Byzantium (2013)

I saw this on live TV either the year it came out or the following year. This one moved me. Unlike any other film I have ever seen. Only negative is it left me wanting more. Masterfully filmed, written and the acting is top notch. This is a powerful story of female vampires or revenant beings who do not age. What I loved about this film is how it felt like watching two films side by side one that takes place centuries ago in the past and another in modern day. I was fascinated by the unique approach the creators chose to explain how a revenant is made.

Ts ts ts. You just can't trust women with a secret, can you. No wonder the vampire brotherhood allows no women in their precious little club. Moira Buffini, the woman who came up with this story, injects a predictable slab of tiresome feminism, but she does it in a clumsy way, actually shooting herself (and her "cause") in the foot. During the course of "Byzantium", Gemma and Saoirse actually PROVE that the Brotherhood was right not to want women anywhere near this vampiric power: both gals are reckless and undisciplined in how they lead their lives – which surely could not have been what Buffoni was trying to convey. Pretty hilarious, if you ask me.Already the first 10 minutes or so show strong indications of oncoming buffoonery from Buffooni. Saoirse randomly throws away pages from her biography (how poetic!), and one just happens to land in the hands of an old man who just happens to want to die, not to mention just happens to be demented enough to believe her fanciful story. So the old geezer believes a crazy story scribbled on a flying piece of paper rather than call the shrink squad to lock her up? How convenient. Hence the page-throwing is a form of fishing, in a sense, for benevolent vampires: "Yoohooo, anyone interested in dying so I can suck their blood without remorse?! Anyone???"More nonsense follows suit after a blond vampire captures Gemma after a spectacular chase. Despite having had his head smashed with a bottle by Gemma just minutes earlier, and despite having had spent TWO CENTURIES hunting for her, this male vampire is daft enough to actually trust Gemma's blatant and obvious lie that she just wants to "clean his wound"; so the blond guy sits down like a bloody fool, turning his back to her - after which she very predictably hurts him. Well, kills him. That sure seemed easy!!! Makes one wonder how come Gemma didn't kill those incompetent Brotherhood goons much earlier! It sure seemed easy to dupe the blond one, plus she had already had 200 years by then to do it. So basically she's dumb, and they're dumb. Great start to the movie! A bunch of dim-witted vampires.We are expected to root for the blood-sucking female pair; they're supposed to be goody-two-shoes vampires, and yet Gemma behaves like a parasitic egotist from the get-go. The pair simply torches their flat, endangering many innocent lives, rather than just cleaning up the mess they'd made – which a fire anyway didn't hide. We're supposed to root for these murderous jackasses? Either Neil Jordan's moral compass is skewered (as happens so often with film folk), or he'd been sniffing excessive amounts of Bolivian mushrooms during pre-production. Or he'd been shagging Buffoni.Already the movie's intro fails, because it actually defines Gemma as lecherous, vicious, greedy and vile (which wasn't Buffooni's intention). Great role-model, huh?Proof that Buffoni and Jordan wanted us to root for Gemma and her spawn comes at the end of the movie. Sam Riley, the token non-evil male vampire, commends Gemma on her moral sense: "Your instinct is to protect the weak", he says stupidly. He puts Gemma on a pedestal despite the fact that we've seen her kill several innocent people, leaving a bloodbath; on top of that we must logically assume that's just a small part of the 200-year slaughter-orgy, considering the film only focuses on the first few days and the last few days of her 200-year-strong blood-suckery. That woman Buffooni is in a serious war with logic. One should never battle against logic. Unless of course one has an army of brainwashed movie fans to fall back on (which one usually does).It's pretty bizarre, but goody-two-shoes Riley actually asks for Gemma's pardon (?!) after he saves her ass yet again. He was the one who actually warned her against going along with Johnny Miller 200 years earlier: when he picked her up on his horse and proceeded to ruin her life. If anything, Gemma should have said: "I was such an idiot not to heed your advice. But I was young and dumb and horny and Johnny Miller just seemed so dashing." Plus, Riley actually saved HER by lopping off the bald vampire's head; it wasn't Gemma who saved him. So instead of Gemma falling on her knees, thanking this guardian angel for continually looking out for her, she puts up an arrogant front in that last scene, and roles are reversed – much as logic is viciously raped: more evidence of confused writing from a feminist who thought she knew what she was doing. Don't they all though? Delusion comes right after denial. Feminism is one of the more cretinous isms of our age: it is steeped in nonsense, illogic and wishful thinking (as all left-wing beliefs are).There are other peanut-brained moments. During one of her moments of tiresome "poetic" narration, Saoirse says how much she likes solitude, yet just moments later starts playing a piano in a crowded lobby of a nursing home. Seems kinda attention-seeking, or? Perhaps Debussy was intended to be yet another fish-trap, baity-hook, to find more old people to con out of their blood. The movie's premise is pretty comical, when you think about it. Are we to actually believe that Saoirse survived 200 years by feeding only off volunteers? Saoirse as a vampiric Kavorkian?Ever hear of a male fantasy? Movies are full of them. Here we have a female fantasy: a prostitute customer, Mays, who "just wants human contact" rather than the in-out. That'll happen.Regardless of all the logic holes, a far-fetched premise and an incredibly bold attempt to ask us to sympathize with a vicious vampire, the movie isn't bad, because there is an actual story and it moves along; more than can be said for most horror flicks.

Byzantium follows two female vampires who move to a new place to live, when the youngest of them meets a boy who falls in love with her. Yeah, another young adult vampire romance story. Oh joy. It is more mature though, so maybe it's more of a mature young adult vampire romance story. Regardless of the bad reputation of it's oddly specific genre, it's not at all a bad movie. The characters are pretty likable, and for the most part well developed. I didn't care much for the boy, Frank, though. He was kind of annoying. Otherwise it's an interesting take on vampires. I didn't like how it didn't follow the classic vampire rules, but what movie does nowadays?Like I already said, I didn't like Frank. He was kind of weird and out-of-place, but oh well. On top of that, I didn't think the two love interests had much chemistry or relationship development. They kind of just fell in love, and I didn't realize it until they started kissing. The girl is actually pretty mean to the guy for most of the movie, yet they still fell in love. Overall Byzantium is a good movie. While there are small flaws, there are good things too. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough to like to bump it up any higher. It's just a decent movie, not much to like or dislike really. In the end I'd still recommend this movie.

This movie lacks a good story and good sense. It has good actors and a nice mood but it's just not enough. It treats the subject of sexual abuse and forced prostitution in a scandalously offhand manner as something that adds "spice" and "feist" to a pretty female character. Really, zero sensitivity or thought went into that whole back story presented for the purpose of male viewer titillation. It also takes a cartoonish view of female teenage depression which is presented as some sort of vaguely romantic, trembling lower lip melancholy with the ultimate goal of landing a suitable young man (which, of course, is the miraculous cure). When you remove the blatantly insulting bits you're left with a very mediocre, rehashed vampire story set in an ugly, nowhere town.