30 Days of Night

Released October 2007
Image from IMDB

This is a film adaptation of the graphic novel trilogy of the same name.

Call me picky, but for a story to even hold water and be watchable, it needs to get its facts right, or at least be credible.

For example, the setting of the film is Barrow, Alaska and boasts how there is 30 days of darkness, which you'll discover from some internet research that, there is a period of 65 days where the sun dips below the horizon. It doesn't get completely dark during this time, as there it waning twilight hours as light appears for less and less periods each day, with the winter solstice being the shortest time of 3 hours. While it may be dark, there is still sunlight to be seen and we need to remember that nighttime occurs because of the earth's rotation about its axis, which gives the appearance of the sun doing the "rising" and the "setting" when in fact the earth is the one turning about the sun.

The movie doesn't really explain this, but just tries to focus on a misrepresented fact of "darkness" for 30 days. Picky, yes, I admit that, but presentation of the facts is key when determining whether or not I'll be able to dive right into a story.

Honestly, Barrow, Alaska, is not like that planet in Pitch Black when there was an eclipse of all the planets which plunged it in total darkness. That's not what happens. I will admit that it does make for a good setting for vampires in that the city is overcast about 50% of the time anyway. However, due to the fact that the population is low and not going to continue to boom, I don't see how it would really be a desirable location for a food source, especially since most people are going to be bundled up and stay in doors as the temperature ranges for that period are as high 5 whole degrees Fahrenheit (high) to -6.5/-16.5 (low) for November and December while January through March plunges even colder with averages about -8/-10 (high) to -20/-22 (low).

Since vamps suck blood, another thing we must consider on this is that your blood gets thicker in cold weather, and your overall movement slows down, the same would have to hold true for vampires. Yeah, okay, I buy the whole strength thing and the fact that they may not "feel" cold, but they survive off of blood, which means they still have blood in their veins, and their movements would still slow in cold and snowy weather because the water in their muscles would freeze (blood is 70% water), even if they can't "feel" the cold.

Okay, griping aside, I just couldn't get into this film. Hey, I don't mind a good vamp flick (Queen of the Damned is my favorite), nor do I mind a good survival movie (I'm a sci-fi junkie), but I didn't make it past the first 30 minutes of the film.

Some critics have put this film on par with 28 Days Later, but 30 Days' storyline was much less credible than 28 Days'. I guess it all depends upon what you're looking to get out of your movie. Me, I'd prefer to watch The Thing (Kurt Russell) from 1982, Aliens (Sigourney Weaver) from 1986 or Pitch Black (Vin Diesel) from 2000.

And no, my dislike for this movie has nothing to do with the fact that it's based on a graphic novel. I find many of them to be quite entertaining, which is why I am working on an entire section devoted to them.