Wait, is it 2003 again?

We have a fairly straight forward urban fantasy action flick with vampires demons and werewolves gargoyles squaring off in a war that’s been raging for years¹ Then there’s the odd man out, one of a kind and more powerful than either of the main groups so of course everyone is looking for him. Seems awfully formulaic all around.

Don’t get me wrong of course, it’s still a solid action movie. The fights are beautiful to behold, even on the small screen. The fireworks when a gargoyle or demon is killed ascended/descended² are a sight to behold, really lighting up the otherwise thematically dark world.

On top of that, I really like seeing Bill Nighy as Viktor Naberius and Kevin Grevioux switches sides this time around as Raze Dekar. Miranda Otto does a much better job (at least in my opinion) than her outing in the Lord of the Rings.

On the downside, the dialog is pretty bad. The world building is just weird at times (why gargoyles?). For a planet of 7 billion people, I could just about count the number of times a real flesh and blood human appears on one hand³. And if the demons can collect that many bodies… Why are they still in hiding?

I will give them one bit of credit at least. It’s a personal nit of mine when people use the name Frankenstein to apply to the monster. While there’s something to be said for a family name being passed on, Frankenstein is the creator. At least in I, Frankenstein, they have Naberius hang a lamp on it.

Still. It’s an okay action movie and it is really pretty. I’m glad that they took a chance at least on something a little outside of the normal tropes. If you’ve got a spare weekend and want to just veg for an hour and a half, this isn’t a bad film for it.