January is usually the studio dumping ground for everything they thought was a good idea at first but turned out to be shit in the end but 2010 could be different with the promising looking Book of Eli and Mel Gibson's comeback Edge of Darkness both slated for early year releases this January could have great potential and if Daybreakers in any indication it does. I know, I know YET ANOTHER vampire film! After all the Twilight madness and the success of HBO's True Blood not to mention the countless copycat properties I can understand the trepidation to set down for 98 more minutes people biting into each other but trust me Daybreakers is worth your time.
In the year 2019, a plague has transformed most every human into vampires. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the fractured dominant race plots their survival researcher Edward Dalton(Ethan Hawke) works with a covert band of vamps headed up by Lionel 'Elvis' Cormac(Willem Dafoe) on a way to save humankind.
The thing that separates Daybreakers from recent vampire flicks is it takes place in a world in which shirtless pretty boys are non-existent and when the un-dead's skin is touched by sunlight they don't sparkle like a magical fairy instead they explode into a violent ball of fire. It's also devoid of any romance instead it gives you all the doom, gloom and murkiness we've come to expect from this genre but more often then not it found clever ways to play on old clichés.
Still the movie is not devoid of silliness and heavy handed exposition. Both Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe do a decent job of making the bland dialog tolerable but ultimately they can't completely save the writers. Unfortunately, Sam Neill isn't as successful at walking the line between campy and over the top although there are moments when his scenery chewing line deliveries are enjoyable if you're the type of person that can embrace camp.
Daybreakers has a lot of interesting ideas and well the executed effects work make this a pretty solid entry into it's genre. It's not mind blowing or revolutionary but directors Micheal and Peter Spierig show tons of potential in this movie defiantly has the makings of a cult hit.
7.1 out of 10
