30 Days of Night
Oct. 22nd, 2007 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grindmonkehInteresting fact:
"On the November 18th (sic) the sun goes down, and remains below the horizon for 67 days until it re-appears on January 24th. During that time there is a decreasing amount of twilight each day, and on December 21st, the shortest day of the year, civil twilight in Barrow lasts for a mere 3 hours."
Overall I *liked* the movie...although it fell short of my expectations and I personally found a lot of faults with it. I like the vampire myth and I like horror movies so I had to kind of like 30 Days.... I think the problem is that I've seen so damn many of them and there are very few original and refreshing ideas that come forward with any frequency. Steve Niles (I assume) had a great idea in setting the vampire film in an Alaskan town where the arctic climate and 30 day lack of daylight is as bleak as it gets. John Carpenter's The Thing is one of my favorite films of all time, and it conceptualized the same atmosphere. 30 Days of Night has some very memorable moments, the story is average, the vampires are decently done, and the acting is good overall, but what really cripples the movie is its editing and continuity. (Not to mention the constant fucking Half-life Vampire Slayer Mod screeching.) I really DID like it a bit, and I'll watch it again on dvd just as soon as its released. That said...here is a nitpicky synopsis that I couldn't help but type up. No big spoilers, but you may not want to read it if you haven't seen it (or if you think I'm an idiot already.)
Weird things are happening in this town, and who the hell are you, stranger?
-
I don't love you. You won't talk to me.
-
*The sun sets.*
-
Screech screech screech! Screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
-
*Fast paced editing and tight camera shots leave the audience with no fucking discernable idea that they've viewed anything other than filler.*
-
*core group of protaganists band together to do nothing*
-
*gratifying shot of town being eaten.*
-
*more fast paced editing and tight camera shots leave the audience with no fucking discernable idea that they've viewed anything other than filler.*
-
Screech screech screech! Screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
-
*Undiscernable period of time passess*
-
We can't stay here, lets go hide somewhere else for no good reason!
-
*Characters inconspicuously relocate by walking down the middle of the street.*
-
Screech screech screech! Screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
-
We'll hide here!
-
*Undiscernable period of time passess*
-
Screech screech screech! Screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
-
I'll bait them into following me without planning past killing one vampire with a lamp until they turn off my electricity, and you guys go hide somewhere else!
-
*Undiscernable period of time passess*
-
Fuck this place, we should hide someplace else!
-
*the wind roars deafeningly as a snowstorm rages, as the flag on the front of the police station hangs completely still*
-
I have an idea that might lend something to the plot!
-
*Fast paced editing and vampire-fu lends absofuckinglutely nothing to the plot and leaves the audience wondering what just happened.*
-
*Vampires wander away.*
-
I love you!
-
*The sun rises.*
-
FIN!
I'm tempted by this now: Frostbiten!
"On the November 18th (sic) the sun goes down, and remains below the horizon for 67 days until it re-appears on January 24th. During that time there is a decreasing amount of twilight each day, and on December 21st, the shortest day of the year, civil twilight in Barrow lasts for a mere 3 hours."
Overall I *liked* the movie...although it fell short of my expectations and I personally found a lot of faults with it. I like the vampire myth and I like horror movies so I had to kind of like 30 Days.... I think the problem is that I've seen so damn many of them and there are very few original and refreshing ideas that come forward with any frequency. Steve Niles (I assume) had a great idea in setting the vampire film in an Alaskan town where the arctic climate and 30 day lack of daylight is as bleak as it gets. John Carpenter's The Thing is one of my favorite films of all time, and it conceptualized the same atmosphere. 30 Days of Night has some very memorable moments, the story is average, the vampires are decently done, and the acting is good overall, but what really cripples the movie is its editing and continuity. (Not to mention the constant fucking Half-life Vampire Slayer Mod screeching.) I really DID like it a bit, and I'll watch it again on dvd just as soon as its released. That said...here is a nitpicky synopsis that I couldn't help but type up. No big spoilers, but you may not want to read it if you haven't seen it (or if you think I'm an idiot already.)
Weird things are happening in this town, and who the hell are you, stranger?
-
I don't love you. You won't talk to me.
-
*The sun sets.*
-
Screech screech screech! Screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
-
*Fast paced editing and tight camera shots leave the audience with no fucking discernable idea that they've viewed anything other than filler.*
-
*core group of protaganists band together to do nothing*
-
*gratifying shot of town being eaten.*
-
*more fast paced editing and tight camera shots leave the audience with no fucking discernable idea that they've viewed anything other than filler.*
-
Screech screech screech! Screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
-
*Undiscernable period of time passess*
-
We can't stay here, lets go hide somewhere else for no good reason!
-
*Characters inconspicuously relocate by walking down the middle of the street.*
-
Screech screech screech! Screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
-
We'll hide here!
-
*Undiscernable period of time passess*
-
Screech screech screech! Screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!
-
I'll bait them into following me without planning past killing one vampire with a lamp until they turn off my electricity, and you guys go hide somewhere else!
-
*Undiscernable period of time passess*
-
Fuck this place, we should hide someplace else!
-
*the wind roars deafeningly as a snowstorm rages, as the flag on the front of the police station hangs completely still*
-
I have an idea that might lend something to the plot!
-
*Fast paced editing and vampire-fu lends absofuckinglutely nothing to the plot and leaves the audience wondering what just happened.*
-
*Vampires wander away.*
-
I love you!
-
*The sun rises.*
-
FIN!
I'm tempted by this now: Frostbiten!
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-23 05:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-23 01:45 pm (UTC)Did you see it?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-23 05:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-26 02:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-07 07:27 pm (UTC)A big problem was that they made the humans utterly helpless, and then didn't make that suspenseful. It was just run, di, everyone else run, last person slowly tortured to death. Blah.
The humans, incredibly, didn't even take advantage of the limited things that they had that did work: head-shot, beheading, and fire. Like, why didn't they get more than one fucking axe? Why didn't they get more shotguns shoot them in the head? Like, when they are running across town and some chick vampire jumps on one of them, why doesn't the hairy guy turn around, put the shotgun to the back of her head, and blow her away? Duh.
Of course, they wanted it that way to set up the ending, which was weak, weak, weak. WTF? Was that a remake of West Side Story? The Sharks just drift away when the tough guy dies? Maybe vampires are stupid (it could be something to do with the process, who knows), but FFS *explain* why he the whole thing is so dopey.
Plus, how does everyone all of sudden knwo that the vampires are "feeding"? They could just be psychopathic killers - the normal thing would be to assume that they also need food.
Anyway, I didn't mind huge logic holes in 28 days later, because the movie really made you like the characters and drew you in, but this one was a stinker. The acting was bad, too.
Things I forgot to say...
Date: 2008-04-08 09:14 am (UTC)Also, I remember thinking "Tremors did this better" while I was watching the film. And tremors was a *spoof*! But Tremors did do it better, the people trapped in a small town with lurking, invincible monsters. The key difference being, IMO, that the protagonists actually used their brains, and tried to do something about it, instead of running randomly from building to building waiting to get eaten and screaming "You never abandon your family!" at each other, like sentimental morons.
Even with Kevin Bacon, they did it better, and that, ultimately, is the most damning criticism of "30 Days".
Re: Things I forgot to say...
Date: 2008-04-08 01:59 pm (UTC)You know, as long as this genre has been around, and albeit originality can be a challenge, you would think that filmmakers would learn from mistakes that others have made. I understand that there is NEVER a big enough budget for the filmmakers and that ultimately as long as the film co. thinks the film is good enough to be marketable for profit they'll push it to release, but goddamn...who watches these things once they're complete and says, "yes!...this is a work of fucking art and I'm glad to have my name plastered all over it!"???
From what I remember, I'll still stand behind my comment that editing/continuity was 30 Day's BIGGEST flaw. ...But maybe it was a combination of a lot of things that were slightly subpar. Sound...SCREECH SCREECH SCREECH, Writing...meandering to cliche to ambiguous, Acting...not awful but not exactly convincing...
It's kind of silly to overanalyze something that can't be changed I guess, but man...there's magic when someone nails it. The only real magic in 30 Days was in the art direction of the marketing...which I suppose could be credited to the source material of the graphic novel.
Re: Things I forgot to say...
Date: 2008-04-08 02:10 pm (UTC)The editing was horrible, though, I remember the first time I noticed "18 days later" up in the corner of the screen. I was like "Wait, what?!?"
The opening scene with the ship was pretty impressive, though. If they had maintained that level of ethereal, epic quality, it could have been cool, but the plodding of the sheriff / deputy / grandma / girlfriend thing, along with the bad acting, really dragged it down.