Mini Review: Renfield
Renfield, Dracula's henchman and inmate at the lunatic asylum for decades, longs for a life away from the Count, his various demands, and all of the bloodshed that comes with them.
Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Ben Schwartz & Awkwafina.
Renfield is the newest action, comedy from Chris McKay but is it as likeable as his previous films such as Lego Batman? No. Absolutely not. Chris’ streak has ended.
It’s difficult to say that Chris’ direction in this was weak because I’d say it was one of the films strongest aspects. The camera is fluid and often dynamic, especially during action sequences that are annoyingly ruined by its extremely poor editing that took away all the talented choreography behind fights. The, sometimes, neon look to the film certainly helped with a somewhat bland cinematography. I think the film took the wrong direction by going modern, but should have committed to the black & white opener that I loved the look of.
Nicholas Hoult & Cage do their best to make the script work, but it’s full of unbearable jokes and story that never has any consequences or meaning. Each supposed message is lost in its convoluted screenplay that never links its themes together between Renfield and Rebecca. Awkwafina delivers a poor, melodramatic and fascinatingly unfunny performance that dragged the film along far too much. Her presence was completely unneeded and took away everything from the main story about Renfield.
The score is lacklustre, the editing is random and inconsistent, ruining any momentum the film may occasionally have. The production design is too familiar and bland for what could have been a neon consistent looking film. The action looks to be well choreographed and can be quite admirable, if not for editing.
Renfield is consistently unfunny, boring & features one of the worst Hollywood scripts I’ve had the displeasure of hearing in the cinema. While it’s far from being the worst film in the past few years, it’s certainly disappointing to see talented people fall under a poor film.
