Jason KingDaybreakers ($7-)
January 9th 2010 22:47
:
Not Good At All
Category: No Category
Daybreakers ($7-)
This film had so much going for it but just fell on it's arse. The critics screening I was in had people laughing at the movie and definately not with it. I took Sammy to this screening and our initial thoughts on it were basically "close to worst film ever". After thinking further there are a lot of films worse than this, "The Happening" being my front runner
And this film does have plenty of enjoyable things.
The year is 2019. A mysterious plague has swept over the earth, transforming the majority of the world's population into vampires. Humans are now an endangered, second-class species - forced into hiding as they are hunted and farmed for vampire consumption to the brink of extinction. It's all up to Edward Dalton, a vampire researcher who refuses to feed on human blood, to perfect a blood substitute that might sustain vampires and spare the few remaining humans. But time and hope are running out - until Ed meets Audrey, a human survivor who leads him to a startling medical breakthrough. Armed with knowledge that both humans and vampires will kill for, Ed must battle his own kind in a deadly struggle that will decide the fate of the human race.
What is great about this film is the art direction, cinematography, idea and stylings of the film - these are just brilliant. The matrix styled blood bank of people hanging and being drained is a sight to see. The ideas for the future and the cars with tint buttons and day or night styled driving for vamps is really cool and well thought out and the clothing and homes of the future have a beautiful tone that I really liked, it is old meets new and it looks way cool.
The actors are mediocre. It is good to see Ethan Hawke back on film, I only watched Gattica again a few weeks ago and find him great to watch but in this he is kind of flat. It feels as though he is unsure about being back onscreen. Sam Neill I thought was miscast, he can either come across brilliant in films or crap and this one was definately the latter. I can't stand Claudia Karvan, met her once and found her incredibly rude so this has tainted anything I have ever seen her in. Willem Defoe has a lot of fun in this film but his character is called Elvis, he is an over the top action hero and is so cliched he draws most of the laughs of the film. When the smoke clears at the end and you see him standing there pouting out his chest it is serioulsy a belly laugh at how stupid it looks. Isabel Lucas is only in it briefly and is completely forgettable. What Sam and I both thought was the standout performer of this film was Micheal Dorman, who plays Frankie Dalton, Ethan Hawke's character's brother, who is a military man and sworn to uphold the search of blood even if it means hunting down his brother. He is conflicted for his fight for the cause and his love of his brother and to what he realises is right and wrong. A real presence onscreen and one to watch.
The makers of the movie hosted a contest in Worth1000.com (famous photo manipulation-contest site) to come up with images of how the world would look if nearly everyone were a vampire. It is directed by the Spierig twin brothers who seem to like the B grade horror after their 2003 film Undead. Ben Nott's cinematography is good and I hope he can continue this as the DOP of Tomorrow, When The War Began, which is my most anticipated film of this year. I also think the makeup and art design people on this film deserve awards, it is sensational, but art direction and cinematography cannot carry a film if the story is mediocre and the acting below standard.
There are also some great death scenes in this film, while trying to find a cure they test a blood substitute on a soldier who literally explodes - this was awesome I have to give this film some credit - it has a certain B grade charm about it but, as usual, from the trailer you expect something a lot better than you get. It's all been done before but this one has way more blue filters and a few cool new tricks but besides that stick to True Blood on the TV. Out now in the US and releasing in Oz on 21st Jan 2010. Worth about $7-
This film had so much going for it but just fell on it's arse. The critics screening I was in had people laughing at the movie and definately not with it. I took Sammy to this screening and our initial thoughts on it were basically "close to worst film ever". After thinking further there are a lot of films worse than this, "The Happening" being my front runner
And this film does have plenty of enjoyable things.
The year is 2019. A mysterious plague has swept over the earth, transforming the majority of the world's population into vampires. Humans are now an endangered, second-class species - forced into hiding as they are hunted and farmed for vampire consumption to the brink of extinction. It's all up to Edward Dalton, a vampire researcher who refuses to feed on human blood, to perfect a blood substitute that might sustain vampires and spare the few remaining humans. But time and hope are running out - until Ed meets Audrey, a human survivor who leads him to a startling medical breakthrough. Armed with knowledge that both humans and vampires will kill for, Ed must battle his own kind in a deadly struggle that will decide the fate of the human race.
What is great about this film is the art direction, cinematography, idea and stylings of the film - these are just brilliant. The matrix styled blood bank of people hanging and being drained is a sight to see. The ideas for the future and the cars with tint buttons and day or night styled driving for vamps is really cool and well thought out and the clothing and homes of the future have a beautiful tone that I really liked, it is old meets new and it looks way cool.
The actors are mediocre. It is good to see Ethan Hawke back on film, I only watched Gattica again a few weeks ago and find him great to watch but in this he is kind of flat. It feels as though he is unsure about being back onscreen. Sam Neill I thought was miscast, he can either come across brilliant in films or crap and this one was definately the latter. I can't stand Claudia Karvan, met her once and found her incredibly rude so this has tainted anything I have ever seen her in. Willem Defoe has a lot of fun in this film but his character is called Elvis, he is an over the top action hero and is so cliched he draws most of the laughs of the film. When the smoke clears at the end and you see him standing there pouting out his chest it is serioulsy a belly laugh at how stupid it looks. Isabel Lucas is only in it briefly and is completely forgettable. What Sam and I both thought was the standout performer of this film was Micheal Dorman, who plays Frankie Dalton, Ethan Hawke's character's brother, who is a military man and sworn to uphold the search of blood even if it means hunting down his brother. He is conflicted for his fight for the cause and his love of his brother and to what he realises is right and wrong. A real presence onscreen and one to watch.
The makers of the movie hosted a contest in Worth1000.com (famous photo manipulation-contest site) to come up with images of how the world would look if nearly everyone were a vampire. It is directed by the Spierig twin brothers who seem to like the B grade horror after their 2003 film Undead. Ben Nott's cinematography is good and I hope he can continue this as the DOP of Tomorrow, When The War Began, which is my most anticipated film of this year. I also think the makeup and art design people on this film deserve awards, it is sensational, but art direction and cinematography cannot carry a film if the story is mediocre and the acting below standard.
There are also some great death scenes in this film, while trying to find a cure they test a blood substitute on a soldier who literally explodes - this was awesome
I have to give this film some credit - it has a certain B grade charm about it but, as usual, from the trailer you expect something a lot better than you get. It's all been done before but this one has way more blue filters and a few cool new tricks but besides that stick to True Blood on the TV. Out now in the US and releasing in Oz on 21st Jan 2010. Worth about $7-| 39 |
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Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
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Artist Quirk
have you seen the tv series Love My Way? Claudia Karvan was really good in that, i think she is suited to reality drama
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
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But sorry, she sux in everything I see and I just cringe at her because I think she is a skank