389: The Last Voyage of the Demeter

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[00:00:28] Ba da ba ba ba.

[00:00:30] 97.

[00:00:32] Let's get to The Last Voyage of the Demeter,

[00:00:35] which came out I think in fall-ish of last year.

[00:00:39] And it's on Showtime currently to stream.

[00:00:43] It's directed by Andre Averdahl,

[00:00:46] based off the novel by Bram Stoker.

[00:00:49] Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[00:00:51] Stars Corey Hawkins, Aisling Cianciosi.

[00:00:56] Sorry if I said that name wrong.

[00:00:58] Liam Cunningham, David Desmott.

[00:01:01] I can never say this guy's name either.

[00:01:03] Dasmal Chin, Chris Wally, a couple others.

[00:01:07] And the synopsis is,

[00:01:09] a crew sailing from Varna, Bulgaria,

[00:01:12] by the Black Sea to England,

[00:01:13] find that they are carrying very dangerous cargo.

[00:01:18] So I remember seeing the trailers for this one

[00:01:21] when I saw some summer films and being marginally intrigued.

[00:01:25] I really like history.

[00:01:27] I love historical blockbusters,

[00:01:29] and I love anything dealing with old sailing ships.

[00:01:31] So anything from this to Pirates of the Caribbean,

[00:01:34] Master and Commander,

[00:01:36] In the Heart of the Sea is another good one.

[00:01:38] So anything in that period, I'm there for.

[00:01:40] I am just a sucker for it,

[00:01:41] both cinematically and historically.

[00:01:45] So that was a big draw for me.

[00:01:48] I also love Dracula.

[00:01:49] I'm a sucker for not everything vampire-related,

[00:01:52] but I love Dracula, the historical aspect of it as well.

[00:01:56] So I had been meaning to get around to it for a while.

[00:01:59] I just never did until just recently.

[00:02:01] And I had heard mixed things for the most part.

[00:02:05] Some people really liked it.

[00:02:06] Some people thought it was like a bore.

[00:02:08] It was terrible.

[00:02:10] And I think I am sort of in the middle.

[00:02:14] I liked it overall.

[00:02:15] I wanted to give this movie,

[00:02:16] for what it is, a five out of five.

[00:02:19] Because like I was just saying,

[00:02:21] historical blockbusters,

[00:02:23] they don't really get made that often.

[00:02:24] And oftentimes they don't do that well financially.

[00:02:27] So I feel like we get less and less and less over time.

[00:02:30] So I was trying to give them some sort of financial compensation,

[00:02:34] like renting, purchasing, going to see in theaters.

[00:02:37] I think that so many good elements are there.

[00:02:40] Like it's well put together.

[00:02:42] It's taking a very classical story

[00:02:44] and adapting it fairly classically.

[00:02:46] That's one thing I really appreciated about it is,

[00:02:49] even though it's not perfect,

[00:02:51] it's still like not doing a super modernized,

[00:02:54] overly flashy take on Dracula.

[00:02:57] It's like, all right, it's set on this old sailing ship

[00:03:01] and it's basically like aliens set on a ship

[00:03:03] for the most part and with Dracula.

[00:03:05] Like I'm there for that.

[00:03:06] And I respect that they didn't feel the need to

[00:03:09] inject a lot of crazy special effects

[00:03:12] or huge action sequences or anything like that.

[00:03:14] I think it's just a very traditional sort of horror film.

[00:03:19] So I did really like that aspect.

[00:03:21] The cast is good.

[00:03:22] The lighting is great, like the look of the ocean,

[00:03:24] the skies, the fog inside the ship is great.

[00:03:27] I think the overall look of the Demeter is awesome.

[00:03:31] And I think also the look of Dracula is great.

[00:03:35] Like I think the design, the effects, very, very top-notch.

[00:03:38] So all those things are good.

[00:03:40] I think that the only,

[00:03:41] really like the only thing that brought it down,

[00:03:44] and I don't know if it's a combination of factors,

[00:03:47] but there's just something that feels a little too sluggish.

[00:03:51] And while I like it being restrained,

[00:03:54] there were still points where the very,

[00:03:58] I hate to say predictable

[00:03:59] because it's just a traditional story.

[00:04:00] It's taken from the original novel,

[00:04:02] at least in some ways.

[00:04:04] You can kind of see where it's all going.

[00:04:06] Like they get on the ship,

[00:04:08] Dracula appears and then starts taking out people

[00:04:11] and they have to try and fight back.

[00:04:13] And that's basically the movie.

[00:04:14] I don't think that's really a spoiler.

[00:04:15] I think anyone going into this probably gets that to a degree.

[00:04:20] And I think that while the pacing,

[00:04:22] it's deliberately paced,

[00:04:23] it's a little bit slower,

[00:04:25] which I'm cool with,

[00:04:26] there are still points where it lingers too much

[00:04:28] in certain areas where I'm like,

[00:04:30] all right, we know where this is going

[00:04:32] and there aren't really any big twists or anything like that.

[00:04:35] It's fairly plain in how the story is laid out.

[00:04:38] And so I think that while I like the pacing at times,

[00:04:42] it also didn't totally work in all respects,

[00:04:47] which is too bad because like there were points

[00:04:49] where I was totally in for this movie.

[00:04:51] I loved some of the Dracula attacks.

[00:04:54] I liked the third act.

[00:04:55] I thought that was great where he really fully appears

[00:04:58] and the score is excellent.

[00:05:01] And also I liked how when people are bitten

[00:05:04] or injured whatever by Dracula,

[00:05:06] they don't try and make some crazy new idea

[00:05:10] and concept around how people turn into vampires

[00:05:13] and all that.

[00:05:14] I think they did all that stuff very honorably

[00:05:17] to the original source material.

[00:05:19] So really like that.

[00:05:21] And I feel like it's one that will stick with me

[00:05:23] and I might wanna revisit every so often

[00:05:25] and maybe it'll go up over time

[00:05:27] because atmosphere wise, awesome,

[00:05:29] really very well orchestrated,

[00:05:32] very good production design.

[00:05:34] I just found that there were points

[00:05:35] where I was checking my phone.

[00:05:37] I was like, all right, how far are we into this?

[00:05:39] It is about two hours.

[00:05:40] I think it could have been shortened by 15, 20 minutes

[00:05:43] considering the kind of story that we know it is.

[00:05:47] So I can understand why people think it's boring

[00:05:50] because there's not a lot to latch onto

[00:05:53] if you already are very familiar with this kind of movie.

[00:05:57] I don't think it's really gonna blow you away

[00:05:58] if you have seen anything remotely like it.

[00:06:01] But it is probably one of the better

[00:06:03] Dracula vampire films as of late.

[00:06:05] There haven't been a lot of good ones.

[00:06:07] I don't know why it's so hard to make a good Dracula movie,

[00:06:10] but I think this is probably the best

[00:06:12] over the last handful of years.

[00:06:14] So I would check it out.

[00:06:15] It's unconventional.

[00:06:17] I can respect that.

[00:06:19] So that one is a heavy three and a half out of five.

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