Montrak

This is a harder vampire movie that doesn't have a bad plot. Sometimes the story could be a bit more innovative. The special effects are really cool. The movie entertained me a lot. Actually 6/10, but since it's an independent movie it gets an extra point.

If you are into vampires, you will surely like this one.

But let me tell you one thing first: This is a German film original called Montrak, which was dubbed for its american release and been pulled out as Vampire War in the United States. Unfortunately the English dubbing is a joke, which isn't doing this movie any good. However, if you can look past the dubbing, you get an entertaining Vampire flick with lots of action. My only other critisim, the film could have been easily 20 min. Shorter. And also, gorgeous actresss Julia Dietze (Iron Sky) have deserved a better and bigger role

The story of Montrak can only be described as epic.

It starts in the dark age and ended up in post modern Berlin days with a clan of Vampires preparing everything to take over the world. Only a small group of Vampire Hunters comes in their way, as humanities last line of defense.

Ugh! I was not expecting much from this cheapie vampire horror flick, but considering my expectations were low, they were exceeded in this poorly made German horror movie. The film itself looks like crap, the story seems to have potential, but the execution of it here fails to deliver. I have a version that seems to be made by an American company and the option to watch it in it's original German language is not available. The English overdubbing is horrible and combined with the poor direction, camera work and editing made this a hard movie to get through. A movie about warring Vampire factions could be interesting, but this D level dud fails to deliver the goods. The film is quite gory, but fails to maintain my interest in anything cohesive. The box compares this to Near Dark and I fail to see any similarities. I am reminded more of Subspecies, but this cinematic turd is not even in the same league as that B movie classic.

The German independent film is alive. Still. Fortunately. If we didn't have Stefan Schwenk and his friends, we would only have stupid comedies and pompous dramas for mentally meaningless entertainment. However, "Montrak" isn't a really new, senseless movie, because it already exists as a little finger exercise from the year 2002. Now, however, with more effort, modern technology, familiar faces, a homely score and great pictures, it is packaged as a remake and widely circulated. Even officially on DVD and Blu-ray in stores, without indexing or confiscation as with other Gore colleagues. One reason for this is that Stefan cares more about his story and its dramaturgy, which sometimes makes abstruse changes, but in the end becomes clearer and clearer for the viewer. Schwenk doesn't jump on rough home made splatter sequences and embarrassing acting, which is quite correct and good. No, his work also works without bloodbaths with grunts, intestines, screams and "Sick Pigs". However, the story, despite constant picture and camera changes, shows small lengths and mistakes, sometimes it gets a bit dozy (mainly in the middle part). It fits quite well, a wink of the eye is allowed and you are quickly in control of the (beer) situation. Even if the movie doesn't have any real horror moments that provoke or shock, the effects are great, the photography excellent, the actors and extras super selected, you are entertained splendidly. Ergo: Tasty, quite original genre food, which is varied, could be tighter, but entertains well with its quotes and references

I honestly can't fathom how this movie has such a high rating. Long story short: This is another "re-imagining" of the Dracula origin story told through multiple time periods. While the production values are better than most TV fare, the story is boring, the cast are forgettable -- with a truly bland male protagonist and an unbelivelable "love story" -- and it's bad enough that you'd want the power to fast-forward through it like Adams Sandler in "Click".

Do yourself a favor and watch "Blade: Trinity" instead of this SyFy-channel wannabe (you'll thank yourself later), or watch something like "Guardians" if you want a fun low-budget foreign sci-fi film. A Russian werebear toting a backpack chain gun is way more entertaining than bad actors wearing cheap vampire cosmetics.