the_cirque's Official Movie Reaction Post

[atraphoenix]

(... and a slightly less exciting note about spoilers.)

It's been a very long wait, but The Vampire's Assistant finally hits the cinemas today

Comments

[sleepall_day]

I was such a bundle of emotions today! I JUST got back from seeing it (hahah, and I was excited to see what people have been posting here). I'm still excitedddd. I have to say I didn't LOVE it... but I'm still really really happy that there is a movie at all and that we get to see the characters come to life onscreen

[atraphoenix]

From what I've read - and, yes, I've yet to get to a cinema - some of the changes they've made might make certain aspects of the sequels a bit tricky to do. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I always found Mr Tiny creepy because he appeared so ordinary at first glance. It looks to me as if they tried a bit too hard to make him 'frightening'. In fact, when I first saw the clip of him, I didn't realise that was who he was supposed to be. Filmmakers have very little faith in their audience at times. It's just like the 'Sorcerer's Stone' instead of 'Philosopher's Stone' thing, which has always seemed to me as if they were assuming that their audience couldn't understand the English title. Obviously, the creepy character can't look benevolent. People might get confused

[sleepall_day]

Ahh, I hope you do get to go see it soon! There must be more discussion here! :D

I'm completely in agreement with you about Mr. Tiny. They tried WAY too hard I think. In the books, he does look very ordinary, with his weird heart-shaped watch (which I loved, because in any other person's hands it could just look like a lovely, pretty timepiece, right?) and he's just... off. Like the webbed feet. That's not traditionally scary, but just weird. I think he's very well done in the books.

Same with me for Sam! I thought it was gruesome and creative writing and just incredibly emotional for Darren. I totally loved it.

Even if the movie doesn't live up to my admittedly high expectations, it's still a movie of a Darren Shan book.
This makes me sad because I feel that way and I WANT MORE DARREN SHAN MOVIES but this movie just... dug its own grave, I think. There likely isn't going to be any more :( But I guess never say never, right?

[atraphoenix]

I've seen it, I've seen it!

And I still stand by what I said about Mr Tiny.

Despite being a self-confessed book purist, I actually really enjoyed the movie. Yes, they made a lot of changes, but the majority of the changes worked well. Gavner didn't seem like Gavner to me, but he still worked well as a slightly-creepy-good-guy (with a weird mustache). And John C Reilly was fantastic. I can't believe I ever doubted him.

I think the only thing that really bugged me was the way that they called the vampires in the mountain cowards and things. Most of my favourite characters are introduced in the later books and/or residents of the mountain.

[sherrilina]

OMG I WAS THE SAME ABOUT THE BOOKS!!! I wanted to say out loud, "But YOU don't read either! That's the whole point!" Glad I wasn't the only one...:p

[sleepall_day]

Yup yup yup - I said the same things about A Series of Unfortunate Events (which I loved, both the books and film) and Golden Compass. I haven't seen/read Golden Compass but I was a bit surprised at how that turned out because I know those books are really popular!

I also was annoyed at the parents/Rebecca hostage thing. I mean, just... okay, that was way too over the top. And a little ridiculous. It looked cheesy. I guess they were going for a big, climatic scene, but it just didn't work for me.

And I totally agree with you about Mr. Tiny. So annoying. I knew from like... the middle of the series that he was kind of trying to influence certain events or whatever, but it isn't until the very end that you find out just how much he had to do with what happened. He's much more subtle. And he of course would know who his children are, and just kind of hovered in the background until the end. Whyyyyyy was he going around collecting DNA from Darren and Steve in this movie? To "make sure" he was their father or to see if they were...

[atraphoenix]

His parents irritated me in the movie, but I think I was more annoyed by the fact that they irritated me. In the books, they were just perfectly normal parents. That was what made seeing him leave them all the more poignant. Making it seem as if he wanted to escape took away a lot of the poignancy and a lot of his heroism.