In a movie age where comic book translations seem to be the norm, you’d think most studios have nailed a sure-fire formula… they haven’t.

Dylan Dog is an adaptation of an Italian comic of the same name. The plot is that Dylan (Brandon Routh) is a detective of the paranormal, trying to get to the bottom of a series of deaths surrounding an ancient artifact.

He has a sidekick, Marcus (Sam Huntington) that does his best with comic relief against the textbook ‘action-man’ that Dylan is portrayed as.

Dylan gets a job from Elizabeth (Anita Briem) to investigate her father’s murder. This jump-starts the whole underworld theme of the movie as Dylan has to reprise a role that he opted to leave behind.

Taye Diggs plays Vargas, a vampire at the top of his game in New Orleans- where the story plays out.

The story starts off very interesting but fades into a big heap of predictable clichés, be it from the dialogue or the references, it all feels ‘done before’ and plays out just the same. The artifact mentioned contains a force that would give its wielder the power to rule over all of the undead and all of them have a spot here. There are vampires, zombies, werewolves and demons.

As with most cases the vampires take on the role of most cocky, the werewolves keep to themselves and the zombies pan out into a humble bunch just looking to get by without rotting away.

Dylan doesn’t seem to be that great of a detective as he lets obvious hints and signs fly under the radar.

A lot of cues and references to popular paranormal fare, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, True Blood and the like, are here- so much so that there are vampires that are called ‘true bloods’ and humans that are addicted to vampire blood.

The lead-up to the climax felt really rushed and the ‘Shyalaman twist’ was so glaring that you could almost announce when it would happen. The dissolution was pretty basic too, lacking a whole lot of fanfare.

I really wish that I could give this more enthusiasm but I can’t. The good bits of it - yes there are some - are checkered through but sandwiched with parts that can put you to sleep.

Give this a watch if you really need something to pass the time. This is good for a rental to spice up a party night if you and your friends are the Mystery Science Theatre bunch. This felt really targeted to a younger audience that may jump at the cheap thrills or quote the crap out of the ‘ok’ one-liners.

It’s a progressively tough world for horrors/thrillers these days and Dylan Dog highlighted a lot of ways where you could go wrong.

Did you see it? Tell me if you agree or not in the comments.

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

Ampero

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