Review of Byzantium (2013) by Brett H — 05 Sep 2015

A moody and visually beautiful vampire film that unfortunately runs way longer than necessary and the meat of the film really doesn't grab you until the third act. The story is told non-linearly through use of many flashbacks and thus it takes a while for the information to be revealed, leaving the viewer with very little substance to grab onto apart from a mother/daughter vampire duo disagreeing with each other and acting miserable.

Once we learn how it all went down, it's visually striking and a hell of a lot more exciting, but they never properly explain how a cave can turn people into vampires and that angle of the story never added up.

The acting from Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton is quite good with Arterton pulling off the sexy seductress version of a vampire that we all know extremely well and Ronan taking the more subtle approach.

Helmed by director Neil Jordan who's previous foray into vampiric storytelling: Interview with the Vampire, was quite good, this movie never quite matched those heights in storytelling or intrigue and it's a real shame because the film is gorgeous to look at but drags extensively with the 2-hour runtime.