Daybreakers

 

 

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A unique marketing campaign gave Daybreakers some semblance of interest when it was being prepped for release, but the final picture is one of the most worn out and stupefying vampire movies ever to grace the cinema, giving F.W. Murnau and Max Schreck complete permission to rise from their graves and slap these filmmakers silly.

Daybreakers is about as predictable as one can get. It's got the shot-grade style of the Underworld series (and a few nips from its monsters) with the poor man's excuse for a cover up story. The premise is simple enough. A vampire plague (go figure) has turned 90% of humans into the undead, leaving the remaining 10% of normal humans to be rounded up and put into blood farms to feed the masses. However, as the blood supply begins running short, the vampires begin mutating into a deadly subspecies of vicious, animal-like creatures. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a researcher for a major U.S. conglomerate looking to create a synthetic blood compound that can feed the population. Things go awry when he meets up with humans who try to turn him to their cause with the promise of a cure for the vampiric plague. But all is not as it seems, and there is a sinister agenda playing out behind the scenes. Someone doesn't want the cure to work.

If the contrived and uninspired plot design doesn't bore you, the movie itself surely will. Daybreakers is about as much fun as standing in line with a group of Twilight fans. At the very least, they are watching a better example of a vampire film, and that says a lot. The problem with the film is that it could have been rather good, had it not been for some outlandishly moronic creative decisions. It all falls apart thanks to one glaring, undeniable flaw: the cure itself. Rest assured, when your solution to the vampire epidemic includes setting them on fire in order to turn them back to normal humans, it's clear you're not in Kansas anymore. Let's see: sun kills vampires. But...just the right amount of sun can CURE the vampire and turn them human? What's next? Just a little bit of Medusa's glare can smooth away your wrinkles? The very notion is preposterous to the point of maddening irritation. If I hadn't shelled out $14.00 to see it in the theater, I would have gotten up and walked away. Oh, and the fellow who discovered the cure just happens to be a former vampire named....Elvis. Yes, how clever indeed.

The film is largely there as a gorefest. There's plenty of it. The characters don't really do much of anything besides step out of the city for a day or two, only to go right back in again, so there's no sense of sprawling adventure or heightened importance. The film cannibalizes elements from the Matrix, Dawn of the Dead, and a handful of other horror movies in a attempt to patchwork some notion of a story amidst all the meaningless filler. Its attempt at social commentary about the dangers of society's mass consumption is about as subtle as being beaten over the head with a bag full of anvils, and sibling directors Michael and Peter Spierig were clearly absent the day George Romero was teaching the how-to class. There's just nothing original here. The story attempts to look witty, but feels like an Underworld rip, and the progression of scenes is utterly drab, uninspired and destined for the landfill where it belongs. They talk a lot about apocalyptic plagues in movies these days. It's too bad they can't create one for awful horror movies, too.

Somebody ring up Christopher Lee. Class is in session.

This was a very original and inventive twist on the vampire sub genre. It is a bleak look at a dystopian future where mankind has been hunted down to near extinction by the vampire majority, who now face a complete breakdown of their society as blood shortages create global chaos. Starvation cause the vampires to regress into deformed crazed cannibals that eventually die. The few human survivors take a desperate last stand against the increasingly desperate vampires. There was a lot to read into the multi-faceted story as a social and political commentary. Or if you're more so inclined, it is action packed with buckets of blood and viscera generously thrown about the screen, as well as awesome creature effects, lots of shooting, gruesome deaths, and car chases. Even a hint of romance. It also has a great cast going for it. In general, a well-rounded crowd pleaser.

I agree that this was an interesting concept - vampirism as the norm on earth, trying to figure out how to survive as supplies of human blood become dangerously low. The atmospheric touches were good as well - all the brief shots like the crowd waiting for a subway train to come, and when the lights dim for a second everyone's eyes glow red, revealing that this is a vampire society. Even the plot was constructed pretty well - the conscientious scientist (Hawke) trying to come up with an alternative food source that will a) save vampire society and b) switch vampires away from drinking human blood (and therefore end the virtual slavery of humans).

BUTTTT - I don't know. This got pretty "ho-hum" for me about halfway through. Daybreakers was somehow lost between being a drama and an action movie, and the "action" was generally more just gruesome and lunch tossing scenes of vampires being torn apart by other vampires (picture starving hyenas going after another starving hyena, and this being replayed half a dozen times). I really could have done with the gruesomeness being toned down a lot, and some more traditional human vs. vampire action scenes.

Anyway - three out of five stars seems appropriate to me... just a bit above average, but not something I'll be recommending to friends.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Vampire world
"Daybreakers" has a rather clever concept -- if vampires existed, wouldn't they eventually end up outnumbering humans? Read more

Published 9 months ago by E. A Solinas

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
I rented this movie because it was about the wolrd of Vampires.

The concept was very interesting as the world is switched to opposite sides. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Stefanie Beaudin

4.0 out of 5 stars Living on the Other Side
DAYBREAKERS is something new in the vampire genre. Taking its cue from the Vampire side of the situation, it winds its way to the obvious conclusion. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Lesley Zychla

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