ANOMALY //>

Daybreakers [2009]

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Niel

Directed by: The Spierig Brothers

3/5

Daybreakers has had a strange run at the cinemas. It has received some decent reviews over in the U.S., yet American audiences seem to really hate the movie. Because of such a bi polar response to the film, i wasn't sure what to expect when i sat down to watch it.

As a vampire fan, i was excited to see what kind of spin they would put on the films storyline. I was pleasantly surprised at what they came up with. The premise was original and the vampire world they created was interesting. What the film was missing however was SCOPE. The entire world is over run by vampires, and it was a shame to see the movie only show glimpses of one city and the vampires who lived in it. Most of the scenes in the vampire world take place in a high rise city building, so the vastness of how huge the "vampire epidemic" was felt a little lost on me. It would have been interesting to focus a little more on the day to day lives of what it was like to live in a vampire world, because what we did see was definitely cool.

The characters in the movie were also a little underdeveloped. Like the storyline though, they were serviceable enough, but could have been fleshed out more. Ethan Hawke seemed a little.....bored. The only characters who offered any sort of meat to the scenes were Willem Dafoe and the scenes involving Ethan's character and his brother. Everyone else was just on auto pilot. The acting itself was fine though, so it didn't take away from the over all enjoyment of the movie.

There's some good direction in Daybreakers, some nice ideas and an interesting story. It never seems to reach any major heights though due to the constant way the film holds back. If the storyline and characters had been fleshed out more, it could have been a more entertaining experience. The odd abrupt ending also felt a bit rushed as well. The whole thing felt as if it was done in a very limited time frame.

The movie was decent enough though, and if you like vampire action there's bound to be something you'll like here. No need to rush to the cinemas to see it though, save it for DVD.