Daybreakers

A recent setback in the Unobtanium mines on Pandora has delayed out invasion, but rest assured earthmen the day of reckoning is coming. I will destroy you. In the mean time I watch and I wait and I study your primitive earth culture.

Recently I was fortunate enough to beam down and catch Daybreakers, a refreshingly different take on the Vampire films earthmen or probably more earthwomen are so obsessed with. Despite not having been caught up in the recent Vampire craziness (Nebulon refuses to beam down for Twilight or anything vaguely twilight related) Nebulon has to admit that Daybreakers is for the most part an interesting concept, well executed.

In the near future the human race has been turned to vampires thanks to a massive plague. Hmm, plague, and interesting idea (note to self: file report with high command about possible plague strategies). The few remaining humans are hunted and farmed by the Vampires for blood, the supply of which is controlled by a sinister corporation (are all Earth corporations sinister I wonder? Certainly never seen a nice one on film). The hook is that the supply is running out, and as the vampires starve they recede into bat like monsters attacking other vampires at random. Our hero, haematologist Ethan Hawke is working on a blood substitute when he falls in with the human underground.

Lots of movies start with a good idea, the end of the world, alien invasion, anything with zombies, but the real test is how this idea is sustained over time and whether it can be extended to support a 90 minute film with interesting characters and a bit of forward momentum. Well this film certainly has a great idea. The vampire world is rich and detailed with the end result that it feels real. Advertisements, coffee, the vampire army (best name ever) and even mundane details like converting cars for daylight driving and using video cameras instead of mirrors all add to the feel of a real world full of people/vampires pretty much like you and me… well you anyway.

The characters are fine, if a bit work a day, with only Willem Dafoe’s resistance figurehead standing out. The film only really sags when we spend time with the resistance, but this may just be symptomatic of wanting to get back to the vampire world where all the really interesting stuff is happening. Except for this however the pacing is great and there’s a neat twist at the end, which nicely adds a bit of resolution to what might have been an unsolvable problem. I have read in your earth history that whenever a Greek playwright got one of his characters into a bind and couldn’t think of a way to get them out they would introduce a ‘Deus Ex Machina,’ a machine from the Gods (or God from the machine) to help them escape. This does not feel like that, in fact it’s kind of plausible, well at least as plausible as a movie set in a decaying vampire society can hope to be.

So end result? Well worth the beam down. Go watch.

Links

IMDB

Heyuguys (blog)

Screenrant (another blog)

Trailer