Charley’s nerdy friend Ed goads him into helping destroy the vampire but that doesn’t go very well. When Charley sees evidence that proves Jerry is who Ed says he is, he realizes he has to save his mom, who due to her singlemotherness is open to letting him into her life, as well as girlfriend Amy, a sexy ingénue who is just Jerry’s cup of tea. Charley does a bit of snooping and rescues another woman in Jerry’s clutches. Later he enlists the help of Vegas show star Peter Vincent, whose website proclaims his expertise as a vampire hunter.
Modernization of the story by using Las Vegas is partially good—a city that never sleeps and more active by night than by day, and this aspect allows a lot of the action to take place at night and in dark corners—but unfortunately the use of the actual city is kept at a minimum. A movie set in Vegas should use its personality, i.e. casino life, but at the utmost it shows us a rehearsal of the Peter Vincent magic show which itself is all smoke and mirrors. Thus this story could have taken place in almost any modern isolated suburb.
Colin Farrell hams it up in parts of his role, but doesn't come off as normal enough at the beginning parts of the picture to have us doubt his true nature. A lot of the last third of the movie is action and CGI work and so vampire is just in kill mode and I don't know if Farrell does much acting at this point. There is one major scene where he appears menacing to Charley, but the I don’t think Farrell created a personality for me other than that of a sadistic serial murderer (the vampire aspect feels second place).
David Tennant makes his character more genuine, despite the comic relief--a tragic backstory lends credence to his cynical personality and alcohol abuse, and reluctance to help Charley. Sandra Vergara as the magician’s assistant makes as much of she can with her small role alongside Tennant.
Plot points regarding the story are not as good as in the original film; instead of keeping us/Charley in suspense for a time as to whether Jerry is a vampire or not, the story comes to this fact very early on, and it’s a discovery first made by the best friend and not Charley himself. The older film created a lot of old time monster movie atmosphere and the vampire's gothic home, something this film doesn't try to include. The film has tried to make the Charley character fit the stereotype of a modern day movie teen with modern (adult) desires but the character to me just doesn't work. Imogen Poots is all right but she seems a little mature alongside the younger looking Yelchin. The character of Ed, the best friend played by Mintz Plasse, comes off as a bitter has-been and any sense you have of his long-time friendship with Charley doesn’t come through at all.
Overall CGI and horror elements are not as inventive and not worth seeing in 3D, as the parts enhanced by this are nothing spectacular and in fact it makes the bursts of CGI blood and vampire faces look even faker. I did like the solution Peter Vincent offers up to get rid of the vampire and how it is carried out, a more old fashioned type of action than trying to scare us with CGI. And star of the former movie, Chris Sarandon, has a cameo as well.
Basically I am saying this movie sucks a lot of fun out of the story, trying to make it violently graphic and gory instead, and most likely fans of the original will continue to prefer that version over this remake.
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