Forget what I said. That was probably one of the worst things I've ever seen.
That's the thing... great actors, great singers, good budget, pretty good costumes, mostly good songs, and somehow that all congealed into a mass of apathy. They killed Van Helsing, Lucy, Renfield, and Jonathan Harker, and left Dracula being defeated by heartache for his original bride--because Mina was a vampire rather than a human in this one (or reincarnated, or something--I don't even know, really), which made it so that she could show up as Harker's partner and then live on. But of course, rather than being clever, resourceful, powerful, a "steel virgin" in her own respect (to call back to Hellsing), and the true main character of the novel, she is just an object to be fought over. We don't have the image of good triumphing over evil, or character development, or... anything. Lucy's role is changed from Mina's best friend to Helsing's daughter--because apparently if you don't have a close relationship to a male member of the cast, you don't matter.
And, I dunno, all of the characters were very one-tone in their characterizations and portrayals. It all revolved around an extremely simple love triangle with neither depth nor substance, with Van Helsing, Renfield, and Lucy tacked onto the side (and having no apparent attachment whatsoever to the main cast). Yeah, I will admit that the original novel was bad on the first count as well, but I did think there was a certain unity to the narrative that this piece lacked.
Oh, and this part where Mina comes and makes out with Dracula... how does that even make sense? Her only characteristic in this entire thing is that she's supposed to be overwhelmingly faithful to her husband, violently strong of will. That's it. She's seduced by him (after he's already seduced Lucy and killed Renfield... and also taken down Van Helsing), he makes out with her, she's clearly enjoying herself, he kills her husband, and then she looks at him and walks away.
Could've been pretty cool if she'd taken him down or somesuch, but instead she runs away and he chooses to die.
Furthermore, Van Helsing's only weapons are prayers and a wooden stake. It's set in the modern era, and the dude is old and gray-haired. This is a far cry from the usual arsenal of Winchesters loaded with silver rounds, strings of garlic, religious symbols, holy water, and enormous amounts of vampiric/medical knowledge. You know... the expert. In this case, he only finds Dracula due to his having left his ring behind with Lucy's corpse. Intentionally. Like the bite marks didn't tell him something, and like he'd have been able to find a single vampire in an old book, and like he'd have gone in practically unarmed... and as if he'd have gone in without the help of Jonathan, at the very least.
Aren't these stories supposed to be about humanity putting aside their differences to smite evil?
All of that aside, the cast was really powerful and smooth. The stuff they may have been singing was tripe, but they were still really, really great. The songs were more vocally demanding, too, and I quite enjoyed some of the fight scenes. And, I guess, above all of that, I'd been waiting to see this for a number of years. It's really nice to have a wish fulfilled, and was a great after-school break.
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Topic: [MILK] There were 12 eggs here what did you do with them? (Happy thread?!) (Read 16295551 times)