This is a movie review... I will not outright spoil things, but if you want to really experience a movie fresh and clean, there is information below that will dirty you up! So beware of mild semi-spoilers.
Synopsis: That stuff what happened in
Let The Right One In? It happens again, like word for word. But in English.
Scariness Type: Whatever I said last time, but with more gore.
Rating: 3/5 Rubik's Cubes.
Awarded:
Redundant Award Of Redundancy II: The Repeatening
Good Stuff: This is a tricky ol' review to write! It's incredibly hard to judge this movie just a week after seeing the original. On the good side, it has about 75% of all of the goodness of the original. I
think if you hadn't seen the original, this would be just a solid, creepy movie, much like the experience of watching the original.
Bad Stuff: The missing 25% of goodness! It doesn't quite measure up. It really is close to shot-for-shot, and it's not really Hollywooded up. It does have little touches that detract, and again, I think if you didn't see the original, you would just think this was good, instead of "not quite as good". One thing that I found entirely strange is that the movie opens with a flash-forward to a scene that takes place about midway through. I can't actually figure out what that was supposed to add, because it's a pretty meaningless scene until you get there naturally. Maybe if you didn't see the original, it would add the suspense of "oh, how they are going to get to there from here?"
Classic Rules Of Film: If something happens in that other movie in Act 1, the same thing has to happen in this movie in Act 1.
My Take: The dialog's the same, the shots are mostly the same, the plot is almost entirely identical except for one change of note (the cat attack is gone! But the CGI vampire effects are unnatural). But it's all in the subtleties. The biggest thing is that the overall mood is not nearly as stark and harsh, it's much more typical (not that they didn't try, and it is moody, just not as much). I also feel like the original movie left some motivations open that are just pat and simple in the remake. That could just be me not cluing in to things as well in a Swedish movie, though.
Overall, it's so hard to judge this because I can only compare it to the original. Anyway, if you're gonna see one, see the original. You definitely don't gain anything in this version, and I have no idea why they bothered to remake it. It's not bad at all, there's just no reason to see it! They could've saved a lot of money by just buying rights to the original movie and putting it out in the US.
Artistic Nonsense: Art shmart! This is an American remake! It's all explosions and ninjas.
Tomorrow's movie will be
Antibodies, a German movie where the police have caught a serial killer, and they're interrogating him. There will probably be fava beans and a nice chianti.
