CIRQUE DU FREAK : The Vampire's Assistant, 2009
Movie Review

A traveling freak show's most mysterious attraction recruits teenager Darren Shan as his assistant, though the young man soon finds himself used as a pawn in a battle between vampires and their deadlier counterparts.

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REVIEW:

If you check the 2009 movie reviews on this site and click on the genre categories, you will notice the Cirque du Freak will be on almost every single page. It's a Action meets Adventure meets Comedy meets Fantasy meets Horror meets Thriller film. And some would even consider this a bit Sci-Fi too. This is a film that crosses every main genre but never is really one genre. And the vampire genre doesn't count...yet!

I always believed that a film must lead with one genre. Of course most comedies have romantic subplots for example, but we watch first and foremost because it's a comedy. Just like how most crime movies are dramas too, but most of us will be interested because it's a crime film. But it has to be described at one thing first in order for the audiences to become emotionally involved.

The coming of age storyline has also become a bit tired. This was another case where we wanted the other interesting characters to be the main focus and not the boring boy who needs to learn how to become a man angle.

Cirque du Freak reminded me a lot of WANTED (2008) where we meet a boy who enters this mysterious land and becomes mentored by many people. Problem is that we want to find out more about his mentors than himself.

What made these characters tick? Who is this vampire Larten Crepsley (played extremely well by John C Reilly)? And his sexy girlfriend who also grows a beard (Salma Hayek who is still sexy with facial hair)? And what about the other freaks in the camp?

Does this 21st century still care about the normal middle-class boy who enters a whole new world angle? We get this character by now because we've seen it so much. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, the Bible!!?? We get it.

What made recent films like Batman and Iron Man work so well was because those were main characters who have already established their inner-self and moral code. They are flawed humans of course because we all are. But they have already been through that figuring it out stage. And the audiences are already been through it too and we don't need to see it anymore.

Cirque du Freak is an interesting film with interesting characters but with a tired main plot. We don't want to see these stories anymore? Got it?

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CIRQUE DU FREAK