Daybreakers Review

Supply and demand it's at the core of capitalism. Anything can be a precious commodity as long as there's people who want it....oil for instance, our economy is dependant upon it thus the price fluctuates based on availability.

The premise of Daybreakers is refreshingly new and refreshingly free of sparkling, softball playing "vampires"!
In Daybreakers the majority of the worlds population are vampires, men and women who go about their lives just like you and I, working 9 to 5...9pm to 5am that is!
Death, disease and ageing are no longer to be feared by mankind thanks to this pandemic, but what happens when the last humans are hunted down for their blood?
Bromley Marks Blood Bank, where societies aristocrats store their blood supply has been working on a synthetic blood substitute for months, because the truth is humans are an endangered species and there isn't enough real blood for everyone. Having eternal life does come with a price though, without your recomended daily allowance of blood you begin to devolve into nasty bat like creatures called subsiders. So unless you're very well off there's a good chance you may find yourself becoming one of these nightmarish creatures when the government issues blood rationing procedures.

Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a hemotologist working along side Christopher Caruso at Bromley Marks to create the blood substitute that can save millions, regrettibly their lab tests have been unsucessful to say the least.

After a hard nights work Edward runs into a group of humans on his way home and offers to help them when the police show up at the accident scene. It's here he meets Audrey a human resistance fighter that helps other humans escape from human-hunting soldiers like Edward's brother Frankie.
Audrey sees Edward's reluctance to drinking human blood and his sympathetic ways and offers him a chance to meet Elvis (Willem Dafoe) a man who has been cured of vampirism. Skeptical but curious Edward meets with Audrey and Elvis, but the meeting is interupted by Edwards brother Frankie who try's to capture the humans. Edward escapes with Audrey and Elvis, later we see Charles Bromley (Sam Neil) befriend Frankie as the blood shortage begins to become a pandemic of itself as the average citizen can no longer afford blood and begin to devolve into subsiders.
I went into this movie really loving the premise, it had some great moments such as the failed lab test, the "home invasion" scene, and the Coffee Shop scene but there were also plenty of moments that made Daybreakers feel like a made for TV movie, the worst in my opinion had to be the weak-ass cure scene with Edward Audrey and Elvis.
This movie had three big names; Hawke, DaFoe and Neil yet none of the characters really stood out. Of the three Sam Neil's character was the most enjoyable for me, he did a very good job protraying a greedy corporate CEO. I found DaFoe's character irritating as hell..an ex blood sucker grease money that acts like some sort of prophet...and the kicker comes at the end when he reveals after all Edwards hardships to find a cure he knew a much simpler way all along!
Ethan Hawke did a fine job with his character, a self loathing vampire hemotologist....not an easy character to play IMO, not a very carismatic persona but you wouldn't expect that type of character to be, after being cured Edward almost grows a pair, I did enjoy the scene with Edward and Charles Bromley....the way Edward stood up to Charles is something many hard working people wish they could talk to their asshole boss's.
Some may think that the Spierig brothers may be jumping on the anti capitalism band wagon, I have to disagree. In this case I trully think it's art imitating life, the
Spierig brothers used what seems to be very prevalent in the news these days and built a unique vampire story around that, and it worked to a certain degree. Unfortunately as the humans began to devolve in the movie so did the interesting plot till we were left with army men vs rebels and crazy scenes of fully automatic guns blazing and soldiers tearing each other to shreads as the "anti venom spread from vamp to vamp.
Daybreakers is a refreshing look at the vampire mythos and is in theaters in time to save some of us from the crap that is New Moon! But it is no where near as good as movies like Blade 2. I'd say it's a rental.
C+