This movie wasn't the greatest vampire film of all time, but it did some justice to this genre, which has taken many hits in this era of film.
Daybreakers set in 2019 is a film that makes vampires seem more human than ever.
In most movies featuring the undead, vampires are immortal, untouchable creatures that run into relatively no problems, besides the occasional sunlight and holy water.
In Daybreakers the vampire outbreak has created a world overpopulated by vampires and the number of humans left is running thin. Basically, the vampires are running out of blood and need to find a solution fast.
In this film, when vampires do not feed on human blood, they become primitive and more bat-like creatures (see photo left). These primal vampires are mostly the poor who cannot afford blood, as it is bought and sold like food in the movie, even in coffee shops in the subway.
The main character Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke),thankfully not a Twilight reference, is a hematologist at the leading vampire blood research facility who is charged with finding an alternative to human blood.
Edward does not like being a vampire and feels sympathy for the humans, which his boss Bromley (Sam Neill) sees as weakness.
Bromley is the head of the blood research corporation and is basically the vampire equivalent of Lex Luthor, evil businessman character.
While trying to find an alternative to human blood, Edward eventually stumbles upon Elvis (Willem Dafoe) who has cured himself of his own vampirism and leads a band of humans attempting to spread the cure and stay alive.
From there the movie leads down the path of Edward dealing with this newfound cure while the vampires deal with the lack of blood as most, like Bromley, do not believe in a cure.
Edward is left with the fate of the human race within him and now must face a world full of vampires with the single cure that can end the darkness forever.
The vampires in this movie outcast their lesser, blood deprived vampires showing an almost elitist human quality. The vampires were afraid that their source of life was running out and made decisions to preserve their race, never before in a movie have vampires had to make decisions like this and seeing it was very enjoyable and interesting.
The special effects in the movie were done very well and put a primal spin on the vampire. There are also a few cool takes on vampire transportation in daylight, like cars that have cameras on the roof and sunblocks on the windshield so they can drive in the day and see where they are going.
Acting wise, Sam Neill was very convincing as the big bad business boss vampire. Ethan Hawke's performance was good as well, although I felt like he was channeling some Christian Bale in this film. Willem Dafoe's southern-like character is downright hilarious and adds some comic relief to all the gore and neck-biting vampirism.
I'm going to give this film a B.
The film's ending could have been better done and it feels like a little more could have been explained about the initial vampire outbreak. Other than that and a little overuse of ridiculous, less-than-realistic gore in some scenes (arms being ripped off, heads rolling around) this film did the, sometimes difficult, vampire genre justice.
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