Daybreakers

[Despair]

Since there is no thread for this little gem, and its mostly likely will come and go unnoticed by the masses wowed by Avatar and sick and tired of faggy vamps of Twilight and Vampire Diaries, I have say a word or two about it. I will try to mask the spoilers as much as I can, but oh well.

So, What is Daybreakers - From the first sight of the trailer, just another attempt to milk ever popular affection of glamorous vampires. You may think so too, but you would be wrong.

Imagine the world, where Vampire epidemic won, in the greatest traditions of Zombie flicks, just with less catastrophic results - after all, vamps most of the time, just want your blood, not just brains, and like to do it in comfort. So civilization reinvented itself - where it was all about day, now its night time when cities flow with unlife and day is dead calm. As you introduced to the both world, and bits of back-story of how it came to be, (with clever tv bits, adds, various bits and pieces of new night life), you learn that after humans rejected an offer to be assimilated, whats left of them is being hunted down and farmed for blood. After all, the world full of immortals need to be fed. As if you don't give them their lattes with blood, they devolves in vicious creatures called Subsiders. And since vamps went all suck happy, now their human supply is all time low, and they about start to eat each other. That's when the fun begins.

As we introduced to the character of Ethan Hawke, we learn that being vamp is not all bats and dancing in moonlight. Not only he suffers from being turned against his will (hating his new existence and barely sustaining himself with pigs blood), but also pressured by both his guilty conscience and his boss (Sam Neil, with his display of Corporate greed at its evil best) to find blood substitute, that will save the whats left of human/vampire race from extinction. And if those matters weren't grave enough, enter the ragged bunch of human resistance led by ex vamp called Elvis, played with gusto by Willem Dafoe. As we witness the devolution of vampire society, blood and guts stream and our ragged band of heroes, battle their way through, to discover possible cure for vampires. And when they do, it comes with a hefty price and a cool little twist.

Its always important, to be able to build an intriguing and believable world, and Sprieg brothers succeed here, offering a glance to the world where night rules. Many little touches, homages, nods and cliches, some of which might look bit lame on its own, work here, and as you don't expect it from a vampire flick, it is surprisingly smart, well written and acted. Sure, there are ever present plot holes, but you get those in everything now-days. One bit to notice, are some social commentary blended into the story (in the best traditions of Romero and his zombie flicks), showing us examples of vampire greed, and making you think of more real life similarities.

Whats is pretty cool about Daybreakers, that how well, it walks the tight line between horror, action and drama, mixed and blended it. If judged by any of those separately, its nothing special, but the mix works greatly.

Its also surprising, as how well, the world is depicted, with great use of the low budged (after all, not all flick can be Avatars ). Little neat touches, as uv protected cars, for day time safe transportation (with awesome UW Alerts), weaponry modified to capture humans, underground structures that replace city streets and sky-walks, makes the world on screen believable. Use of color, from bleak grays, to blues overtones of night, and orange/brown days, paints the difference of the world. Also what is great and rare in this day an age, a movie that takes place at night, yet you can actually see every fucking thing. Same for the action bits, no shaky cam madness here, wide pans show all of the action clearly.

Actors do quite well, as Hawk's depressed and somewhat wimpy scientist, living on the diet of pigs blood and cigarettes, longing for the sunlight. Neils greedy CEO, surrounded by expensive cigar smoke, and grade A+ blood cocktails, and everyday Dafoe, who loves his fast cars, and his crossbows, with plenty of quirky one liners, fitting the nature of his character.

And what about the blood you ask? After all this is a vampire flick - And let me tell you, there are A PLENTY. FX team worked their asses off, and it shows, as we get plethora of juice body explosions, bites and stabbings. Design of Subsiders, is also great, and what happened to those in action made me giggle in joy. And wait until the end, as you get an AWESOME homage to the Romero's zombie films, only starring vampires in all their feeding glory.

There are several thrilling action sequence in the flick, fun car chase, pretty neat nigh battle between humans and vampire hunting squad, and big showdown at the end. There are plenty of great gags, like night battle with the flashes of light on battle field, as vampires blow up, after being hit by explosive arrows.

I definitely recommend this flick, (no it is not great cinema, or faggy art-house crap), as it delivers a cool story in an intriguing world. And it mostly SMART about it too. Go figure... right?

[Dolemite]

Saw it last night. It was a very solid movie.

I loved the scene where they tested the blood substitute for the first time. lolz.

[Despair]

How you feeling Private....Im Ok.... Barf... SPLAT.

Some really cool stuff at the end too:

Death of Sam Neil and the feeding frenzy of the soldiers as they devour Hawks brother and then each other, as they turn back into humans, just to be rushed in, by next wave of blood crazed vamps.

[Shine]

I saw the trailer for this a ways back, but it's getting little to no television play, I didn't even know this was out yet. I'll definitely be seeing it.

[stormy]

I like when the movie voice comes into the trailer to spell it out for us

AND FARM THEM FOR BLOOD!!!

[Dolemite]

Like Blade 3 (which sucked) didn't already do the 'farming humans for blood' thing.

[Despair]

Blade Trinity should have been what Daybreakers is, only more action oriented.

[Will]

Just saw it tonight, thought it was pretty darn good.

Needed some Blade though.

[OGcritic]

The blood deprived vamp that was in his apartment was my favorite scene by far.

It has a great premise, cool world, and a BUNCH of cool scenes. The music/dialog/editing were awful though. It was incredibly choppy. Also, most of the characters were pretty laughable, except the corporate head vamp. He was great.

[Will]

The music/dialog/editing were awful though. It was incredibly choppy. Also, most of the characters were pretty laughable, except the corporate head vamp. He was great.

I didn't really find that stuff to be bad enough to stick out at me.

At worst it's a movie full of cliche characters and story angles but it carries them out decently enough to still work. Plus I think it made vampires a lot less wussified than they've been since probably the Blade movies (or more accurately Blade 2). I think my only problem was with Willem Dafoe's character who kind of disappears towards the end (to which I assume he's still recuperating) and then comes back at the end to save the day.

What's funny is that someone equated this movie to Equilibrium but with Vampires and....I can't say that's too off base.

Overall I'd give it like a 7.5/10, not great or entirely original but certainly entertaining given it's premise and it's talented cast of actors like Sam Neil who should be doing more movies.