Review of Cronos (1993) by Ross B — 16 Aug 2012

I'm sad to come out of Cronos thinking that it's just okay. I don't really know what to make of it. Was the film about characters? If so, they were all pretty shallow. Was it about plot? If so, there wasn't much of one.

What it does is take an idea that's been used tons of times and does something new with it. Cronos is basically about immortality. In the 14th century a man made a device called Cronos that was able to make a man live forever.

We don't really see how it works, but we are told it does. It winds up like a clock, that's about all we know. But in modern day an antique dealer has some people interested in an old sculpture with an eye missing and they buy it, but before they do he pulls out the bug that has the clock inside.

Angel buys the sculpture hoping Cronos is inside so he can give it to his rich, almost dead uncle. When he discovers it's not, he goes back to look for it without doing so politely. The night before Jesus wound up Cronos and it clamped down on his hand.

It turns out that little asshole has sharp claws that dig into your skin. To shorten things up, Cronos turns him into an immortal being that requires blood as long as if he uses it every once in a while and Angel keeps hunting him down to get it and bring it to his uncle.

The funny thing is that Angel doesn't know what it is and doesn't care, he just wants his uncle off his back. There's a little comedy spread out in the film. When Jesus "dies" he goes to an embalmer who tries to make him look as good as possible, but when he finds out he's getting cremated after the viewing he just dabs a little pale make-up on him and throws him out to the audience.

I wish the relationship between Jesus and Aurora was made clearer. Perhaps then I would have found it an interesting character piece. For once, a person who wants to be immortal needs it to be with the little girl who loves him and needs a male figure in her life.

He's trying to keep it from the guy who doesn't actually need it, but is completely greedy. I liked the motif with all of the clocks since the film's about running out of time. I guess I just hoped this would have been close to up there with The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth.

It's good, just not great.