Saturday, March 26, 2011

Visual Aspects - Daybreakers


YOURZ

This year, we intend to randomly select movies from our DVD collection to review, kind of similar to the blindfold method we employed last year for our CD collection.  This is the first DVD off the rack, a fairly recent Australian-made movie called Daybreakers (2009).

Written and directed by the Spierig Brothers and starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neil and Claudia Karvan, this is yet another vampire-related movie, albeit with a sci-fi bent.  Despite being a hackneyed theme now, Daybreakers is actually a slighty refreshing take on the whole vampire shtick and thankfully, there is nary an angst-ridden teen in sight.

The story takes place in the near future when vampires have become the dominant species.  Blood supplies are very low and human beings are being hunted and milked into extinction.  The directors did a good job in giving a decent enough back story to hang the movie off, but it did leave me wondering why the vamps didn't start some sort of captive breeding program to ensure their food source didn't run out.  But hey, this wouldn't make much of a story, would it?

Ethan Hawkes' character is a vampire haematologist with a conscience who happens to work for the largest supplier of blood to the population (kind of like a vegetarian hippy working for McDonalds, I guess).  Without giving too much away, he meets a group of humans, led by Dafoe's character who tell him they have a cure to 'the vampire plague'.  He sets about helping them develop it.

The cast work well together, although the script gets a bit ponderous at points.  The combination of sci-fi and horror works well enough, although initially I thought there was a good chance for this to be more innovative and without the usual cliches.  But the high action end, complete with gory set pieces, is a bit of let down.  Its almost as though brothers Spierig ran out of creative juice and fell back on the same sort of devices I've seen time and again.  Even so, while it certainly isn't vital, I wouldn't call it a complete waste of time.

VERDICT: Hmmm...

7 comments:

  1. Good cast but it doesn't particularly interest me

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  2. I've always been a bit of a fan of vampire mythology but lately, have to admit being a bit over it all.

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  3. I'll have to add this one to my list! Any chance you'll be reviewing Two Hands, Proof, Welcome to Woop Woop, Strictly Ballroom, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Castle, The Dish, or He Died With a Felafel In His Hand in the future?

    Speaking of the recent trend/fasciation with Vamires: I saw someone post a comment online addressing Twilight fans saying something to the effect of, "Vampires are dead. With no blood, they can't get it up. Enjoy your Vampire fantasies now, Twilight fans."

    I thought it was quite hilarious. For Vampire books/films/literature the only material that has caught my fancy was Christopher Moore's Vampire trilogy (Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story, You Suck!, and Bite Me).

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  4. Perplexio, while your list of movies is definitely a slice of Australian cinema, none of these titles are in our collection so there isn't much chance of us reviewing any of them in the future. Having said this, I wouldn't mind seeing 'He Died With A Felafel...' again. Noah Taylor is one of my favourite Aussie actors.

    I've heard Twilight fans called all sorts of things. I tried reading the first book but found it so teenage, I gave up in disgust.

    YourZ

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  5. I highly recommend the Christopher Moore vampire novels (actually all of his novels are well worth reading). I've been to a few signings he's done and he's just as funny in person as he is in his novels.

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  6. Thanks Perplexio - will have a look out for Christopher Moore when I'm next at the library. I suppose you're a Pratchett fan too?

    YourZ

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  7. The only Pratchett I've read was Good Omens which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed it but not enough to further explore Pratchett's writing. I do think it would make an excellent movie-- especially if they cast Tim Roth and Gary Oldman in the lead roles (they were both great in Rosencrants & Guildenstern are Dead I'd love to see them work together again). I did however enjoy the book enough to further explore Neil Gaiman's writing. I thoroughly enjoyed Neverwhere and Anansi Boys. American Gods was okay, but it wasn't anywhere near as enjoyable as Neverhwere or Anansi Boys. I also have a couple of the old Sandman comics from back when Neil Gaiman was writing for DC and my 22 month old daughter is a fan of his childrens book about crazy hair.

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