Combining the vampire aesthetic with a 28 Days Later inspired outbreak backstory, the Spierig Brothers (whose first feature Undead was hailed as a promise of greater things to come) have brought us a vision of the future of the vampire phenomenon, the logical continuation of a concept in which the whole world becomes infected, the humans are in the minority (considering they are capable of dying from natural causes) and are being farmed for blood. The only problem is that the blood supply is running out, and Ethan Hawke is a scientist in search of an acceptable substitute. What happens next, is one hell of a wild ride, and if there’s anything general that can be said about the film as a whole, it’s that it occasionally spends too much time having fun, and too little time developing the story.

Where the film truly shines is in its visual style. Sprinkle in a blue tinged color palette for the night photography t reminiscent of Underworld, add Willem Dafoe to breathe life into the human resistance and deliver all kinds of terrific one-liners, and top it all off with some gnarly creature effects and more blood splattering kills than the average war film, and now you’re starting to get the sense of what kinds of notes Daybreakers manages to hit. It also has one of the more promising opening acts of the last few years, deftly establishing its tone and goals while simultaneously putting the audience on edge with a series of calculated scares and intense cinematography. It does unravel a bit after that, but the set up is everything you’d hope from this kind of movie.

Which brings us to the Achilles heel of the film, the editing. Aside from the opening act which is so full of exposition it would be hard for a studio to chop stuff out without losing important story components and is therefore the film’s strongest portion, the rest of the movie suffers from its clearly targeted 90 minute runtime. Some films need an extra half an hour to breath and linger, and Daybreakers aches from a lack of room to do so. Character jumps are more severe than they seem intended to be, and the whole last act goes by at a blistering pace, making leaps in logic and flashing forward in its own chronology to the point that the audience is left questioning what they just missed. The final confrontation is sorely lacking in set-up, not because there wasn’t any that got shot, but because I can see the studio note floating in the middle of the screen “Get To The End Faster.” I’d be very interested in seeing the work in its entirety, and not unlike Kurt Wimmer’s recent stylized vampire flick Ultraviolet, there may be a certain amount of the producers and the studio not really getting what it is they have, trying to force the film into a mold that really doesn’t apply.

What I want you to take away from this review is that Daybreakers is a ton of fun. It’s a blast, exactly the kind of entertainment you need in the studio “dump months” of January and February, and though it won’t stay with you very long after you see it, the experience is entirely enjoyable, something the depressed Oscar season tends to forget about. Grab some popcorn, take a seat, and strap yourself in. If I had to pick Six Flags or Daybreakers, the vampires would get my vote in this round… though I’m so down to get on a roller coaster to avoid Twilight The Third in June.

See other movie review at akega.com.

I’m a blogger that writes all my experience especially in technology.

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In 1966 I was a young child already interested and aware of the paranormal.  I was excited when I heard that a vampire based television show, Dark Shadows, was about to make it’s debut on television.  Many children in my school were buzzing about the show and wondering if their parents would allow them to watch.   My parents did allow me to watch when I returned home from school in the afternoon and I was hooked!  Dark Shadows revolves around a groundskeeper, employed by the Collins family, stumbles upon a chained casket that he can’t help but open.  Inside the casket is a 200 year old vampire Barnabas Collins who drinks from the living and falls in love with the family nursemaid.  This was the beginning of my obsession with vampires.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Fast forward to 1997 and I was equally intrigued by the story of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  I had read dozens of books and seen some vampire movies since I fell in love with Barnabas Collins but none of them satisfied my thirst.  Buffy is a seemingly normal young woman growing up in California when she is approached by a decrepit old man and told that she is “the chosen one”.  Buffy learned to fight and kill vampires and a host of other demons, wherewolves, robots and more.  Buffy was the first female heroine who was strong enough to fight the supernatural beings and survive and as a bonus she had an odd but devoted collection of friends who helped her with the good fight.  After seven great years the series ended much to my dismay.

The Twilight Saga

During a much needed vacation at the beginning of 2009 I stumbled across a movie called Twilight in a movie theatre in San Diego, CA.  I had never heard of the books nor did I know anything about the author Stephenie Meyer but I was always up for a good, juicy vampire story.  Twilight did not let me down and when I left the movie theatre I went directly to the bookstore and purchased the book.  Three books and one more movie, New Moon, later I am just as hooked.  I identify with Bella Swan who is the odd duck at both her old school in Arizona and the new school she reluctantly attends in Forks, Washington.  Bella meets and falls in love with a gorgeous vampire named Edward Cullen and the story revolves around their romance and Edward’s mission to keep Bella alive.  It is both a heart warming and heart breaking story but it is compelling.  I’ve read the books several times and I never tire of them.

True Blood

In 2009 I saw commercials for a new HBO series entitled True Blood.  Based on the The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris.  True Blood is both a romance and a thriller.  Each season is twelve lovely episodes long and the storyline is very loosely based on the books.  I saw the pilot of the series first and raced to the bookstore to purchase the series.  At first it was hard for me to warm up to the main character telepathic Sookie Stackhouse.  However, as the story evolved I began to understand Sookie and like her I fell in love with her first boyfriend vampire Bill Compton.  Sookie matures in each book and handles the up and down of the supernatural world with grace.  As time goes by Sookie meets and becomes attached to an assortment of characters both human and supernatural.  The books and television show never bore me and I look forward to new material on television and off.

Now I’m looking forward to new books, television shows and movies coming out of the next few years.  Vampire lovers will be delighted with the selection and I hope this trend and interest in vampires continue!

© 2009, Davis Virtual Assistance.

Dracula has never been so funny and dashing – to say nothing of being an awesome disco dancer – as in this “delightful movie with a bang-up cast” (The New York Times) led by the epitome of suave, George Hamilton, and featuring first-rate performances from Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, Dick Shawn, Arte Johnson, Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford! Evicted from Transylvania, Dracula (Hamilton) goes to New York to make Cindy (Saint James), a model with an old soul, his eternal bride. To his delight, she quickly falls for his necking style. But when her would-be boyfriend (Benjamin), a descendant of the vampire-killing Van Helsings, meets his romantic rival, he’s determined to put a stake in the count’s plans!

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I had never heard about the book “Twilight” before the movie came out in November of 2008.  I read the book after seeing the movie and was incensed by the focus the director put on sets and clothing rather than on storyline.  The movie, despite it’s success, had the backstory brutually cut back and none of the characters were portrayed accurately.  I read the rest of the books and was relieved when another director was chosen to create “New Moon” from the second book in the series.

I realize that it is impossible to sqeeze a story that spans months or even years but that is no excuse for the storyline to abandoned entirely.  What do you think?

Read Twilight, the Sookie Stackhouse novels and The Vampire Dairies on an Amazon.com Kindle!