Review of Snowpiercer (2013) by Dillinger P — 16 Jan 2015

Knowing next to nothing about Snowpiercer prior to going into it, was ultimately a blessing. What we have here is an ambitious, yet conviluted view of another apocalyptic future. Imagine Mad Max on a train.

After global warming becomes too big a problem to ignore anymore, the dominant nations of the world decide to fill the earths atmosphere with a chemical, meant to cool the earth down. Soon after the chemical is dispersed, it goes horribly wrong and all of life as we know it is wiped out in a global freeze.

.. All life apart from those who have managed to make it onto Snowpiercer, an enormous train, designed by the infamous Wilford, which holds all walks of live and travels the globe, as a means of telling the time of year.

The train however isnt all its cracked up to be, the different segments are subdivided between class, leaving the inhabitants of the tail section to plan a revolution against the rest of its inhabitants and ultimately Wilford.

Leading the Revolt is Curtis, an all round powerful, determined and leading man, who is willing to put anything and everything at risk to get the freedom the people deserve. However as the group descend further into the ship, the revolt slowly gets picked away at.

Can they make it? Well you'll have to watch it to find out. This film is brilliant and lackluster in equal amounts. The concept, although not jaw droppingly amazing, is actually powerful enough for you to get behind, it also fires surprise after surprise at you.

Honestly, I dare most movie fans to tell where the next 20 minutes are going never mind the end point. The cast is full of talent, like bulging at the seems with talent, you have Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris.

.. the list honestly goes on. Although this may seem like a saving grace, the only one that really puts in a memorable performance is Tilda, she clearly gets whats expected here and runs with it like shes having the most fun in her life.

The rest of the cast, you see no further than their names. Yeah their performances arent bad, but their not enough either to really be memorable. What this film does have however is action, bizarre traits round every corner, twists and some genuine moments that are hard not to find awe inspiring.

As mentioned there is action and it is a mix between slow motion 300 and George Miller gung ho extremities. Its an odd blend that works sometimes and not so well at others. Much like the look of the film, from the dank quarters of the tail section to the posh or weird overly coloured front section all look impressive, but when the camera decides to show us any exterior or anything CGI related is it mocket.

It reeks of bad CGI in places and although this could be forgivable, when you compare it to the rest of the visuals, it outdoes the good work done, in camera. Snowpiercer kept me guessing, it gave me a lot of fun, it had many nice moments in it, some comedy, some harrowing scenes and retelling of previous events.

But with horrendous CGI faces from most of the big actors rather than characters and some off balance pacing here and there, its hard to really give this indie package something more, although I want to.