I too was excited by the trailer for the movie Daybreakers to be only slightly disappointed. The creative sphere is bursting at the seems with vampire related paraphernalia with the 1st season of True Blood ringing through as quality material and the totally retarded Twilight series feeding those that prefer to be tickled by sparkling darkness than to truly investigate it. What I appreciate most about Daybreakers is the Spierig brothers valiant attempt to “make Australian films” by getting “big American money and [making] films here, using local crews and as many local actors as possible.” With this in mind it is great to see it reviewed ruthlessly as a “big film” rather than applauded greatly as a small film. Seeing a few shots of Brisbane streets was also an interesting experience.
The concept of vampire apocalypse is not very widespread (yet), though I still have to read the original I Am Legend novel. True Blood was the first time I encountered the idea of vampires out in the open and I really enjoyed that premise. So to follow it up with “everyone is a vampire” in Daybreakers had me waiting for its release, and then annoyed that its original release date got pushed back (at least as far as I could gather).
! SPOILERS FOLLOW !
It occurred to me during the movie that the idea of what it was to be human and our condition was not explored as much as it could be. For instance the rebirth idea, through a certain burst of sunlight, along with the human blood being a food that sustains a vampire in a “humane” state have such potential for deep reflection and comment on the human condition. Especially with the conflict within the main vampire,Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), as he grapples with his role as head haematologist at the vampire blood farm, big, oligarchy, company fronted by Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). I did enjoy the final twist implied, of a reinfection of the vampires back to human through tainted blood. The division of condition/’humanity’ of the nourished vampires versus the starved sub-siders also seemed ill-explored. But one has to remember that the budget was only 21 million and the opposite to these disappointments would be to actively make everything explicit. At least it was not preachy or in one’s face about anything.
All-in-all I agree with the following quote:
In speaking with fellow Screen Rant scribe Ross Miller about the film, we both came to the conclusion that Daybreakers didn’t do enough to live up to its ambitious premise. Despite a few humorous lines, the movie took itself way too seriously to be enjoyed as either a dark satire of corporate greed or a campy splatterfest. Conversely, the characters weren’t developed well enough and the plot was too predictable to work as a moody sci-fi/action/horror thriller. In essence, the movie was a run-of-the-mill piece of genre fare, albeit one with a remarkably original idea.
