LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Go see it.
- Thread starter Twilight
- Start date
If you do get the DVD, make sure the subtitles are listed as being the "theatrical subtitles".
the re-done subs for the initial batch of DVD's were atrocious, and really hurt the movie.
the re-done subs for the initial batch of DVD's were atrocious, and really hurt the movie.
Well the blueray version I rented had "english narrative subtitles" (whatever the heck that is) and just "english subtitles". I went with the regular ones, and they seemed perfectly fine.
Anyway, yeah it's a fantastic movie. My only (minor) crit is that they made the girl too much of a typical movie vampire. For a movie seemingly set in the real world, I wouldn't expect every last behavior and weakness to be what we've already seen countless times on TV and in the movies, and I thought it took away from some of the credibility (I mean what are the odds a real vampire would be exactly like the ones from Buffy or the Blade movies?).
I wish they had shaken things up a little and had her able to walk around in the daylight or something.
I agree with your point about the Vampires to a degree, but at a certain point you can't and shouldn't re-invent the wheel. Everyone in the world is familiar with the core of the vampire myth: weak to sunlight, stake through the heart, and Garlic; they can Fly, they are immortal; and they survive on Blood. Really, whenever you change that, you have to spend valuable film time explaining how and why your vampires are different, and changing the core myth wouldn't have served any greater dramatic purpose.
As far as the subs, you did see a first-generation disc with the bad subs. They're serviceable, but they cut some of the humor, they drastically changed the actual meaning of several scenes, changed some character motivations, and hell, they even cut out what Eli and Oskar were morse-coding to each other through the walls. If nothing else, to not translate THAT was a crime.
For specifics with screen grabs, follow this link
http://iconsoffright.com/news/2009/03/let_the_wrong_subtitles_in_to.html
Agreed.
One of the strengths of this movie is it is very much in the now. We are not given any back story, never weighed down with exposition and many things are left mysteriously open ended. We are never really told Eli's age. Or why this place was chosen as a place to live. Haken's (Eli's care taker) role is clear to us, but the how, whys and whens are never explained. The mystery, in my mind, gives the movie an edge. One of the reasons I feel the filmmakers could do it this way is that they carried the traditional vampire myth whole and unchanging into the story. Change that, and as you said, we're in exposition territory.
But beyond that, I respect that they took the rules, treated them very seriously, and made them work just as they are.
The DVD I saw two nights ago have what that site call the "original translations". So that's good news since I assume all the latest DVDs are the same. I also seem to recall translations of a good deal of the morse code, but can't recall if it all was translated.
I don't really see how it would require exposition. Even if only a handful of the vampire traits were present, the audience would still know what they were looking at.
I just thought the movie was a little too on-the-nose about it, and made it a little too obvious from the start that "She's a Vampire!!!" For me, that removed a lot of the mystery surrounding her, and made me feel at times like I was just watching another fake horror movie world.
