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Byzantium

Byzantium

2012
Drama, Suspense/Thriller
1h 58m
A pair of female vampires (Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton) wreaks havoc on an unsuspecting English seaside community in this deliciously depraved supernatural drama from Academy Award® winner Neil Jordan. (tiff.net)
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Byzantium

2012
Drama, Suspense/Thriller
1h 58m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 46.24% from 600 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(600)
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Rated 18 Jun 2013
40
8th
This... just wasn't neseccary. Never truly awful, but ultimately just... meh.
Rated 04 Aug 2013
69
37th
there isnt much of a plot but its a beautiful production
Rated 23 Feb 2015
61
42nd
Tries to be a British "Let The Right One In", and often does it quite well, but has a few too many moments where it either treads water or gets way too literal about the characters' motivations. But a good, different take on an overdone genre nonetheless.
Rated 23 Sep 2013
55
74th
A tad slowgoing and uneven storywise, but its gloomy elegance is increasingly engaging - and both Saoirse.R and Gemma.A bring their characters alive as impressive as expected. *Preview*: #13#, exp-3*, hype, story, (reviews), (director Jordan/1), actresses, R3.
Rated 22 Dec 2014
70
46th
The idea is really great, but the realization of it left me disappointed. I believe that the characters merit more work from a screenwriter, a good idea for a story is not enough for the film to become an intense experience. Thumbs up for beautiful work of the D.o.P.
Rated 28 Jan 2015
5
54th
Good cinematography, good acting, but no 'Interview with a Vampire' by a long shot. Not a very interesting plot, not scary, not thrilling. (Vampire movies are supposed to be a bit scarier than this.) Although it is a decent enough movie, I almost regretted watching it because it left me with the feeling of having filled my stomach with something that is tasteless. But at least it introduced me to Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues. I recommend the Tatiana Nikolayeva recording.
Rated 11 Feb 2015
3
73rd
it's all a bit young-adult, starting vagueley emo history/memory/trauma philosphising then becoming a tale of girls overcoming vampatriarchy. That the overcoming depended largely on the mercies of men meant that strand felt as 'unsatisfying' as the first. It's quite atmospheric in places though and the players seemed to be having fun, quite enjoyed it despite it's faults.
Rated 11 Mar 2015
61
25th
Byzantium is another in a long list of vampire movies that will ultimately be forgotten. The plot is light, though the flashbacks showed promise. At times the style and tone were reminiscent of 'Let the Right One In', though ultimately the film feels devastatingly slow. While most of the performances were solid, Caleb Landry Jones singularly ruined my experience with sub-par acting, a character so annoying that I was rooting for his death, and a romance so dull it brought on PTSD from Twilight.
Rated 24 Oct 2017
67
31st
Byzantium has a lot of ideas it wants to explore, some of them more interesting than others. The central thread of narratology and memory-keeping is one of the better ones, but feels hemmed in amongst all the others. Jordan manages to integrate the many flashback sequences into the film in an impressive manner which doesn't disrupt the flow of the contemporary plotline. The drama is a bit overwrought and there's some silly antagonist stuff which seems superfluous. Worth a watch for genre fans.
Rated 10 Oct 2018
40
22nd
Byzantium is a mess that's all over the place. Clara's backstory is fairly nonsensical and the rest of the script isn't much better. Eleanor steps into the street, 'Macaulay Culkin' falls and magically cuts his wrist, she visits him in the hospital and now they're in love? The movie meanders from one convenient event to the next. It doesn't help that Eleanor is mopier than Bella, or that Clara is unsympathetic. A film either has to make you care or entertain you, this does neither decently.
Rated 30 Jul 2019
73
32nd
There are a few intriguing themes bourgeoning up here and there and the cinematography is generally very attractive, but there's too little here to keep this bit of Ann Rice fan-fiction memorable. It's in dire need of editing--at its hefty running length it needlessly slogs. The characters' motivations are weirdly one-dimensional despite an air of depth delivered by fairly capable performances. Ultimately, this film's gravest sin is that the plot isn't all that interesting.
Rated 06 Aug 2013
70
64th
Solid directing by Neil Jordan and interesting new, more mystic approach for vampirism. As much as it has got a brand new point of view, the rare special effects were mostly cheaply done. And unfortunately there was not much of a story to tell. Nice camerawork and acting by Gemma Arterton.
Rated 09 Aug 2013
1
16th
Poor film. Horrible pacing.
Rated 09 Aug 2013
25
61st
"Forlorn depictions of love and death may dignify Neil Jordan's film, but narrative withholding ultimately drives a stake into its unmistakable heart." - Ed Gonzalez
Rated 10 Aug 2013
50
37th
A poor man's 'Let the Right One In'.
Rated 11 Aug 2013
30
18th
The running time is way too long. If they first 30 minutes were cut, it would have been so much better.
Rated 15 Aug 2013
3
68th
Decent vampire flick. Gets a bit disappointing towards the end.
Rated 15 Aug 2013
65
42nd
200 yillik vampirlik gecmisinde surekli yer degistirerek yasayan anne kiz, cignedikleri kural yuzunden vampirlik adalet temsilcilerinden kacarlar. 16 yasindaki kizin anne ile iliski, kizin aski, annelik guduleri gibi konular islenmis. derinlik goremedim fazla, agir ilerliyor.
Rated 17 Aug 2013
75
18th
In ways, watching this film gave me the same feeling as buying a bag of assorted candy and opening the bag to find it's mostly filled with my least favorite kind. You enjoy some of it, but most of it just makes you wish it had turned out just a little better. Gemma Arterton steals the show.
Rated 29 Sep 2013
70
43rd
It killed some time on a Sunday afternoon
Rated 06 Oct 2013
65
40th
Longwinded, predictable, and unremarkable in just about every way, this attempt at showing a more "human" side to our favourite chiropteric assassins fails to take off, due to the thin and plodding storyline. Gemma Arterton displays a sense of menace that exists nowhere else in the film, and she steals the show, but in truth that's not saying very much. There's really no excuse for a vampire film with zero threat and menace; even the death scenes are repetitive and "nice". Not BAD, just not good
Rated 17 Oct 2013
70
25th
For a movie with such a fixation on stories, it did a pretty bad job with its own. The pacing is terrible, and the dialogue and plotting are laughable. It's all made the worse by the presence of a couple actually interesting concepts, and the entirety of the flashback sequences being more interesting, creative and visually impressive than the rest of the movie combined, which isn't too surprising consider Miller and Arterton are the centerpieces there and give the best performances in the film.
Rated 29 Oct 2013
63
27th
63.000
Rated 06 Jan 2014
49
11th
almost a good movie, its well made and has good characters but it never really went anywhere....
Rated 25 Jan 2014
85
30th
Its definition of a vampire pleases me. The acting and photography also. But I couldn't get excited about the story because it never fully developed.
Rated 28 Jan 2014
30
7th
3- not worth your time, not good
Rated 18 Feb 2014
61
23rd
Seneler sonra Neil Jordan, yine uzunca bir tarih aralığına yayılan bir vampir hikayesi anlatıyor. Çok özel bir film olmasa da, kimi lüzumsuz sahneleri göz ardı edildiğinde, kötü olmayan bir film denebilir.
Rated 21 Feb 2014
70
62nd
dark and twisted, an awesome take on modern vampires and an interesting plot. bit predictable towards the end, nonetheless satisfying!
Rated 06 Mar 2014
80
61st
A nice classic vampire story - Neil Jordan pretty much began the new era of vampire films 20 years ago, so he knows what he's doing - this is a smaller story in scope, but no less so in emotional impact. A lovely film.
Rated 24 Mar 2014
35
44th
There are some elements of the story that are very good. I felt the pacing was a bit off because the flashbacks throw off the progression during the first half of the film.
Rated 18 Aug 2014
51
9th
I thought this was pretty terrible. Slow pacing but that didn't bother me as much as the fact that hardly anything happens in this film. For some reason I thought the acting was pretty unconvincing from pretty much everyone, though I did enjoy Saoirse Ronan's portrayal of Eleanor. Honestly I think it's just a lot of wasted potential with this cast and setting, the film could have been a lot more interesting. Right now I felt it was a bit of a boring, uninspiring mess.
Rated 06 Nov 2014
41
17th
Zzzzzz...
Rated 09 Mar 2015
60
62nd
Not bad.
Rated 31 May 2015
72
55th
A great cast acting their balls off in an interesting story which perhaps falters a bit in the execution. Whilst I would probably watch Saoirse Ronan sit silently in a chair for two hours, that is occasionally helpful during the more laboured scenes in the middle of the film. Criminally underuses the actual origin story that is a central concept to the plot.
Rated 03 Nov 2015
50
31st
If you're from the UK imagine a made for ITV drama about vampires with just enough semi racy scenes to fill the adverts & whip up a bit of interest.It'd probably have Billie Piper in it. On another note....if that dullard whey faced sappy weirdo loser can pull Saoirse Ronan then there's hope for every nerdlinger on the planet
Rated 20 May 2016
61
39th
Was finding it to be somewhat plodding and mediocre but the overall plot actually fitted together better than I had expected in the end.
Rated 09 Jan 2018
70
80th
More reviews here : http://movie-freak.be
Rated 04 Sep 2019
48
49th
worth a watch
Rated 18 Oct 2019
70
56th
Despite being rather unsure of itself, the filmmaking effortlessly capture the kaleidoscopic neons of modern nightclubs and abandoned carnivals, contrasted with the brown-toned candlelit scenes set in the 1800s. Ultimately your enjoyment will probably come down to how much you relate to the mother/daughter dynamic that anchors everything, from the more lyrical passages to the gritty action scenes.
Rated 16 Apr 2023
62
41st
This one moves a little bit slow and certainly falters at times, but in its core it's an interesting take on the vampire lore. It's held afloat much by the two main actresses and the dynamics between them. The romance that happens between the two young (or young-appearing) characters seems too sudden to make you feel much. Still, I wasn't bored watching it and I always welcome fresh takes on a subject that sometimes seems stuck to certain norms,.

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