shadowland review

thursday night, ali, logan and myself went to the tivoli to watch the premiere of "shadowland" the movie. ali & logan's song "when will i be okay" is the feature song in the movie, and we were all very excited to see how the music would tie into the film. . . the good news is that ali & logan's song still rocks and it actually worked really well in context with the movie. the bad news is that the movie wasn't my favorite. i really wanted to like it because i have a great admiration for st. louis artists/actors/filmmakers/musicians. and though i really did enjoy myself b/c i'm extremely proud of the cast and crew for completing the daunting task of a full-length film . . . the movie itself just never really jelled. the plot begins in 1887 with the main heroine falling in love with a sketchy foreigner who turns out to be a vampire. he bites her and makes her a vampire as well but disappears when he is found out by a creepy pastor . . . who is also trying to "bed" the heroine. when the pastor finds the heroine she has already been bitten, so he kills her with a stake through the heart. . . only to knock out one of her teeth in the process of burying her. for the next century she is buried and then comes awake . . . for no reason that we can ascertain, except that we discover her vampire lover is still alive and looking for her tooth, which somehow he knows exists . . . even though he took off flying (very cool special affect) when she was initially captured. sadly though, once the vampire-lover finds the tooth, he is immediately killed by a vampire-hunter (who is a secret member of the episcopal church on a personal vendetta to rid the earth of vampires). we assume this vampire-hunter has some personal or spiritual motivation for killing vampires, but we are never quite sure why he is after them, especially considering he seems to doubt the goodness of God and the advice of the church (which is to redeem the vampire rather than kill her). the movie climax comes when the heroine vampire woman--who has been chased by the vampire-hunter (along with police officers and swat teams)--regains her tooth after sinking her fangs into the neck of the vampire-hunter . . . who we are to assume is dead (though technically, wouldn't he become a vampire now too?). our heroine is seen as such, because she has escaped the persecution of her vampire-ness. . . and regained her tooth. what's really interesting is that she has not regained her vampire-lover who ostensibly waits a century to see his beloved, only to be killed by the vampire-hunter days before his lover is unearthed. . . literally. if you're thinking, "woah, that's all over the place" you're right where i was as i watched the film. nonetheless, this was the pre-showing of the movie, and the director said as much. hopefully with some editing and shortening of the film (we see the heroine running/walking--literally--for what seems like half the film), this will get stronger, and be an encouragement for all st. louis artists/actors/filmmakers/musicians/writers to create.create.create. the director clearly has moments of brilliance, but they aren't yet consistent throughout the entire movie, and need to be solidified by a foundational plot--without so many inconsistency's--and more focused writing that helps the viewer understand the story behind the story.