I just watched Daybreakers (yes, I am ridiculously behind on my movie watching) and after finally seeing this huge hit of a film I have the intense desire to rant. Woo! Cue the rant dance! Ok… I don’t actually have a rant dance but if I did I imagine there would be a lot of fist pumping and flailing involved. Ahem. Onwards!
WARNING: There be big spoilers up ahead!
Daybreakers is set in the year 2019, when a plague has transformed almost everyone into a bloodthirsty vampire. With only 5% of the population being human, the vampires are faced with a dwindling blood supply and are forced to plot new methods of survival. While the big bad vamps do that, a kindhearted vampire researcher works with a hidden group of humans on a way to save humankind.
While this is a mini rant, I will admit right off the bat that I enjoyed the film. Daybreakers has great acting, great effects, a great tone, a fantastic storyline, loads of action and all that other good stuff, but in spite of all of that there was one big issue I had – it wasn’t believable. That may seem like an insane issue to have with a film, because come on, it’s a fictional flick about a vampire plague. But stay with me here.
Obviously Daybreakers is pure fiction, I get that, but to make it seem even remotely believable you’ve got to mix in a little bit of fact into it. Some of the greatest vampire movies out there are great because they are believable. Everything fits perfectly and while you know it’s all fake, part of you begins to wonder and you start to think that maybe it could happen. That wasn’t the case with Daybreakers. In the beginning it was plausible, a plague that turns people into vampires, definitely unlikely, but believable. But then we got to the cure, that ridiculous sunlight cure. It didn’t make sense AT ALL! Maybe if the writers had thrown in some science into the script, explained it a little, then they could have made it seem likely. But they didn’t, they were like “Oh hey, yeah, shining some sunbeams on a vampire totally cures them. That makes all kinds of sense! Brilliant!” But it’s not. I really loved the film up until that point, but that cure was such bull. If they had attempted to explain how the hell that would work, even a fictional explanation, it would have been better. If this was a purely magical film then whatever, magic is the explanation. But Daybreakers isn’t a magical film, the vampirism is caused by a plaque, not a supernatural curse, therefore there should be a certain level of realism there. Ugh.
Clearly I am looking far too deeply into this, but really, think of your favorite vampire films. All the pieces fit, right? They are somewhat believable? Yeah, that’s one of the things that make them so awesome. Unfortunately Daybreakers did not have that touch of awesome.
What do you guys think?
– Moonlight
