Daybreakers

[Evildrider]

http://www.spike.com/blog/daybreakers-trailer/82857

If you haven't seen this, it looks promising.  From the same people that brought us the movie Undead.

[Mattemeo]

Man, I had a feeling someone had started a topic on this, but didn't see how far it'd sunk.
Some spoilerish comments abound, but you really shouldn't care.

The world's gone Vampire crazy. So much so, the brothers Speirig have decided to make a movie about the whole world gone totally Vampires in an effort to pointlessly meta-textualise one of the most rapidly cooling movie fads in recent years.

Vampires are becoming tiresome, and Daybreakers' schtick doesn't help revitalise the dead fanged horse. It's a $6 Aussie red wine blend of Matrix cool and Blade violence with a slug of I Am Legend thrown in for a more full bodied failure. I mean flavour. Yeah, ok, drop the cheap plonk analogies. Apologies. I dunno, I'm trying hard to be lighthearted about a movie that just left me feeling downhearted at just how much we're currently willing to plunder the theme du jour. We're not talking bottom of the barrell (ok, ok...) stuff like The Twilight Saga or anything, but Daybreakers manages to be wholly derivative in mere minutes, and decides that it likes the feel of sub-mediocrity and sticks with it for an hour or so before clearly deciding that was too much effort and plunges headfirst into cinema stupid.

Ethan Hawke, Sam Neil, Willem DaFoe just seem lost. The Speirig brothers cannot direct actors. It's as if Hawke asked them what his character's motivation was, and their answer was 'He's a vampire, right? And he doesn't, like, want to be a Vampire anymore?' and Hawke just went with 'universally moody' and set his jaw with crazyglue. DaFoe was coaxed on board for reasons I'm just incapable of fathoming considering he starred in one of the best Vampire flicks, Shadow of the Vampire. He wearily wears the hackneyed cool hard man character like a grubby vest and just gets on with it. Neil mugs harder than a truck full of teacups crashing into a Starbucks, and you can hardly blame him.

The trailer seemed to promise something at least a little higher concept, and the idea of a world of vampires fearing the loss of their food supply and the devolution into feral, Nosferatu-aping bat-creatures (mostly reminiscent of the troglodytes of The Descent) is a good one, but the execution is banal, relies on cheap shocks and focuses far too much on dull plot deviations as Hawke heroically sets fire to himself in his search for THE CURE. There's awkward, clunky stabs at pathos and emotional manipulation but they involve a character we see for approximately 2 minutes in total and have no emotional investment in. Not that we get the chance to form much of a bond with the rest of the cast, who largely mumble their way through a script that flits between servicable and suicidally bad.

It's also extremely violent, hysterically so at times, an obligatory moment of slowmotion depicts a scene of almost carnal savagery in a lobby while buckets of guts and blood are blatantly thrown in from the wings. Sadly though it lacks the art-house appeal of claret (I CAN'T HELP IT) on snow in the 30 Days of Night adaptation and is more obviously linked to the District 9 deathsplatters (seeing as Weta's GFX workshop was involved in both movies) sans shock and awe.

In the end, it comes down to the plain as day fact that you'd be better off watching the trailer 40 times as it's a far more pleasing and concise depiction of the subject matter, plus it had that nifty old Placebo cover of Kate Bush over it. Better off renting Blade 3. Yes, that bad.

[UnSub]

I liked "Undead" for its particular brand of insanity. I'll probably see this anyway.

[pxib]

Aw. I liked the trailer, too. 

[Nerf]

We saw this tonight, and it was entertaining - it wasn't THE BEST MOVIE EVAR, but I don't feel slighted or ripped off, it was entertaining.  Also, Ethan Hawke dresses like Han Solo for a good 1/4 of the movie.

[Viin]

It was OK. I like my vampire movies to be a bit darker (this movie *tried* to be dark, but kept forgetting). The gratuitous blood and guts wasn't terrible except for a couple of scenes - no big deal though.

The freakin' bat showing up randomly with a loud screech is what really kills it for me. I mean, seriously, just because it's a vampire movie doesn't mean you have to try and scare people with loud noises at random points throughout the film!! Didn't you ever see Dracula? Dork!

[Nerf]

I'll admit I disliked the stupid "Be scared!" moments that lacked any point at all, but the guy on the table at the beginning and the scene that followed "I feel fine!" made me pee a little from the laughter.  This movie is worth seeing, even if you wait for the blu-ray.

[Brogarn]

Movie was borderline awesome but was a rewrite short and ended up flat and forgettable. I did like the way the picture looked, though, and thought visually they captured the feel I think they were going for (minus, of course, the random screeching pointless bats). Also, I suggest if you haven't seen it yet, wait until it comes out on DVD and keep the volume control close by. Couple times the movie got really really loud.

Overall, I think these guys have potential, but need to get some consulting in to help them get their scripts polished.

[murdoc]

I'll admit I disliked the stupid "Be scared!" moments that lacked any point at all, but the guy on the table at the beginning and the scene that followed "I feel fine!" made me pee a little from the laughter.  This movie is worth seeing, even if you wait for the blu-ray.

That part and the SUPER SLOW MOTION scene right near the end had me laughing.