Director: Uwe Boll
Year: 2005
Country: Germany/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Deep in the heart of Romania, vampire slayers hear a story about a woman believed to be a monster in a low-rent carnival nearby, and once she escapes she learns of her fate to acquire a special amulet to battle a vampire master and agrees to help them overcome the army of vampires.
Review:
There's actually a lot more than what would seem to indicate. Among its best features is the old-time setting as it's such a welcome change from what is normally given to us about vampires. It also plays a part of it being a nice sweeping epic-look to it with the sweeping vistas and swelling orchestral scores and is a real pleasant change to see a film go for a feel like that with a very epic feeling present throughout here. That is helped along nicely here by the strong storyline that gives this a lot to really like as it generates a strong and interesting story. Going from the concept of a half-human/half-vampire created through a product of rape hunting down the master vampire in charge of the conquering tribes attempting to waylay the rest of humanity under his prowess. [finish off about the story]
In addition, the inclusion of her vampire tendencies in that type of storyline allows for some enjoyable action present here, starting with the beginning where a carnival man drags her out and spills water on her arm, resulting in severe burns before the blood of a farm animal causes her wounds to instantly heal back to normal, the carnival massacre is a nice set-piece that enables her escape into the world as well as the manipulation of several traps held in the church for their protection. It's best sequence is where one character is trapped inside a quickly flooding cavern which is nicely suspenseful, as is a daytime raid on a brothel to rescue a kidnapped ally. There are also several well-choreographed extended battles here that wouldn't seem out of place in a medieval movie to provide lots of action, from the assault on the monastery to capture her to the various battles that take place inside the temple at the end which manages to contain plenty of action, confrontations and graphic bloodshed. Heads are chopped off, torsos ripped in half, throats exposed to red geysers, chests slashed, arrows shot into eyes, blades plunged into mouths, limbs severed, corpses hacked apart, and much more provided by Olaf Ittenbach. This is a really nice and bloody film, and is kept to the forefront as much as possible which results in a pleasing film to gorehounds.
The cast here is capable enough but not entirely without fault. Among the heroes, Kristanna Loken does what she can as Rayne but that's really all that can be said about her. She isn't much of an action star as her swordplay scenes are obviously slowed-down to allow her to catch up and her handling of the heavier weaponry doesn't look remotely competent at all for such a renown fighter. The rest of her screen-time ranges from tolerable to not being given much to do so she leaves an impression only on her appropriate physical charms. Michael Madsen was reportedly drunk often on set and it shows in his role as Vladimir. He schleps through the action scenes and tends to ramble on quite low in his dialog scenes so he again leaves a low-end impression. Matthew Davis does much better as the valiant Sebastian. A more capable fighter if still no world-beater with the weaponry yet a fiery, vibrant follower who wants to end the vampire threat that means he manages to think in battle without rushing in leaves him with a fine note. Michelle Rodriguez as Katarin is clearly the best fighter here with her other film credits giving her plenty of skillset to provide lots of stellar swordplay abilities. Her desire to change the battle plan against the vampires creates an intriguing character and gives her a lot to like.
As for the villains, Ben Kingsley doesn't really have much to do here as Kagan the vampire warlord. His air of importance and regal bearing are a fine counter to the rather bland persona he has otherwise when he is sitting around pontificating and barking orders. It really looks like he's slumming in the role but still manages to have an air of menace through his vampire tendencies. His main henchman, Domastir played by Will Sanderson, does what he can with his role but all he seems to do is follow orders to a tee and spout out instructions to followers. He looks laughable with the doofus hairdo instead of imposing, but he looks a lot more impressive with the fighting scenes than most others have before him and he serves as a solid obstacle to cross. However, the rest of the cast doesn't have much else to mention here, which is a shame considering some of the names involved here from Udo Kier, Meat Loaf, Michael Paré and Billy Zane turning up for roles as what amounts to extended cameos likely filmed in one day who know what to do in order to keep this moving along nicely despite their obvious stunt-casting. This is far better than what is said about it as there is very little in here that didn't work.
The main thing that hurts this is the side-plots that are thrown in every now and then to try to add more to the story but actually take away from it. The main gist here, from the vampire woman realizing her destiny and using that as motivation tracking down the evil vampire that is out trying to take over the world, is good enough and serves the film well since there's only a single thread that covers the action. When a new idea is brought up, such as the inclusion of the need for the various amulets to be obtained before anything can transpire or the vampire rituals that are needed to be performed before they can continue their plans, it only confuses rather than explain due to the excessive elements brought in that don't add much. We already know she's been created through his actions and to complicate such a fantastic revenge scenario is quite overbearing when it didn't need to be. Likewise, some might find issue with the change in storyline from the video-game to the screen as this one abandons nearly everything about the original game and giving a new storyline for the titular character that has nothing to do with what transpired which is something that might be of importance to some but it doesn't detract what happened in the film proper at all. These here are what manage to hold this one down.
Overview: ****/5
Frankly, it's not as bad as what's been said about it, and really should be given an objective viewing. It's far better than the usual films of the type, and it has some nice scenes to go along with it provided you're not following on the video game. Give it a fair shot with an open mind, and you'll find yourself liking it.
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