cirque du freak the vampire's assistant 2

Note that nothing really happens except laying the groundwork for a larger drama. This entire set-up represents the majority of the film. And according to the film, no matter which side you're on, when you become a vampire you apparently get a fancy new wardrobe and a stylist. Steve is ungrateful and gets turned vampire by the vampaneeze and thus becomes his best friend's arch-nemesis. I won't go into the details (because it, like almost everything else in this movie, takes too long) but eventually Darren has to become Crepsley's half-vampire assistant and fake his own death in order to save Steve. Darren hides in a closet watching all of this including the end where Steve bursts in the room, demands to be turned into a vampire, and Crepsley refuses. Once backstage, Crepsley receives about eight pages worth of exposition from Willem Dafoe playing a fellow vampire and panicking about a war with the 'vampaneeze'. The show's only important because the grand finale is from Larten Crepsley (Reilly) who Steve recognizes as a vampire from one of his books. The Cirque puts on an incredible show and it has almost no payoff whatsoever. The two visit the Cirque du Freak when it rolls into down and it's here that Weitz put all of his effort.

Massoglia is likable but that affability works against him because as the film moves along you see his extraordinary circumstances don't change him in the slightest.Īlso stuck in neutral is his best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) who's a bad influence and secretly dreams of becoming a vampire. Before that, he's a straight-laced preppy pile of bland but everyone at school loves him because he's a nice guy. The title character, Darren (Chris Massoglia), doesn't even become a vampire (I'm sorry, half-vampire) until over halfway through the film. Reilly, 'Cirque du Freak' would deserve to be burned to the ground by angry townsfolk.įor all but the last 20 minutes of its runtime, 'Cirque du Freak' plays as one giant first act. In addition, the movie is made worse by director Paul Weitz ignoring the artistic advantages of his setting in favor of flashy, heartless CG effects. This entitlement poisons the pacing and retards any character development.

I can name plenty of films which thought they were going to kick-start a franchise never one that didn't understand that the first movie has to stand on its own and not rely on movies that don't (and probably will never) exist. I can't remember the last time I saw a film as entitled and oblivious as 'Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant'.

Cirque du freak the vampire's assistant 2