A visit to the past

[catalyst2]

In view of the ongoing debate about rebooting the Buffy movie I thought I would go and revisit the original movie.



It's a curious creature this movie - there are three clear parts to it, so far as I can see.
1) there are clear Joss lines, delivered well that work well, Kristy Swanson stands out here
2) there are lines that are clearly Joss lines but are delivered so badly or directed so badly that they don't work - scenes with Rutger Hauer, Paul Reubens and Donald Sutherland are noticeable here. Curiously, even though I know that early movie scenes aren't necessarily shot earlier in the real world shooting schedule, I really feel that some of Sutherland's early scenes are quite good but he seems to give up somewhere along the line
3) there are lines and scenes that are just awful and that don't work in any way shape or form (Amilyn's "endless" death scene for one!).

Interestingly, the more I watched it today, the better I liked Kristy Swanson's work - she really does deliver many of the lines well and looks quite convincing in most of the action scenes. Even more interesting is that I have grown to like Luke Perry's work, especially in the later part of the movie, because there are some real sparks in the romantic scenes between him and Swanson.

The movie misses the mark by a country mile, I'll admit, but I get the feeling that if Hauer, Reubens and Sutherland had either taken the film more seriously or at least been directed better, this movie might have improved immensely. Swanson and Perry are the real stand-outs here. Oh, and I could have lost David Arquette from this too.

Comments

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

Have you read Joss' original movie script? It's really good.

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

I have always meant to print off a copy of that script and read it as I watch the movie, just to see what changed and how that affected the movie.