Review of Byzantium (2013) by Alex A — 05 Jun 2013

If Twilight turned the vampire mythos into a joke, Byzantium restores this through Arterton and Ronan's performances. With gritty locations throughout the movie which adds to the brooding nature of the film, Byzantium is a story of a mother-daughter vampire duo who roam the UK, fleeing from any indication that their true identities have been discovered by humans. The mother-daughter relationship is explored and told well (even though it is very unconvincing that Arterton is Ronan's mother and on the surface looks as though they would have been more suited as sisters) and shows the struggle between Arterton doing all she can to protect their identities as well as provide a way of life for the two, whilst Ronan is tired of living the secret and wants to stop hiding from who she truly is. Also, their motivations through killing their victim's conflict well with one another; Arterton's motivations being guided through offing men who she sees as preying on vulnerable women and Ronan's motivations guided through mercy and as a form of euthanasia rather than justice.

At times the lines that Ronan spouts are ridiculous at points and her constant brooding character style wears off quickly and her intended romance sub-plot always looks and feels awkward whenever it is mentioned in passing, but that's not where the movie falls down. The obvious plot holes come in the middle when discovering the process of how these two became vampires. For instance: who built the cave? If not built, then how was it discovered? Who discovered it? Did that same person curse it? If so, why did they curse it and why specifically for the finder to become a vampire? How long has this cave existed? Why is this curse intended to be limited to only male finders?

The list continues, but for what it's worth, Byzantium isn't by any means a bad film. For those who are big on the vampire mythos, this may not be your kind of film but for the casual viewer (depending on your tastes) you may want to wait for the rental.