WTF did I just watch? Okay, seriously, I didn't get this movie at all.
The story: Darren (our teen protagonist) and best friend go to a traveling freak show where his friend recognizes one of freaks is a vampire and after the show he asks to become a vampire. The vampire refuses. Meanwhile, Darren steals the vampire's spider which the next day gets out at school and bites his friend putting him into a coma. Darren goes back to the vampire for the antidote. The vampire learns another vampire has found Darren and now his life is in jeopardy. He agrees to give the antidote to Darren if Darren will become a half vampire, which will give him some protection from the bad vampire. Darren agrees and he is half-turned, which gives him some power, but he must drink blood to get the full power and his friend gets the spider-antidote and gets better. But at home, Darren almost feeds on his sister and realizes he cannot stay at his house. He fakes his death and moves in with the freaks from the travelling show. Now the bad vampire still wants Darren. See there are two factions of vampire -- those that kill humans and those that don't. So now the bad vampire tries to get him, first by turning his friend, the kidnapping his family and then having a big final showdown, which ends in kind of a draw. The bad vampire and his friend leave. Darren goes to live with the freaks and good vampires.
First, yes, I had a lot of help with that synosis from Wikipedia.
Second, WTF is that? I didn't get why all the vampires were after this kid at all, which is like the point of the movie. I also didn't get what the point of the movie was. It felt like a lot of random running around with vampires. Now I haven't read the books this movie was based on, so hopefully they are a lot better (they'd have to be), but yikes! I'm going to mention two specific area where this movie screwed up.
First, is tone. The movie has a largely comedic tone. Was it going for comedy/horror, ebcause it if was then it failed. The thing about comedy-hybrids (comedy/action, comedy/horror, etc) is that the comedy comes second. You have to make sure the story works as a good horror movie or a good action movie or a good cop show and then you add in comedy. This is because all the emotion will come from the other part of the hybrid, all the hope and fear, the thrills and spills, so if you don't get that right the story will be just flat. And that's what happened to this movie. Was there part that was supposed to be scary? Because none of it was. For instance, when his friend is bitten by the spider and he is asking for the antidote -- that should be some intense stuff. A friend dying and it's his fault for stealing the spider? Wow. Instead the scene is light and almost comic. When he turns into the half vampire is that supposed to be bad? What about when he goes to live with the freaks? Nothing has any emotion. You need to make the bad stuff bad and the good stuff good and then fit in the comedy where you can.
A good comparison -- BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER the movie vs BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER the tv show. Buffy the Movie was a flop. It was a horror movie with a lot of comedy in it and the director decided to film it like a comedy instead of like a horror movie and the whole thing just fell apart. Buffy the tv show is a horror show. Yes, there's lots of funny in it, but it is made like a horror show -- the scary parts are scary, the bad parts are bad -- and then they fill it in with humor. If CIRQUE was supposed to have any parts that were scary or bad or emotional then they failed because they tried to make it like a comedy.
The second is emotion. We have to know what is good and what is bad so we will get some emotion out of it. Is being a half vampire good? Is it bad? Is drinking blood so you become powerful (without killing anyone) good or is it bad? Now some of this comes from tone, but some of it comes from the story you want to tell. In TWILIGHT Bella wants to turn into a vampire. In other stories, becoming a vampire is bad. It comes down to story -- what's the story you want to tell. Here, I have no idea what the story is. Usually there is a thing that you can tell inspired the story. The writer wanted to tell a story about a cool kid who became a freak and learned freaks are okay. Or a kid who feels like a freak finds acceptance among other freaks. Or...well, this story could have been about anything because I got NOTHING out of it. TWILIGHT is simple -- it's a romance, made more powerful by the fact that it's a romance with this perfect, supernatural guy. SPIDER-MAN is a love story about a geeky guy who loves a girl, becomes a superhero but realizes he can't be with her because it would put her in danger. BUFFY (movie) is about a superficial blond who gets superpowers to fight off evil and loses her friends, but learns to value more important things. CIRQUE...I have no idea.
I'm all for freaks and vampires and stuff. But there needs to be story. There needs to be emotion. This was bad. Maybe if you just want weird stuff, this movie will have enough to satisfy you, but if you want a good story this movie has nothing.
AVOID.
Some films I'd recommend instead: Sky High, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the tv show), Goonies, Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events (some tone problems here too, but a much better movie), Lost Boys, Gremlins 1 & 2, Back To the Future 1, 2 and 3, Ghost Busters, Beetlejuice
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