Reviews

A group of Ukranian soldiers return from World War One to more fighting in the Communist Revolution.

This is an extraordinary, kinetic and moving piece of film making, full of metaphor and of great relevance for people throughout the world today. It isn't necessary to understand the complexities of the times to understand the rich emotional resonance. Particularly innovative is Dovzhenko's use of rhythm and inter-spliced scenes.

I was lucky enough to see a restored version of this at the Cambridge Film Festival 2003, with live musical accompaniment. Particularly memorable scenes are the undefeatable worker, the laughing gas, and the horse team rushing to take a fallen comrade to burial before returning to battle.

I went to see this deliberately without finding out anything about it, I hadn't even seen the trailer. I didn't know what to expect, save for an impression. I'm not a real horror fan, and I wouldn't classify this as a horror, but I am pretty hardened to what cinema can throw at you. Even so, it is scary, and very tense. Very tense. I even said to myself, 'It's okay, it's just a film,' several times during the show. Plot-wise, it's a little weak - it barely scratches the surface of what could have tackled. It starts of edgy, amazing camera-work and effects, and manages to be both pensive and aggressive at the same time. Ultimately though, it's falls away from that edginess into a fairly cheesy Hollywood ending... so ultimately disappointing, after a very strong start. It could have been better, had the directors changed the emphasis. It is pretty much out to scare you - it would have worked well if they had tried to move beyond that.

Blade was cool. Blade was made with a lot of talent and a little money, came out stylish, moody and original. Blade II was made with a lot of money and no talent. They've completely, mercilessly destroyed, spoiled a very good thing in a desperate need to cash in, to up profit margins. It makes me sick, makes me very sad. I really want to cry over this. A sequel was cried out, could have been so good. Instead, we get a load of trite, vacuous, rubbish. some of the sequences are quite good, but the whole thing feels like a tired, talentless, unoriginal action sequnce, scripted by the numbers. Slick, supercool badies are replaced by meaningless monsters, an original view of vampire-land given the Buffy The Vampire treatment. Moody visuals and tight scripting are given over to meaningless special effects and Hollywood cliches. An edgy soundtrack is replaced by... nothing at all. Why? Oh, why?