Movie: Daybreakers

Spoilers for sure, beware:

I saw a trailer for this a while back and it somewhat piqued my interest. I know the resurgence of vampire movies is getting a little bit overwhelming but being a big fan of the classics (Dracula, Nosferatu) and an advocate of all things dark and bloody, I generally keep an eye on any new entries into the genre of Vampire Movie (except the twilight bullshit, fuck that)

The setting in this one is what sets it apart from the rest. The storyline begins at a point where most of the world is inhabited by vampires and there is only a very small percentage of the human population left for the vampires to feed on. The idea is unique and certainly screams social commentary, but the execution falls somewhat short. I see this scenerio happen to a lot of ambitious films. The premise is new and exciting, but the writer spends too much time explaining the situation and not enough time creating a sense of intimacy with the characters and the plot. Instead of feeling like we're following the characters closely through a series of conflicts, we're forced to take a passive observatory role, not really caring what happens to the characters or being curious of where the plot is going. This is how I felt most of the way through Daybreakers even though Willem Dafoe did all he could to save the weak scripting job.

Another thing that bothered me was an introduction of a few rules of being a vampire, not that i'm against new rules (i'm all for innovation on an old idea) but the over-simplification of them ruined any credibility. The first rule: You can become a human after being a vampire by sitting out in the sun for just the right amount of time before being baked. This one is pretty sketchy considering the point at which the story takes place. You'd think a couple vampires would discover this some time before the entire world was inhabited by them and the idea that a dead organ, your heart, would just start beating again after years of being dead... probably not.

Second rule: Once you become human after being a vampire, your blood will turn any vampire who bites you back into a human. This is just a simple reversal of the original rule of if you're bitten by a vampire you become a vampire, which is a nice thought, but this one just seems like a simple plot device to return the vampire population back into humans.

To sum up, human life is complicated. Vampire life should be just as complicated, so any simple explanations are just hard to believe, even if we're dealing with the most ridiculous of fantasies.

Good atmosphere, a couple good ideas, poor execution.

2/5