Review of Daybreakers (2010) by James D — 26 Feb 2011

Hollywood has had, what, a solid forty years to master the action/adventure film and yet they still expect us to believe that a bunch of tv-grade actors ripped from an L.L. Bean catalog are supposed to be hardened freedom fighters? The model hasn't changed one iota since Red Dawn. Well, I mean, I guess it IS the year 2019. Perhaps advances in hygiene will make it possible to live in the sewers and still maintain those supermodel good looks.

Anyway, this movie sucks it big time. The first fifteen minutes were actually quite promising. The art direction and bleak atmosphere hearkened back to classy futurism from films like Blade Runner and Gattaca. But that's about it... from there we're given the back story through television news (al a every zombie film ever) which always seems to be conveniently on at the right moment. That's a great way to cope with having your society transformed into vampires, by constantly reminding everyone of how it happened. You'd think they'd be showing re-runs of Dark Shadows and the Twilight Series.

The rest of the film lethargically rolls down hill through each dull plot point as Ethan Hawke and the LL Bean gang go in search of a cure while totally missing the boat on the two things that could have made this movie interesting. First is the transformation of the vampires into feral, bat-like creatures. The movie only briefly explores this and it could have been used to create a more interesting dichotomy between humans and vampires by giving them a common enemy. Or used to show that the vampires supposed evolutionary justification was actually turning them into beasts. It would have also been cool to see them rip some more people apart.

Secondly is the film's halfhearted attempt at creating a philosophical quandary regarding what it means to be human, the justifications for being vampire and how we can all just "get along". Of course it doesn't need to be preachy, but Sam Neill's one dimensional villain and the fanaticism of the starving vampires totally detracts from whatever sympathy and humanity we should be feeling for them. After all, they WERE human at one point, and the movie only conveys that with the few protagonists. Everyone else is a monster. And for a film that takes itself so seriously and is clearly not an action film, the lack of intelligent depth is unacceptable.