Written and Directed by: Michael & Peter Spierig
\nStarring: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan, Michael Dorman
\nRated: R for strong bloody violence, language and brief nudity.<\/p>\n
\nVampire movies are plentiful, so it\u2019s exciting when one comes out that seems to have something new, or at least uncommon, to offer. \u201cDaybreakers\u201d certainly looks like that on the surface: it takes place ten years after a plague has turned all but about 5% of the world population into vampires, and the human blood supply is dwindling. The protagonist is a vampire who sympathizes with the humans. This is unusual and interesting! Disappointingly, the film is bad, and not even entertainingly bad for the most part.
\nThe setup is straightforward: Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a hematologist working on a blood substitute for an enormous corporation which also farms blood from the small remaining human supply (there are numerous shots of the farming machinery reminiscent of \u201cThe Matrix\u201d). He winds up falling in with a small group of free humans who are looking for a cure, much to the dismay of the corporation\u2019s owner, Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). The humans are led by Audrey (Claudia Karvan) and Elvis (Willem Dafoe), who keep adding other free humans to their group. They\u2019re uneasy working with Ed, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
\nThe premise is a good one, but the film relies on cheap scares and a script full of people being stupid for the purposes of furthering the plot. Our hero is too stupid to cover up his exposed skin when holes are punched through his car\u2019s sunshield during a chase. The protagonists insist that a simple experiment requires a complex setup, so they have to run it while the bad guys are approaching rather than abandon their lab. Much of the suspense in the film comes out of easily avoidable situations and serves more to make the protagonists look like idiots than to actually engage the audience.
\nMost of the actors suffer from over-seriousness. Given that this is, if we are charitable, a b-movie vampire flick, you\u2019d think there\u2019d be an air of humor or enjoyment or some sort of liveliness here, but for the most part, \u201cDaybreakers\u201d is a wasteland of somber people in dark suits and pale makeup, backed by a score that belongs in a vast, operatic epic. One of the few exceptions is Dafoe\u2019s Elvis, who slings a crossbow and cusses like a proper b-movie hero. Sadly, he is woefully underused and utterly unable to save the movie.
\nOne of the few good parts of the movie is the little touches of worldbuilding. This is a place full of folks who have had ten years to adapt to the world being mostly populated by vampires. There\u2019s a network of subterranean tunnels connecting city buildings. Mechanics outfit cars with \u201cdaylight driving\u201d packages which involve video cameras and opaque window screens. Mirrors are simulated with tiny cameras and video screens. A homeless man holds a sign reading, \u201cStarving. Will work for blood.\u201d Lots of vampires smoke because, well, if lung cancer isn\u2019t an issue, why not?
\nIt\u2019s all interesting and visually appealing, but it\u2019s not enough. \u201cDaybreakers\u201d is only essential viewing for folks who see every vampire movie that comes out — and they\u2019ve probably seen it already. Those who want to kill time with some brainless entertainment may find that it serves, but be sure you like gore, because there\u2019s lots of it here. But if you\u2019re hoping for an interesting and innovative vampire movie, keep looking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written and Directed by: Michael & Peter Spierig Starring: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan, Michael Dorman Rated: R for strong bloody violence, language and brief nudity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[92],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-rated-r"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSX4-5Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}