A unique premise, well put together story and plotlines, and strong supporting cast (Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, and Australian actress Claudia Karvan who needs to show way more skin) couldn’t save this Ethan Hawke vehicle from his complete inability to connect with an audience. I am still waiting for Hawke to register a human emotion that makes me care about his character (in any movie). As much as Denzel Washington carried him in Training Day, Dafoe carries him in Daybreakers. The basis of the story is that some sort of epidemic broke out some time ago, turning a majority of the world’s population into vampires, who proceeded to kill off the remaining humans for their blood. Human blood has become a commodity and the supply is running out. Hawkes character, Edward Dalton, is a sympathetic hematologist vampire who is morally reluctant to find a blood substitute for his corporate boss (Sam Neill as Charles Bromley), even though a blood substitute will solve the blood shortage.( I hate heroes with moral dilemmas, for the record, morals are for pussies.) Anyways, a few events lead up to Edward secretly befriending some hunted humans (Karvan and Dafoe) and finding a cure for Vampirism. After causing the capture and murder of a human cell, a vengeful Edward tricks Bromley into curing himself and sets off a chain of events in which the beginning of the end of the age of the Vampire has started. Overall, this movie didn’t even pass the iPhone test, in which I see how long into the movie I start messing around with my iphone and check for updated facebook statuses. That point probably happened about 20 minutes into the movie after Edward’s brother cut the head off of a Vampire with a butcher knife, which was the second best action scene in the movie, after Dafoe’s character, Elvis, being catapulted from a moving car, and catching fire midair (from sunlight)while doing back flips. The action was mediocre, although the directing (Michael Spierig) and cinematography was solid. It even featured a joke of a car chase and pretty standard issue Vampire f/x (plenty of blood, flaming corpses, and lots of dust). The saving grace is the premise which is probably the best in the Vampire genre since Let the Right One In(2008)(Sorry Twilight.Gag.).
RATING -Semi
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