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Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Fantasy Action / 2000
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
WHAT'D I THINK?
Having never seen Vampire Hunter D or even knowing anything about the story or it's characters whatsoever, my expectations were pretty much limited to what I can extrapolate from the promotional material which essentially came out to be:
Alucard Vampire Hunter?
Fortunately, I wasn't far off.
Bloodlust opens in what is easily the most epic and impressive introduction to any vampire character I have ever seen: with a dark gothic city at night and the increasing threat of approaching hooves, lights go out, wild dogs recoil in fear, and crucifixes violently contort.
As a terrible carriage stops outside the window of an unknown woman who appears frightened yet resigned, the window opens like Hook's come to take Pan's kids, flowers wilt, a great bat creature swoops in, and the woman is carried off in a manner emblematic of the classic vampire.
If Aura of Decimation was any indication, it's clear we have a story unafraid to take creative liberties with it's vampire lore. And while this could be construed as an implication for a "scintillating" discovery later on, the biggest liberties are clearly taken with the world's setting.
Instead of merely a given period, or even a traditional fantasy setting, we're presented with an alternate future world where gothic architecture reigns supreme despite a variety of anachronistic technology.
Scenes, such as the one in the desert, where colossal manta rays rise up from underground to fly in the air, help to emphasize a world that is both familiar, yet alien which helps maintain intrigue.
Our titular character, D, presented to us as the only one of many vampire bounty hunters who happens to be half-vampire, also known as a dhampir (or as the movie would choose to call him, a "DUNpeel", I don't know why, it's weird), takes a bounty to rescue the woman who was kidnapped in the opening scene for an absurd amount of money, but not before demanding twice the price of the commission. I have no idea how currency works in this sort of world, but it still seems kinda dick to demand what seems to be such an ungodly sum to save someone's life.
Speaking of dick, D's hand also talks to him.
It seems to be nothing more than a Deus Ex Machina disguised as a weak comedy inner monologue to substitute for D's relative silence, so other than it being unique, I didn't much care for him. I don't think D cares much for him either.
Must make masturbating REALLY awkward.
But before that mental image really sinks in, D takes off and he quickly runs into other bounty hunters resulting in a pretty epic moment of arrow-catching.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the bounty hunters' character designs. Their faces look weird, their outfits look weird, and they don't really even have the personality to make up for it.
They do get some well-done dialog if nothing else, but the dialog all throughout the movie is either only sufficient or really good.
For the most part D just sounds like a voice in the crowd, but during certain scenes his inflection and lines combine for some great back-and-forth such as this scene where he first confronts the vampire he's chasing:
This moment actually highlights the beginning of my favorite elements of this movie, the de-villianization (it's a word, I swear) of Meier, the vampire who's mere presence caused a wake of rot in the opening sequence.
We're given plenty of reason to believe he may have merely seduced her, but as the movie goes on it becomes clear that Meier's not really such a bad guy at all. Sure, a couple bounty hunters get killed because of him, but they were undoubtedly the antagonists in this movie if the kidnapped woman's story of actually loving the vampire is to be believed.
Scenes where Meier leans in to bite her and then reels back even when she asks for it do a great deal of lending empathy to his character as he explains that he doesn't want her to suffer the long life of impulses he does. A really great scene is after we've established that D can't remain out in direct sunlight for long before becoming debilitated due to his part-vampire nature, we're shown the full-vampire symptoms when Meier, after all his intimidation, steps out into direct sunlight and catches fire out of a desperate attempt to save the kidnapped girl (I don't remember her name).
I really felt bad for him by the end of the movie, and I was honestly frustrated with D for insisting on fighting him. One particular scene where D tempts Meier with an illusion was particularly jarring because I didn't feel about it the way I think the movie wanted me to feel about it.
There are various clashes with the escaping carriage throughout the movie and the vampire has a few fantasy minions to keep them at bay which reminds me... the animation is pretty good.
No complaints about the animation at all. Good stuff. The minion fights are pretty varied, but I was disappointed with the last one since he pretty much dies by cutaway which instantly deflates all of the build-up I was expecting for that fight.
As the movie goes on, the only female member of the bounty hunting crew, Leila, very predictably starts following D around, out of initial disgust at first, it seems, but she begins to better understand him as the movie goes on and I'm glad it never developed into a romance (even though her motives were confusing at times), but like all the bounty hunters, save the totally unexplained dying guy in their truck, she really didn't interest me much at all.
Actually, the unexplained dying guy is evidence of one of my bigger complaints about the movie which is each characters' wildly varied abilities. We're shown almost every character in fight scenes have all sorts of complex and unique traits that help them in various ways, but extremely little is done to establish what their limits are or why they can do what they do. When Leila fires a rocket launcher at Meier and it harmless detonates on his wing, I kinda feel like I was cheated out of some foreshadowing.
The final confrontation of the movie features some of the best music so far and it really feels like we've made it to the boss room in a video game. Unfortunately, the whole movie just flies off the rails at this point and things just start to get confusing.
After Meier seemingly dies, he reappears unharmed in the next scene somehow with the kidnapped girl only to bite her like he didn't want to, which drains all her blood somehow and revives a corpse that is somehow representative of the castle's resident vampire who is still totally alive somehow. Somehow.
Meier is revealed to still be elsewhere later, so was it a hallucination?
If it was a hallucination, then how did it bite her?
Did the "Carmilla" vampire bite her? So she's alive?
Then who's in the coffin? Someone else?
Why does stabbing one affect the other?
If she's really dead, then is she a ghost vampire?
Can ghost vampires bite people?
I HAVE NO IDEA, but the end result is clear enough: SPACESHIPS.
The final scene, which I will not spoil, actually managed to fool me into thinking I knew what was going on, but in actuality the movie had revealed Chekov's Gun early enough in the film that I had totally forgotten about it by this point, and when it's finally reintroduced it reminded me of the long life Meier didn't want for his beloved.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Fantasy Action / 2000
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
I'd say definitely give Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust a shot.
Having never seen Vampire Hunter D or even knowing anything about the story or it's characters whatsoever, my expectations were pretty much limited to what I can extrapolate from the promotional material which essentially came out to be:
Alucard Vampire Hunter?
Fortunately, I wasn't far off.
Bloodlust opens in what is easily the most epic and impressive introduction to any vampire character I have ever seen: with a dark gothic city at night and the increasing threat of approaching hooves, lights go out, wild dogs recoil in fear, and crucifixes violently contort.
As a terrible carriage stops outside the window of an unknown woman who appears frightened yet resigned, the window opens like Hook's come to take Pan's kids, flowers wilt, a great bat creature swoops in, and the woman is carried off in a manner emblematic of the classic vampire.
If Aura of Decimation was any indication, it's clear we have a story unafraid to take creative liberties with it's vampire lore. And while this could be construed as an implication for a "scintillating" discovery later on, the biggest liberties are clearly taken with the world's setting.
Instead of merely a given period, or even a traditional fantasy setting, we're presented with an alternate future world where gothic architecture reigns supreme despite a variety of anachronistic technology.
Scenes, such as the one in the desert, where colossal manta rays rise up from underground to fly in the air, help to emphasize a world that is both familiar, yet alien which helps maintain intrigue.
Our titular character, D, presented to us as the only one of many vampire bounty hunters who happens to be half-vampire, also known as a dhampir (or as the movie would choose to call him, a "DUNpeel", I don't know why, it's weird), takes a bounty to rescue the woman who was kidnapped in the opening scene for an absurd amount of money, but not before demanding twice the price of the commission. I have no idea how currency works in this sort of world, but it still seems kinda dick to demand what seems to be such an ungodly sum to save someone's life.
Speaking of dick, D's hand also talks to him.
It seems to be nothing more than a Deus Ex Machina disguised as a weak comedy inner monologue to substitute for D's relative silence, so other than it being unique, I didn't much care for him. I don't think D cares much for him either.
Must make masturbating REALLY awkward.
But before that mental image really sinks in, D takes off and he quickly runs into other bounty hunters resulting in a pretty epic moment of arrow-catching.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the bounty hunters' character designs. Their faces look weird, their outfits look weird, and they don't really even have the personality to make up for it.
They do get some well-done dialog if nothing else, but the dialog all throughout the movie is either only sufficient or really good.
For the most part D just sounds like a voice in the crowd, but during certain scenes his inflection and lines combine for some great back-and-forth such as this scene where he first confronts the vampire he's chasing:
Originally Posted by Meier
She's here by her own choice, dunPEEL, so unless you're the kind of man who would take a woman against her will for the money in it, and I'm sure it's a lot, I suggest you save your sorry ass now and leave us to travel in peace.
Originally Posted by D
I would if I could believe you, Meier... but your credibility... is less than impeccable under the circumstances.
We're given plenty of reason to believe he may have merely seduced her, but as the movie goes on it becomes clear that Meier's not really such a bad guy at all. Sure, a couple bounty hunters get killed because of him, but they were undoubtedly the antagonists in this movie if the kidnapped woman's story of actually loving the vampire is to be believed.
Scenes where Meier leans in to bite her and then reels back even when she asks for it do a great deal of lending empathy to his character as he explains that he doesn't want her to suffer the long life of impulses he does. A really great scene is after we've established that D can't remain out in direct sunlight for long before becoming debilitated due to his part-vampire nature, we're shown the full-vampire symptoms when Meier, after all his intimidation, steps out into direct sunlight and catches fire out of a desperate attempt to save the kidnapped girl (I don't remember her name).
I really felt bad for him by the end of the movie, and I was honestly frustrated with D for insisting on fighting him. One particular scene where D tempts Meier with an illusion was particularly jarring because I didn't feel about it the way I think the movie wanted me to feel about it.
There are various clashes with the escaping carriage throughout the movie and the vampire has a few fantasy minions to keep them at bay which reminds me... the animation is pretty good.
No complaints about the animation at all. Good stuff. The minion fights are pretty varied, but I was disappointed with the last one since he pretty much dies by cutaway which instantly deflates all of the build-up I was expecting for that fight.
As the movie goes on, the only female member of the bounty hunting crew, Leila, very predictably starts following D around, out of initial disgust at first, it seems, but she begins to better understand him as the movie goes on and I'm glad it never developed into a romance (even though her motives were confusing at times), but like all the bounty hunters, save the totally unexplained dying guy in their truck, she really didn't interest me much at all.
Actually, the unexplained dying guy is evidence of one of my bigger complaints about the movie which is each characters' wildly varied abilities. We're shown almost every character in fight scenes have all sorts of complex and unique traits that help them in various ways, but extremely little is done to establish what their limits are or why they can do what they do. When Leila fires a rocket launcher at Meier and it harmless detonates on his wing, I kinda feel like I was cheated out of some foreshadowing.
The final confrontation of the movie features some of the best music so far and it really feels like we've made it to the boss room in a video game. Unfortunately, the whole movie just flies off the rails at this point and things just start to get confusing.
After Meier seemingly dies, he reappears unharmed in the next scene somehow with the kidnapped girl only to bite her like he didn't want to, which drains all her blood somehow and revives a corpse that is somehow representative of the castle's resident vampire who is still totally alive somehow. Somehow.
Meier is revealed to still be elsewhere later, so was it a hallucination?
If it was a hallucination, then how did it bite her?
Did the "Carmilla" vampire bite her? So she's alive?
Then who's in the coffin? Someone else?
Why does stabbing one affect the other?
If she's really dead, then is she a ghost vampire?
Can ghost vampires bite people?
I HAVE NO IDEA, but the end result is clear enough: SPACESHIPS.
The final scene, which I will not spoil, actually managed to fool me into thinking I knew what was going on, but in actuality the movie had revealed Chekov's Gun early enough in the film that I had totally forgotten about it by this point, and when it's finally reintroduced it reminded me of the long life Meier didn't want for his beloved.