Review: Let Me In

*nods*
Haven't watched it, and you've reinforced my illogical hatred.

After the positive reviews I was really hopeful that this film would prove me wrong and could at least be a good copy of the original but it actually managed to disappoint me more than I could have imagined. It is genuinely terrible. Soulless, illogical, incredibly heavy-handed, clunky and just plain pointless.
For example, here we have a nosey cop instead of a neighbour, has potential right? Shame they used the same setups then and didn't think how things would differ. Case in point, said cop (on his own at all times) violently kicks down the apartment door of a little girl who has just lost her father WITH HIS GUN LOADED and stalks through the apartment looking for her. Err. You've also got an issue with the fact he wasn't trying to kill her when he finds her in the bath (forget the gun brandishing) so when Abby then goes psycho and kills him, it's not a case of kill or be killed, he's the innocent victim and Abby is most certainly the villain. This is one of numerous problems throughout the entire film, I could go through pretty much every scene and find a significant issue, usually with the oh-so-unnecessary and constant exposition that is the movie's biggest problem.
For example, the violation of the entry rules. Instead of Oskar saying it's ok to come in, the relief and the silent understanding and hug of the original, instead we get a stupid conversation that goes something like

What was that?
I don't know? It just happens
Oh ok durr

More examples? Ok then. The photobooth pictures which show a young Abby and Hakan together, possibly as a couple. In that instant, Abby goes from friend and vulnerable girl to parasite looking for someone to take care of her and all the ambiguity of the original is gone. It's only Abby's scenes with Hakan that hold any genuine gravity or pathos, everything else is so fundamentally hollow and scripted for a different film that what's happening on the screen feels seperate to what's actually being said. "I'm not a girl" for example, when she quite blatantly is very girly.
Even the pool scene is totally ruined by the need for horror and exposition instead of the contrast between underwater serenity and above water chaos that the original pulled off so brilliantly. In short, this film has been made by a monkey so talentless that he can't create reasonable film even when he's copying one.
This might seem like a rant but I've barely even scratched the surface of all the things wrong here. I'm genuinely disappointed, which says something when I wasn't expecting much to begin with.

Was there any point at all in Virginia's hospital BBQ? Again it's a comparison but in the original she realises what's happened to her and chooses death instead of a horrible existence. Here she just gets toasted accidentally by a nurse, it's an entirely throwaway scene for a character that doesn't even have a line to say!

This was a fucking stupid film

Oh I must comment on the car crash. Actually a pretty good scene, as was everything that builds up to it but again it's struck down by such abject stupidity on the part of Hakan. Are we really supposed to believe that in 40 years of killing for her, he'd be so stupid as to pick up a victim in such a public place? In a fucking supermarket carpark of all places and then just assume they're on their own. How about leaving you car parked by the side of the road? I just... I just have no words.

Should we also mention Owen's rather strange hatred of women too? Seriously, I could spend all night coming up with these.

Edited at 05:16 on 09/07/11

It's also missing Håkan trying to get an underage blowjob in a toilet. And zombie Håkan wandering around with a permanent hard-on. Also Eli (or Abby) sprouting wings. :D

It's got a car crash
*pounds fisties on table*
I'm not watching it, and even though nobody has said I should, I shall continue to stress my disinterest for no real reason.

Then there is the (apparently appallingly) dubbed version of the original.

I will give the US version credit in that it looked gorgeous. Way different and nowhere near as stark, but gorgeous nonetheless.

One thing I will say is that the missus watched it last night too and though it was great. The original just didn't click with her and she gave up very quickly.

So it doesn't have writing all over it. Pretty much the only reason.

I watched this last night. Very good, but it should have been considering 7/8ths of it was lifted directly from the original.

I didn't mind the additions and bit's that were changed in all honesty. I doubt an American audience is ready for a peado sub plot and the gender issues in the original.

I'm still scratching my head as to exactly why it was remade though. [edit] Or have I just answered my own question just above there?

Edited at 09:37 on 24/01/11

Somebody should remake "Into The Wild" by Sean Penn.
Watched that last night, I have never known time to slow and stretch before me like that.
Fucking film needed a car crash, tanks & whatever else you could add.
Pretentious 23yr old reads Jack London, tells people twice his age what it means to be alive and sits in a deserted bus starving to death.
The End.
For 2hrs.
Did have Catherine Keener though, which made it ok.

Absolutely no outrage from me sir, a bemused head scratching and disbelief.
No bee, no bonnet nor red face. Merely a "...car crash? Why?" confusion.
*shrugs*
They can have tanks, werewolves in jetpacks & invisible cars for all it matters. I can watch the original sans car crashes and the remake can make no money and be ignored.
Everybody wins.

As I say in the review, I was prepared for outrage upon entering the cinema, but was really impressed. Consider this a recommendation.

As for the car crash - I think you may have got it in your head that US remake = Michael Bay-like explosions and needless fireworks. In fact, it is filmed exactly in keeping with the film's unsettling tone (which is the same as the original) and is one of the best scenes in the film.

Outrage? The fact you mentioned the car crash seven times suggests you've got a bee in your bonnet about it.

And because a tank that shoots garlic bullets would obviously be massively shit. A car crash, in the context of the remake, at that precise scene, works brilliantly. It's not like it's a car chase or anything.

Who's outraged?
I'm confused as to why add something not in the book or original film if you're going to remake/reimagine.
Why not add a tank that shoots garlic bullets? If you're making stuff up, go wild.
I'll not watch the remake, not to my taste.

To make it differ slightly from the original? Like everyone said they should but never would? It's way better than the scene in LTROI, far more memorable in my opinion.

There's various levels of outrage you could choose, but I really don't see the point. In the book, Hakan is masturbating in the swimming pool changing rooms, and is a blatant paedophile, but none of that is in the film. He also becomes a zombie penis monster. That wasn't in there either.

But no one was outraged over that stuff, because no one had read it before the film came out. Books, films, remakes... who really cares? As long as the originals remain intact, I don't give a toss about new versions of stuff any more. The few examples that live up to the originals should be applauded I say, not nit-picked over changes.

Car crash?
There isn't any car crash. Hakan goes to the municipal sports centre and ambushes the kid in the changing room, fucks it up and is caught.

Car crash? Why add a car crash?

Is his monsterous boner in this version?

The car crash is the scene which preceeds Hakan getting caught and giving himself an acid facelift. Him trying to abduct a kid and getting caught. Sounds awful, but it's incredible.

From which version?

I dont remember any car crash.
CGI cat attacks, yes. Car crash, no.

From what I've heard, the car crash is the only decent original moment in the film.

You sound offended Goatboy.

There's a car crash in it?

I concur. There's a whole other debate about whether or not this film needs to exist (hint: it doesn't) but exist it does, and it's a faithful, fascinating adaptation of a great book. I really enjoyed it and I love the original, and hey, if it means more people seek out LTROI then everybody wins.

After savaging this film at every oppurtunity over the last 18 months, I'm going to withold my view until I've either watched it online or my friend gets me into her cinema for free.
Having said that, everything I've read, every trailer, every preview clip have made it look dumbed down, 1-dimensional or just a flatout copy and therefore redundant.

Car crash?

Score one for us yanks.