And the showdown between Eben and Marlow in the film was very abrupt and lacked the sense of urgency the comic had. They could have done so much more.
But here I am comparing the two when I'm hired to review the film. The film wasn't my cup of Type A-Positive. Just didn't dig it, didn't believe it, found it quite laughable in some places. All that said, Dave really dug it. He walked out of the theater with stars in his eyes and a four skull rating in his pocket. Only thing I was looking forward to were Sake Bombs and giving this turd 2 skulls out of five.