DAYBREAKERS (2009)
Blogtober Qualifications: Vampires, blood, bat creatures, y'know what lots and lots of bats like really there's a ton of bats
In the far-flung future of 2019, humanity is nearing extinction. This is mainly because, ten years ago, a plague struck, turning most of the world into vampires, and now those vampires have to eat. As such, the surviving humans are rounded up and farmed for blood. But the world is running out of humans.
Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a vampire hematologist who is working hard to develop a blood substitute. This is partially due to the world's blood shortage, but mainly has to do with the fact that Ed just doesn't like humans being imprisoned and farmed until death (go figure). In fact, he apparently never drinks human blood. His boss, Charles Bromley (Sam Neill), is breathing down his neck (so to speak) for Ed to quickly rush his current project into "human" trials. It goes poorly, to say the least.
A chance encounter with a human named Audrey (Claudia Karvan) leads him to meet a former vampire who calls himself Elvis (Willem Dafoe). Elvis has somehow cured his vampirism, and Ed takes it upon himself to figure out how he was cured, and how he can replicate it.
Okay, so here we have a movie that I was only vaguely familiar with. It mainly went on the list because my wife found the idea of "the whole world is vampire" interesting. And I have to say, I quickly became intrigued myself as we started watching. So how did it turn out?
Well, for starters, let me just say that I like Ethan Hawke. It's interesting, though, that I only see him in movies where it's the future and humanity has made a big change that causes "normal" humans to become second-class citizens. He also gets ID-scanned a lot in movies, but I digress. The point is that he does well here, though he's admittedly not asked to emote all that much.
Audrey is fine, and she gets a fair few badass moments, but honestly she didn't leave much of an impression. Still, she didn't bother me, so that's good in its own way.
Actual real-life vampire Willem Dafoe plays a human here, and does a pretty convincing job. Two thumbs up.
Sam Neill is a corrupt corporate executive that I think we were genuinely meant to believe was not corrupt. I dunno if it's his fault or the movie's, but I certainly never bought that for a second.
And rounding out the cast we have Ed's brother Frankie (Michael Dorman). He's a soldier whose job it is to hunt down humans so they can be farmed. He does fine in the role, I guess, though some of his delivery fell flat. There's one scene where he's meant to reel in pain, and it really could've used another take.
I really like the world that's being presented here. It plays out almost like a thought experiment: what would change if every human (more or less) turned into vampires? Well, the filmmakers took that question and ran with it. They clearly put a lot of thought into it, and there's tons of little details to look out for. One thing no one apparently asked, however, was "shouldn't vampires be able to see in the dark," since in one scene a human gets a drop on a vampire just by turning the lights off. It's honestly amazing that such a big oversight was allowed to happen, considering how much detail went into the rest of it.
Unfortunately, though, the movie doesn't really do anything with its own premise. Sure, it's an interesting world, but it's ultimately just a story about a world wherein resources are dwindling, just through the lens of being about vampires. For the sake of the story overall, you could've changed that one particular point and the only thing you'd lose is about twenty gallons of blood.
Still, that's not necessarily a deal breaker. Lots of good stories are just old stories retold with a twist. And this one is pretty engaging... until the end. Prepare for some deja vu from the The Last Broadcast review.
So yeah, the whole thing falls apart around the ten to fifteen minute mark. I won't go into detail, but there's a lot of pointless death, and no real resolution. The surviving characters just ride off into the sunrise, having accomplished absolutely nothing. And yet a voiceover tells us everything is great. Don't lie to me, movie, I just watched you. I don't know if they were planning for sequels and so decided to leave it on a sort-of-cliffhanger or what. All I know is that it's extremely unsatisfying.
That said, though, the movie is watchable. Hell, it might be worth a look just to see the world that it presents, green-filtered though it is (seriously, ten years later and we were still trying to copy The Matrix). The gore effects are fine, if taken to ridiculous extremes at times. At one point my wife posited that a certain gory scene (right at the end, no surprise) might actually be intended as comedy.
That's probably not a good sign.
Tomorrow we travel to Japan for the first (and only) time this year. We'll be watching the original version of a movie that was later remade for Western audiences. No, not that one, the other one.
Until next time!
Current interests:
Listening - Dio: Holy Diver (1983)
Playing - Cuphead (2017)
Reading - B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Exorcist (2016)
Watching - Thunderbirds Are Go! (2015)
A chance encounter with a human named Audrey (Claudia Karvan) leads him to meet a former vampire who calls himself Elvis (Willem Dafoe). Elvis has somehow cured his vampirism, and Ed takes it upon himself to figure out how he was cured, and how he can replicate it.
Okay, so here we have a movie that I was only vaguely familiar with. It mainly went on the list because my wife found the idea of "the whole world is vampire" interesting. And I have to say, I quickly became intrigued myself as we started watching. So how did it turn out?
Well, for starters, let me just say that I like Ethan Hawke. It's interesting, though, that I only see him in movies where it's the future and humanity has made a big change that causes "normal" humans to become second-class citizens. He also gets ID-scanned a lot in movies, but I digress. The point is that he does well here, though he's admittedly not asked to emote all that much.
Audrey is fine, and she gets a fair few badass moments, but honestly she didn't leave much of an impression. Still, she didn't bother me, so that's good in its own way.
Actual real-life vampire Willem Dafoe plays a human here, and does a pretty convincing job. Two thumbs up.
Sam Neill is a corrupt corporate executive that I think we were genuinely meant to believe was not corrupt. I dunno if it's his fault or the movie's, but I certainly never bought that for a second.
And rounding out the cast we have Ed's brother Frankie (Michael Dorman). He's a soldier whose job it is to hunt down humans so they can be farmed. He does fine in the role, I guess, though some of his delivery fell flat. There's one scene where he's meant to reel in pain, and it really could've used another take.
I really like the world that's being presented here. It plays out almost like a thought experiment: what would change if every human (more or less) turned into vampires? Well, the filmmakers took that question and ran with it. They clearly put a lot of thought into it, and there's tons of little details to look out for. One thing no one apparently asked, however, was "shouldn't vampires be able to see in the dark," since in one scene a human gets a drop on a vampire just by turning the lights off. It's honestly amazing that such a big oversight was allowed to happen, considering how much detail went into the rest of it.
Unfortunately, though, the movie doesn't really do anything with its own premise. Sure, it's an interesting world, but it's ultimately just a story about a world wherein resources are dwindling, just through the lens of being about vampires. For the sake of the story overall, you could've changed that one particular point and the only thing you'd lose is about twenty gallons of blood.
Still, that's not necessarily a deal breaker. Lots of good stories are just old stories retold with a twist. And this one is pretty engaging... until the end. Prepare for some deja vu from the The Last Broadcast review.
So yeah, the whole thing falls apart around the ten to fifteen minute mark. I won't go into detail, but there's a lot of pointless death, and no real resolution. The surviving characters just ride off into the sunrise, having accomplished absolutely nothing. And yet a voiceover tells us everything is great. Don't lie to me, movie, I just watched you. I don't know if they were planning for sequels and so decided to leave it on a sort-of-cliffhanger or what. All I know is that it's extremely unsatisfying.
That said, though, the movie is watchable. Hell, it might be worth a look just to see the world that it presents, green-filtered though it is (seriously, ten years later and we were still trying to copy The Matrix). The gore effects are fine, if taken to ridiculous extremes at times. At one point my wife posited that a certain gory scene (right at the end, no surprise) might actually be intended as comedy.
That's probably not a good sign.
Tomorrow we travel to Japan for the first (and only) time this year. We'll be watching the original version of a movie that was later remade for Western audiences. No, not that one, the other one.
Until next time!
Current interests:
Listening - Dio: Holy Diver (1983)
Playing - Cuphead (2017)
Reading - B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Exorcist (2016)
Watching - Thunderbirds Are Go! (2015)
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