Finally, a Vampire movie that I love!
Daybreakers was awesome. I thought the premise was very original and creative. For me, the biggest downfall of the film were the characters. Yeah, not exactly a small thing…the character development was weak. Ethan Hawke’s character is purposefully shy and meek, but to my disappointment, he remains fairly static. There’s a generic evolution of his character, but nothing too memorable or gripping. Willem Dafoe and the other heroine (some no name girl who is extremely unextraordinary) do very little to balance out Hawke’s vanilla screen presence. Dafoe is the wizened silhouette with a gun, spouting out corny adages having to do with the sun and rising from the ashes—maybe it was meant to be impressive, but it comes across as a bit much. It worked in Finding Nemo, but in this movie, when he emerges from the shadows to shake the hand of Ethan Hawke for the first time and says, “My friends call me Elvis,” even I face palmed. I think the director realized how dumb that was because no one and I mean NO ONE ever, EVER refers to him as Elvis that entire movie.
More supporting roles were more intriguing, but still a little cliche.
Thank God.
You’re probably wondering why I loved this movie so much after you just heard me rake the characterization over the coals—well, I have to admit, I’m shamelessly head over heels with vampires in general. I’m so disenchanted and hating of the Twilight movies and series (another post for another day) I’m very welcoming of anything NOT that. But of course it’s more than that.
I love a fresh twist on old things. I like that they kept some canon vampiric traits: aversion to sunlight, death when staked. (Aside: I love True Blood). And it was very clever, how the integrated this idea in the modern world. I think I loved the premise, the story the most.
I loved how there was an exotic feel to the fed vampire—the golden eyes, and I loved that their fangs showed constantly. Retracting them is a tease for me. However, it was not all pretty and (jesus fucking Christ I would have killed someone) “sparkly”: the truth is, Vampires are monsters, and the creatures that they degenerated to when starved of blood was fascinating. I definitely think they could have done more with the whole dynamic of “hunting their own kind” not just humans but of their neighbors who had reverted to starved creatures. They hardly explored that.
I got really excited when they killed one of the degenerated vampire-creatures and the coroner found a ring on the corpse: “Valerie and John forever” it said, something like that. “John? He was the local gardener!” Hawke’s character says incredulously.
“Monster.” the detective shrugs. And that’s it. There doesn’t seem to be any more struggle than that.
BUT
you know what? I was thoroughly entertained. There was lots of blood (as there should have been) and I wished I had fangs the entire length of the movie.
If you love REAL vampires, and you’re a little forgiving of the characters, just let yourself be entertained by the action and the immersion of a different universe. After all, it is always fun pretending to put yourself in impossible situations.
Except for me: I actually am a Vampire (no pretending here). Just ask my friends and the paramedics at Grady.
