Cronos

Cronos is a movie by Guillermo del Toro, from 1993. It's the story of an odd device that brings the promise of eternal life to the person who 'hosts' it, sort of like a parasite. There are dire consequences of course to the use of this device.

As a concept, the movie had promise. I liked the beginning where we are introduced to this Cronos device in the 16th century. There's some interesting narration that provides a sense of mystery in these opening scenes, but unfortunately once we get to the present time, there's no longer any attempt to develop the story of this fascinating machine. The movie just becomes a standard mix of action amidst a slightly vampiric setting.

I know that this film has its fans, but I'm not one. I felt this was a great example of style over substance. Guillermo del Toro shows us an abundance of talent in this effort, which was all in the visual aspects. The film fell short in the narrative, and while I can look past a poorly written story that's directed brilliantly, this wasn't brilliant enough to offset the weakly conceived story.

When you get right down to it, this is a vampire movie. The setting is different than what most of us are used to, but setting only goes so far. Every relationship in this movie is poorly developed; Jesus Gris, the main character and his wife, Jesus and his granddaughter Aurora, and the brute Angel and his uncle. None of these relationships has any background or significance. We have no idea why the savage Angel bears his uncle's unpleasantness. We have no idea why Aurora has the bond with her grandfather that she does, nor why there's no apparent reason for her grandmother to even exist in this film.

This is a movie that presents too many unanswered questions to be satisfying. Sure, it's well filmed and clever at times, but that's not enough to overcome the deficiencies in the storytelling. You could be generous and say that for a first feature film, del Toro produced something quite interesting, but it didn't hold my interest. It was fair, and certainly shows the promise of the director as he grew more capable. Still, this isn't a great film.