Redheaded Absinthed Alice

Rating: Null/10 (19 May 2004)

Spoilers herein.
This is the best summer action film I think I have ever seen. There is a primary reason and several secondary ones.
The primary attraction is that these things are literally thrill rides. And in film today, the thrills come from how the camera moves, period. The state of the art in this regard has matured even in the last year as they've worked out how to sync virtual and real items with camera paths that are physically impossible.
Unlike the disastrous `Spiderman,' this camera dances with extreme energy. Notice how those camera paths are registered. We see the motions in the flight paths of the vampires: smooth swoop, hold, swoop in a slightly different direction as if they have discovered something, then end with a radical curve and redirection.
Then we experience that same flight pattern ourselves, subliminally making us the vampires. The by now close relationship between Sommers and his chief editor allow this to push, push, push energy, the energy of observation.
But that's not all I like. While the eye is in motion, the characters are in motion as well in the ordinary sense. But all the main characters are morphing, a different kind of motion. And as the movie progresses, we are taken through different films, yet another kind of motion of sight: Indiana Jones, Nosferatu, Gremlins 2, Star Wars, James Bond, Stagecoach, Alien, Eyes Wide Shut (in Budapest!) even esoterica like Spacehunter and Hudson Hawk. And of course in very literal ways, the Universal classics.
Every character transmutes except Kate, who is more of a tattoo here than a character. Her leather corset produces a waist not quite as small as Nichole Kidman's in Portrait of a Lady, but remarkable in any case.
I keep a database of films that employ absinthe. This one revolves around absinthe: the monster's heart and blood is absinthe and the whole tale can be cast as an absinthe vision (as was Moulin Rouge). Kate and Huge drink absinthe found in the windmill (as also in Moulin) and the story turns.
And another database on uses of the Alice in Wonderland metaphor, and another on architectural fireworks, and yet another on vision in redheads, all of which are in the fashion now. All appear here in strength.
It is a tradition that the strongest vampire wife of the three is the redhead and that she subliminally controls the entire scenario through sex. Stoker implied as much at the beginning and it is that redhead wife who captures and dooms Van Helsing in the book. This redhead is the hidden centerpiece of the film as well as its vision. It features the amazing Elena Anaya who was the hidden motivator in the very best folded Alice story: Sex and Lucia, and also in Talk to Her which was similarly folded and depended on her motivation (as Eve in that case).
My only criticism of this is that the winged versions were Republicanized, sexless. A little Jess Franco-like Spanish sexual honesty would have gone a long way here.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.