This was an interesting story. There were some polarizing elements to it in that there were definitely things I really liked, and then there were also things I thought were really lacking.
I loved the vampires in this story. They were scary. They hungered for domination over the living. They were arrogant, to the degree that it was an actual weakness, and for the most part, they were blind to it. Save for Vicente and perhaps other elder vampires that weren't in the story. Vicente's wisdom made him truly a powerful villain. I loved the idea that he and the other elder vampires had strived for so long to make vampires seem as myth. The younger vampires ignoring or not even conceiving of this notion was what this story was really about. The wisdom of old age versus the brashness of youth. I loved how this story portrayed that.
The characters had good depth for such a short piece of work. The description and setting were well done too. There were moments of gore, moments of suspense, moments of tension, and a heck of a lot of action.
What didn't work for me was how Eben was able to inject himself and control himself after becoming a vampire. Nothing led me to believe this was possible, and yet he not only did it, he planned it as if he knew he could do it. And of course, it all just went according to plan. Blah.
I didn't think the stuff regarding New Orleans was really necessary. It was somewhat interesting, and could have possibly been given more meaning, but as the story was written, none of the stuff about getting pictures back to the old lady mattered. All of that could have been taken out of the story and it wouldn't have affected it one bit. Its not that it bothered me much, but it just didn't seem to have a purpose that meant anything to the story.
I was also a little curious about why Vicente was so worried about humans not thinking vampires were myths. Don't get me wrong, I loved that premise. But based only on what we got from the story, I didn't see a reason why the vampires needed to be in hiding. They were certainly apex predators. Perhaps he was simply worried that the vampires, left to actually rule the world, would quickly exhaust their food supply? Because they certainly didn't have anything to fear from the humans. Sure, the vamps had to hide during the day. The humans would most definitely have to hide during the night. Had the vampires decided to come out and declare war on humanity, I think they would have won easily, with just a bit of strategic planning. I guess I'm just saying I'd like to know why Vicente was so worried about the humans realizing vampires were real. If the humans wanted to try and hunt them into extinction, I think the vampires taking the fight to the humans would result in a whole shit load of new vampires. So, the only thing I can think of is that Vicente was afraid the vamps would hunt the humans to extinction. But his sentiement didn't feel like that. He seemed to actually be afraid of the humans for some reason... like if they found out vampires were real, they had some kind of upper hand. If there was even just some other weakness they had, that he was afraid the humans would learn of, that would significantly tip the odds in the humans' favor, then I'd have been happy.
Overall though, this was a good read... a good example of monsters and a decent enough story.
You raise a really good point about why Vicente was so afraid the humans would learn of the vampires' existence. I don't know if it was explained explicitly, but I think my interpretation was that the vampires were somehow weakened during the day time. At least, it seemed like the fear was less of an all-out battle, and more that the humans would come looking during the day while the vampires slumbered (much like Neville's strategy in I Am Legend). I did find it really interesting that the vampires decided intentionally not to let the humans turn, which could lend credence to your theory that they were worried about overpopulating and running out of food. I was always under the impression that for a human to turn into a vampire, they had to feed from the vampire's blood as well as having been bitten, but this interpretation seemed to treat the vampire "infection" more like a werewolf or zombie bite. I guess it was a necessary alteration of the myth for the sake of the plot, but to me it made them even less like vampires than they already were (given the teeth and meat-eating issues others have already discussed).
ReplyDeleteI also loved the arrogance of the vampires in this one! I adored their design too. I felt with the style of graphics, some of the gore fell flat.
ReplyDeleteThe movie ended a similar way with Ebsen being OC. Kind bleh for an ending. Oh he turns and saves the day? Don't most vampire species have a rank and power thing with age? How was he so amazing after just turning?
I agree the scene from New Orleans could be cut. While it did add a minor thing to the plot, pages could have been saved and added more to the story itself.
I think they liked the idea of being these shadow creatures of nightmares. If I were one, I wouldn't want to be put on display for humans to watch or study me. I rather stalk the night as a myth that keeps people up wondering instead of being known.
Like your comment on my post, I disagreed with a lot of what you thought about the story. I didn't get any of the brashness of youth versus elder knowledge hidden morals. Yes, I did see that in the one character, but normally if that is a motif in he story than it is showed with more than just one character. I thought that element was more just to add a twist to the story than anything else. If it was supposed to be the moral of the story, I feel like we would have seen it more with the sheriff versus children, or with momma versus the her son. But to be fair, I agree that the part with momma and her son in the helicopter was unnecessary to the entire plot and could have just as easily have been cut out without any repercussions.
ReplyDeleteI also disagree on there being tension (sorry!) because I didn't feel any reading the graphic novel. Everything blurred together, and I didn't really feel any stakes for the humans. It all felt like a very quick blur to me.
The vampire myth thing stood out to me as well. I thought it was a cheap way to explain why they were hiding. I feel like it could have been built up to be something much bigger than just that...like they thrive up there because they're unaffected by the cold and they get to stuff themselves happy during the 30 days of night then go hibernate again. It could have been vampire headquarters or something. I agree with Alexis as well about the ending. I think the cop turning and saving everyone was their way of getting out of a story as easily as possible.
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