Review of Byzantium (2013) by Chris H — 01 Jun 2013

After a dry spell with decent vampire flicks, Twilight will never count as a true vampire film franchise, seeing the trailer I thought this would be a welcome return for genre to reclaim its visceral roots.

After all this is directed by the man who gave us the sublime Interview With The Vampire. However its main problems lie within the films run time and the fact nothing really happens only in the first 10 mins and last 20 minutes, its filled with unneccesary back story which could of been trimmed down at least 30 minutes and some scenes sped up as the dialogue ina few scenes just moved at a snails pace.

The first 10 minutes with a brutal death is one of the few highlights and the obvious final few scenes. Gemma Arterton is actually very good as Clara/Claire however I wouldve liked to of seen her more brutal, but Saoirse Ronan is very creepy as Ella.

I was surprised with how vampires are created in this film, nice twist but felt the old way wouldve been so much better. Anyone expecting this this to compare with Interview is going to be disappointed, could of been so much better.