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(More customer reviews)Joss Whedon was so upset with the way things were going on the set of the movie, for which he wrote the screenplay but over which he exercised no artistic control, that he walked off the set. Indeed, this is a very hard movie to watch today after the TV series. I did, in fact, moderately enjoy the movie when it first came out. I actually appreciated and enjoyed the absurd tension contained in the title, an airhead bimbo cheerleader called upon to be her generation's vampire slayer. But viewed today, the movie isn't terribly successful, and is in fact made much worse by the genius of the television series. It isn't just a question of Sarah Michelle Gellar being more appealing in the title role than Kristy Swanson (though SMG's much smaller stature increases the paradox of a tiny girl beating up large, supernaturally strong vampires) or the movie missing all the familiar characters of the show; the movie is almost completely devoid of its own style, look, and feel. Although the TV series started off on a tiny budget, it instantly had a compelling look and visual style that the movie completely lacks. Furthermore, on TV they managed a coolness and hipness that the movie never comes close to. Unfortunately, the series has pretty much reduced the movie to a curio.
Many talk of the movie falling short of Joss Whedon's vision in writing the original script. Actually, overall the plot isn't too terribly different. Buffy doesn't burn down the gym at the end in the movie as Whedon wrote, but while there are many stylistic differences, many of the main plot elements were retained. I find the main difference between the movie and the series to be in the "how" they tell the story rather than the "what" in the story. Cleverness and intelligence permeates the TV show; the movie is nearly entirely devoid of those qualities. Take the death of vampires. In the movie, they get staked and simply fall down. In the TV series, they explode, which is not merely a spectacular special effect used to great purpose, but, as Joss Whedon mentions on the DVD commentary, leaves less clean up as there are not bodies. Also, in the movie, there isn't anywhere near the emotional depth that one finds in the series.
Another part of the problem with the movie is the casting. Kristy Swanson isn't bad except when compared to Gellar, but Donald Sutherland is just dreadful. He plays his part as if he were a cartoon character, with a degree of camp that subtracts considerably from his humanity. In fact, the performances are almost uniformly awful. Not just Sutherland, but Rutger Hauer (someone I have loved in many other movies, especially in his Dutch films) and Paul Reubens create one almost unwatchable scene after another. David Arquette is at his worst here as well. In fact, the vampires are both poorly conceived and horribly executed, in contrast to the TV series. Many have noted the number of performers in supporting roles who later became well known, such as Ben Affleck, Natasha Gregson Wagner, and Hillary Swank (not to mention Stephen Root, who memorably played Milton the stapler guy in OFFICE SPACE)
On top of all this, the thing that set the TV show apart from most other forms of popular entertainment was the degree to which it allowed for deep interaction among the various character, something made virtually impossible by the short format of a film (and something that in the long run should prove to be television's innate superiority over film, if it can ever overcome the resistance of television network execs to produce art rather than vehicles for selling airtime for commercials--my fear is that BUFFY could be an exception rather than a harbinger of things to come).
In short, while not an awful movie, the movie version of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is not the masterpiece the television series is.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)Blonde, bouncy Buffy (Kristy Swanson) is your typical high school cheerleader-- her goal is to "marry Christian Slater and die" and nothing gets in her way when it's time to shop.But all that changes when a strange man (Donald Sutherland) informs her she's been chosen by fate to kill vampires.With the help of a romantic rebel (Luke Perry), Buffy is soon spending school nights protecting L.A. from Lothos, the Vampire King (Rutger Hauer), his sidekick. Lefty (Paul Ruebens) and their determined gang of bloodsuckers.It's everything you'd expect from a teen queen in the Valley.
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