Synopsis
Dylan Dog, a supernatural detective who will go where the living dare not — facing friend and foe alike in the monster infested backstreets of New Orleans. Armed with an edgy wit and an arsenal of silver and wood-tipped bullets, Dylan must solve a series of murders before an epic war ensues between his werewolf, vampire and zombie clients.
Brandon Routh owned this role of Dylan Dog. He does well playing that ‘loner’ type role where everything badass comes through him. If you need an example then look no further than Superman Returns. Routh owned that role and was the only redeeming factor in that mess of a film. Had they cast him for the upcoming Superman film by Zach Snyder I would have had no problem with it; he was just that good. So, seeing him as this sheriff of werewolves, vampires and the undead brings that same type of strength that he possessed as everyone’s favorite red caped superhero. He is believable as the badass Dylan Dog, and you want him to be great at tracking down enemies and taking care of business. If you’re thinking about seeing this film he would be the first reason to watch it.
With that said, the story completely fails Routh. Kevin Monroe and his writers couldn’t seem to balance out Dylan Dog’s character development, while still maintaining a solid story. In origin films you have to take a new character’s life and somehow integrate it into the overall body of work. We don’t find out what makes Dylan Dog the solid hunter that he is and the tragic retiree that he became until nearly halfway through the story. By that point in the film you simply won’t care, as your main focus is on the main storyline. As sad as this is going to sound, there’s simply too many things you’re asking your audience to keep up with and eventually they’re going to throw their hands in the air and do the best they can to understand what’s going on; this is where Dylan Dog suffers the most. The structure of the character and of the story simply doesn’t flow together correctly. On top of this, both seem to have a big issue with putting down a solid direction where it needs to go. For example, at the beginning of the film we are introduced to Dylan’s sidekick, Marcus (played by Sam Huntington — fun guy to watch onscreen). Shortly after his introduction, we’re given the main plot point of the story; there’s been a murder by a werewolf, who is searching for something vital to their survival. After that plot point we’re given a taste of what is wrong with Dylan. Shortly after that Marcus meets his doom. Marcus is in the movie for all of 5-7 minutes before he’s killed. Once Routh’s Dog finds out about his friend’s murder we are suppose to feel something for Marcus, like what Dylan’s going through onscreen. Having someone onscreen for 5-7 minutes isn’t enough time to get to know them and care that they’re dead; literally there is no emotional bond made between audience and character in this amount of time. Sure we get Marcus back later, and even that isn’t explained well, but we’re still disconnected with him. On top of this we’re asked to also keep following Dog’s investigation and keep up with that. It’s a big mess at the beginning.
Characters merging with the story aren’t the only issue with Dylan Dog; there’s also small plot points in the film that are tough to follow. For example, when Marcus is coping with his new zombie life, we go from serious storyline with Dylan and Marcus to, and this is really out of nowhere, Marcus attending a support group for new zombies. If you’re going to bring up this sub-story with Marcus coming into his zombiehood then you have to plant these little moments perfectly within the main story. I fully understand that Monroe and his writers were trying to bleed out (no pun intended) as much comedy from Huntington’s Marcus as possible, but to throw this random thing in there for sheer laughs really doesn’t help the flow of the story, or help to round out what Marcus is dealing with in his new afterlife. There are several little things like this with each character that just simply is misplaced within the entire scheme of things. It’s disruptive to the main story, which is never good when the story is a little complicated with details.
If you can look beyond those little moments, the lack of solid character development then you will find a few gems in the movie here and there. First, the make-up on the monsters in the film is actually damn good. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a modern horror film that actually used more make-up than CGI; Dylan Dog does a great job with bringing an old tradition, long since forgotten, back strongly. The fight at the end was especially impressive and reminded me that this was indeed a horror film, and not a Maya fest.
In addition to the looks, the story does have its moments. Nearly three-fourths of the way through you will finally figure out what’s going on. You will see a very smooth story start emerging from the mess that it creates at the beginning and middle. You will find yourself a little terrified and a rooting for the main character to save the day. It gets creepy and it gets good at the end. The twist at the end is charming for this movie, but tough to explain and find once you figure it out; you will not see it coming because the story is so tangled at the beginning that you just won’t be able to put two and two together, though it is there. So, if you made it this far with the film then it does pay off a little towards the end, in true horror fashion.
So how was the Blu-ray portion of the film? It certainly did look really smooth, though there were a few times where the special effects revealed so wear and tear. For the most part, the choice to use make-up with the characters helped the HD out tremendously. The grotesqueness of the film was magnified on Blu-ray, and there was little to no color banding in the film; that’s impressive considering how dark most of the scenes were. There was also a lack of grain or artifacts in the picture, which again is impressive because of the dark scenes. I think the HD quality was the strongest point of the film and it did make things uneasy, especially scenes involving Marcus. When you see his first meal as a zombie in HD you will feel sick to your stomach just a bit. The visuals were really strong with this Blu-ray release and the audio was as equally good, if not better in some respects. On a side note, I really enjoyed the soundtrack on this film. There’s nothing like some good music in a horror film.
As for special features, nada. There are no special features, which is regretful.