“I keep having to stop myself from referring to it as Let The Right One In. That was the original, which I have seen. I did enjoy it, but I dont quite think it was the be all end all of vampire movies like many people seemed to think. How does Let Me In measure up? I felt it was very true to the original. I know a lot of people think its sacriligous (sp?) to remake such a well regarded film, but I feel it was done in the right spirit for the right reasons. The idea was to make it more accessible to a wider audience, and as someone who doesnt particularly care for foreign films but loves American cinema ever so much, I am in favor of that notion when executed well. In most cases, the execution is poor, but this would be one of those rare exceptions where it really did work. Unfortunately, based on the small number of people in the theater it doesnt seem like it quite reached that wide audience they were hoping for. THen again that might just be bad timing trying to compete with “”The Facebook Movie”” (which Im shooting for a Sun viewing).
I was about to start this paragraph with “”the biggest win of the movie was…”” then I realized there were two big ones. Torn as to which was bigger. One was the cinematography and direction (yeah I still kinda mash those two up in my mind, I need to start learning to differentiate). There were some beautiful shots, and some very intriguing ones. For example, I loved how much was shot at Owen’s level, and as a result you never saw his mother’s face. There was also a really awesomely done car crash. There was more, I just can’t think of it right now.
The second big win was Chloe Grace Moretz. I find that girl more and more awesome with every movie she does (500 Days of Summer, Kick Ass, now Let Me In). Okay, if the argument for why Ellen Page cant play me in a movie is because by the time they make a movie about me, we’ll need someone younger, then please pick Ms Moretz. She was so \m/ compelling in this movie. Minimal dialogue, maximum presence. I seriously dont think you could have better cast the role.
Onto the negative side of the coin, because unless we’re talking about Aladdin, there’s always one. My big complaint was the bad CGI. It wasnt necessary. The off camera violence was much better than the on camera. What’s so brilliant about this story is that it isnt a vampire tale, its about a unique and special friendship. One of the friends just happens to be a member of club undead. They were this close to going too overboard with demonizing Abby. Also, the pacing walked a very fine line between pefectly suspenseful and painfully slow. I think, had I not been familiar with the story from the original, I might have gotten restless at times not knowing where the story was going.
Worth a watch if you’re into vamps that dont sparkle. I would also venture to say that you could get away with seeing this and not the original, although if you want to be really hardcore and earn some real street cred, then Netflix the Swedish one.
Let Me In – \m/ \m/ \m/