Hey, you're back! Fantastic. Come on in. Please excuse the mess, I'm still settling in.
Say, did you see the kick ass banner at the top of the page? That's a house warming gift from the coolest cat in podcasting, Root Rot. I love it.
Today I'm going to talk about a movie that I saw the other day, Daybreakers.
This movie came out sometime in 2009, but I haven't seen it until now. It looked interesting enough at the time, but not enough for me to blow 20 bucks at a theater. Also, I'm not the biggest Ethan Hawke fan, and even though I love Willlem DaFoe and Sam Neill, I kept putting it off. But I recently was looking at the new releases on Netflix Instant, and there it was.
It's set in the future, 2019, where vampires have become the dominate species and the human race is dwindleing. With fewer humans around, their food supply (read: blood) is drying up. They have to hunt humans down and farm them for food, ala The Matrix, while they look for a blood alternative. This is where Ethan Hawke comes in as Edward Dalton, a hematologist who has sympathy for humans and refuses to drink human blood.
It turns out that an interesting thing happens to vampires who don't get enough blood. They turn feral, becoming batlike with elongated ears and wings. They are called subsiders and scare the crap out of the "normal" vampires.
Our man Dalton literally bumps into a group of humans, and instead of turning them in, he hides them from the authorities. This eventually leads to a meeting with Willem DaFoe's character, Lionel "Elvis" Cormac, vampire who regained his humanity by being exposed to sunlight and then submersed in water. Somehow this jump started his heart again. Now, instead of a blood substitue, Dalton wants to replicate this and cure vampirism. Unforunately his boss, Charles Bromley (Sam Neill), doesn't think that vampirism needs to be cured.
How does it turn out? What the hell are you asking me for? Go check it out yourself.
What did I like about this movie: The story in general is pretty decent. There are not many vampire stories where vamps are the dominate species. Also, I really dig the subsiders. They are pretty freaky looking and I love how they scare the batshit out of the other vampires. Finally, the jump scares in this movie don't annoy me and the gorefest at the end was pretty cool.
What I didn't like about this movie: The "cure" for vampirism is complete crap and totally unbelievable. Yes, I know I'm talking about a movie about vampires being unbelievable, but come on! The sunlight and water thing is only part of it, and that was bad enough. I won't say what the rest is, so you're going to have to watch it and cringe for itself.
Now, while we are on the subject of "likes" and "dislikes", I just want to say that I realize that CGI is a fact of life. Of course I prefer practical effects, but I don't mind CGI as long as it's decent. There were plenty of CG effects in this movie, and for the most part , I thought that they were done pretty well.
I haven't settled on a ratings scale yet, but for now, I'll say that I give Daybreakers a 3 out of 5.
One last thing before I leave you with the trailer: Julie Hoverson of 19 Nocture Boulevard has a great story, a crime drama in a vampire dominated world called The Big Dark. Check it out at http://www.19nocturneboulevard.net/ or look for it on iTunes and subscribe. It's well woth it.
Well, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Stop by again and feel free to leave a comment. Now, where the heck did I put that trailer? Ah, here it is:
I couldn't agree more with your review. Even though we are talking about a mythological species, the film presents it as a scientific fact by having hematologists and other scientists at work. Not to mention all the adaptive technology (cars, etc). So why would the cure be more fantasy based than science fiction based? For me, that plot point ruined the rest of the movie.
ReplyDeleteGreat review, keep 'em coming!