Movie Review: Daybreakers

I hope you'll forgive me if I start out this post being slightly racist. See, I just got back from seeing a movie in which there were lots of talking black people. I hate saying that. I really do. But, dammit, it's the truth. Were there white people holding conversations during a movie? Asians, mexicans, Danes? No. I already had to stop seeing movies at Union Station because it became a "black" theater. Conversations everywhere, people running in the aisles, it was disgusting. So I stopped. More and more it's looking like I may have to do the same with the Verizon Center theater in Chinatown. At least at Union Station I could make myself say that it was teenagers who just happened to all be black. Not so in Chinatown. These were adults. Rude, loud, black, adults. Not all the blacks in the theater were talking. I'm not gonna hold this against all black people. Most watched the movie quietly. But... well, it's a lot easier not being racist when you're not constantly subjected to the worst elements of the lot. And I'll be the first to admit the same is true when dealing with white people. They won't talk during the movies but they will put their trans-am on blocks outside their mobile homes.

The movie I saw was "Daybreakers". It's the story of a world where most of the population has become vampires and a handful of humans are either being used in blood farms or running about and hiding. I saw no trailers for this, but from the description it seemed like it wasn't Yummy's sort of movie. And, really, it wasn't that scary. I wish it was. Then I could excuse the talking.

So most of the population has become vampires. It seems that a plague turned most. Many others were turned willingly or because of concerned family. They try to go about their normal lives. They wear suits and hold jobs and just go about life.

Humans are hooked up to machines Matrix-like to keep them alive and harvest their blood. But there's more vampires than can be fed on those humans. More keep getting hunted down and hooked up. But there's no breeding program. As the numbers drop and vampires go hungry they start to become deformed and batlike and their minds breakdown. Then they're hunted down by healthy vampires and put down.

Ethan Hawke is a vampire blood scientist. He's working on a blood substitute. He sticks to pig blood as he holds on to his remaining humanity. Then he meets people who have found a cure and has to go on the run to help them figure out how it works.

It's a good movie. They send a bat across the screen from time to time to make you jump. There's plenty of splatter effects. But not terribly suspenseful or scary. It may warrant a place in my collection. It'd fit well. I'm just not sure right now if I actually want it.