[Blu-Ray Review] Daybreakers
When I first saw the trailer for Daybreakers I thought “Now that’s an interesting concept! “. I mean, how could you not be intrigued by a movie which is based upon the idea that the vampires have taken over the world & humans are an endangered species. It’s such an amazingly obvious concept that I am amazed that it hasn’t been done before.
But can the Spierig brothers, on their feature length debut deliver the goods & make an interesting movie out of such a great concept or does it ultimately fall flat & end up as toothless and afraid to show it’s face in the sun?
Plot
In the world of Daybreakers, a mysterious virus turned humans into vampires. These few turned others until the remaining humans were offered a choice – become a vampire or become food. Most of the world decided to become vampires, and they became the dominant life form on the planet. The ones who didn’t want to turn are now hunted by the vampires and every day there are less and less. The disappearance of their food source has forced the vampires to strive to develop a synthetic blood substitute, otherwise their race will start feeding on itself – which has the effect of mutating vampires into a Nosferatu type monster – and will eventually die out.
One of the scientists working on the synthetic blood, played by Ethan Hawk, doesn’t want to see the human race destroyed and even helps some humans escape from the hunters. But then he discovers a wondeful thing, something that could have the potential to save the world from the scourge of the vampires once and for all. If he can survive, of course.
Review
The first thing that really struckme about Daybreakers was the world that had been built – there seemed to have been real thought put into making a world full of vampires a credible one, from the shutters that come down on all the windows during the day, to concessionary stands on subway stations selling blood to commuters, to the bored and lifeless look in the eyes of the teenagers who are stuck eternally as “children”. It all just serves to ground the story, which is fairly fantastic, into some kind of reality.
But what of the movie itself? Well, here we have a problem. I’d seen the trailers for Daybreakers and I was expecting quite an exciting, action filled movie. What I instead got was a drama with a few action scenes thrown in – not that this was a problem for me, and I enjoyed the movie a lot more than I think I would have if it had just been another generic action flick, but I can envisage how a lot of movie-goers were left disappointed as they’d expected one thing from the trailers but were presented with something else entirely when they watched the whole movie.
But it isn’t a bad movie, not at all. And the action, while it took a bit of a back seat to the political commentary & drama of the story, is effective none the less – especially in the third act, which is when it gears up a bit more than the rest of the movie. And there are some quite hard hitting “horror” moments, too. Nothing that would scare a confirmed genre geek like me, but slightly shocking at times none the less.
Ethan Hawke is very well cast as the scientist Edward Dalton, a reluctant vampire turned by his own brother, who is desperately trying to find a substitute for human blood to try and save the human race. His humanity, which is really central to the character, can be seen in every scene he is in without being overstated or overplayed, and if there is a central heart to the movie then he is the actor responsible.
Sam Neill is at his scenery chewing best as the villain of the piece, who is not technically “evil” but is intent on using the remaining humans for profit for his company. It is by no means the first time we have seen Neill in a role like this but it still felt fairly fresh and not too much like he was channeling previous characters like Damien, which was a good thing.
The rest of the cast, including Michael Dorman and Willem Dafoe are equally as good and it is this quality cast that really brings out the best in the story.
Video
The 2.40:1 AVC/MPEG-4 1080p transfer that the picture is presented in looks fantastic. The colours onscreen don’t “pop” as much as some transfers do, but this is intentional due to the colour palette used throughout the movie, but the majority of shots during the movie are at night (obviously) and the blacks, contrast & shadows all look fantastic and the image itself is very clear and crisp with no real artifacts to be seen on screen. It’s not totally perfect, but it’s pretty damn close.
Audio
The audio is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix, which is pretty bombastic at times, and utilises the back speakers with lots of additional noises to draw you further into the world but, thankfully, even with all of this going on the dialogue remains crystal clear.
Conclusion
Daybreakers might not be the best vampire movie you will ever see, but it is a refreshingly original concept and is presented very well. At times thought provoking and exciting, it’s a good way to pass a couple of hours and the Blu-Ray looks and sounds absolutely fantastic.
One Response to “[Blu-Ray Review] Daybreakers”
One of the things this movie does so great is the world building. I would love a sequel to this, hell I’ll take a movie solely about Willem Dafoe killing vampires.
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