While Daybreakers has great ideas and creates a very interesting world, it ultimately fails to delve very far into anything and feels more like it should have been the pilot episode of a new TV series.
In the future, 95% of the world's population is vampires. How they got this way is only, ~very~ briefly, explained in the opening credits, through paper clippings that are only one screen for about a second. So basically, blink and you miss it. I would have liked if they'd gone more in depth on this and done more science, explaining ~why~ this happened, and having that information being used to create the 'cure' later on in the movie....but ultimately, no.
The vampires are....well, not vampires. They're humans with very neat eyes who drink blood. If they don't get enough, they turn into deformed bat like creatures (which the only reasoning for is they did not drink 'blood' for about a month....however, many characters turn into these creatures much faster than a month throughout the movie) They don't move fast, they don't have super strength, holy water/garlic never enters into the picture....and they can survive in the shade. Yes....if they're just slightly covered from the sun, that's fine. Only direct sun causes massive burning/death.
They heal very very fast....usually. One of the major continuity issues is when Ethan Hawke's character, in attempting to cure himself, is set on fire again and again, and each time, has no burns/scars/anything on his body right afterwards. Yet not a minute later, they show another vampire with his arm in a sling....from what is alluded to being a broken/dislocated shoulder. So....they heal fast....but, only when it's necessary for the plot to make sense.
And on that note....the plot. Blood is in short supply. Humans, supposedly, are getting more and more rare and going extinct....and vampires keep gobbling up blood like it was some miracle elixir. Which, granted, is what vampires usually do....however, yet again, some of them seem to be able to resist/control these urges, while others can't. It flip flops.
Essentially, this is a political thriller with a supernatural twist. Everything revolves around curing/fixing their resource problem. Truthfully....it's quite dumb. It's known that animal blood is drunk, and sustains the vampires....yet apparently that's not a solution. A substitute is apparently a solution though....but only because it would make the vamps pay more for real blood. Like I said....they're vampires, but they're still human. They are still greedy, conniving, scheming, power hungry people. Which kind of begs the question that should have been brought up in the first place.....why turn? Because apparently, many of them were given the choice to turn, or to reject it. Hence why there's still humans.
There are many questions you'll ask yourself while watching this, and at the end, you'll sit there thinking "What was the point of all this, to end it like that?" And that is the movie's biggest disappointment. It had no point. It has no resolution to anything. It's essentially an over glossed story, simply to point out the new, ingenious way to cure vampires (which really is quite interesting, but shouldn't be the ~only~ good thing in the movie) In the end....it feels more like a TV show pilot, that they decided to give a huge budget and make into a film. It's bloody, it's got jumpy parts, the screeching will kill your ears, and you'll be sitting there wondering why you watched this movie.
In the future, 95% of the world's population is vampires. How they got this way is only, ~very~ briefly, explained in the opening credits, through paper clippings that are only one screen for about a second. So basically, blink and you miss it. I would have liked if they'd gone more in depth on this and done more science, explaining ~why~ this happened, and having that information being used to create the 'cure' later on in the movie....but ultimately, no.
The vampires are....well, not vampires. They're humans with very neat eyes who drink blood. If they don't get enough, they turn into deformed bat like creatures (which the only reasoning for is they did not drink 'blood' for about a month....however, many characters turn into these creatures much faster than a month throughout the movie) They don't move fast, they don't have super strength, holy water/garlic never enters into the picture....and they can survive in the shade. Yes....if they're just slightly covered from the sun, that's fine. Only direct sun causes massive burning/death.
They heal very very fast....usually. One of the major continuity issues is when Ethan Hawke's character, in attempting to cure himself, is set on fire again and again, and each time, has no burns/scars/anything on his body right afterwards. Yet not a minute later, they show another vampire with his arm in a sling....from what is alluded to being a broken/dislocated shoulder. So....they heal fast....but, only when it's necessary for the plot to make sense.
And on that note....the plot. Blood is in short supply. Humans, supposedly, are getting more and more rare and going extinct....and vampires keep gobbling up blood like it was some miracle elixir. Which, granted, is what vampires usually do....however, yet again, some of them seem to be able to resist/control these urges, while others can't. It flip flops.
Essentially, this is a political thriller with a supernatural twist. Everything revolves around curing/fixing their resource problem. Truthfully....it's quite dumb. It's known that animal blood is drunk, and sustains the vampires....yet apparently that's not a solution. A substitute is apparently a solution though....but only because it would make the vamps pay more for real blood. Like I said....they're vampires, but they're still human. They are still greedy, conniving, scheming, power hungry people. Which kind of begs the question that should have been brought up in the first place.....why turn? Because apparently, many of them were given the choice to turn, or to reject it. Hence why there's still humans.
There are many questions you'll ask yourself while watching this, and at the end, you'll sit there thinking "What was the point of all this, to end it like that?" And that is the movie's biggest disappointment. It had no point. It has no resolution to anything. It's essentially an over glossed story, simply to point out the new, ingenious way to cure vampires (which really is quite interesting, but shouldn't be the ~only~ good thing in the movie) In the end....it feels more like a TV show pilot, that they decided to give a huge budget and make into a film. It's bloody, it's got jumpy parts, the screeching will kill your ears, and you'll be sitting there wondering why you watched this movie.