With films like Daybreakers, I’ve noticed a trend that they tend to take themselves too seriously.  Luckily Daybreakers realizes that it is silly and over the top.  Vampires are creatures that are no longer strictly for horror.  Since Joss Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Mel Brooks’ Dracula: Dead and Loving It, and the Blade trilogy vampires have successfully crossed over into comedy and action films.  Daybreakers is a clever conglomeration of both.

From the onset of the film, I was not sure whether or not this would be pretentious and unaware of its own ridiculousness.  It opens with a vampire using the sun to commit suicide.  The quick cuts, used to splice footage of sentences from her suicide note and the actual act of suicide, are so fast that it becomes funny.  I’m certain that this is intended to be taken seriously, but ironically sets the proper tone for the film whose concept is over the top.  Part of the reason that vampires are frightening is that they were mysterious.  But in Daybreakers that trope is impossible considering that the world is primarily inhabited by vampires.

I was surprised by Ethan Hawke.  The last movie I saw of his, in which I liked his performance, was The Dead Poet’s Society.  Unfortunately this actor is not suited for action hero roles.  Strangely this doesn’t stop him from being cast as the action hero type.  He has softer features, and personality than the traditional action star.  Hawke is well suited to play Edward Dalton in Daybreakers.  Dalton is a scientist.  He’s not intended to be a tough guy.  The action scenes in which he is involved allow for him to build the courage, and strength that a person in his position could build should he rise to the occasion.  He’s not a seasoned fighter, and he’s not supposed to be one.  That’s why it works.

The successful comedy in the film is driven by the absurdities of vampire society.  I can sum this up with two words:  vampire animals, specifically, but not limited to, a chimpanzee.  The unsuccessful comedy is most of Willem Dafoe’s dialogue.

Since Daybreakers isn’t strictly comedic, I have to mention the action scenes.  The action was successfully exciting, but usually felt sudden and forced into the film.  As Captain Logan said after we saw Daybreakers, the reason that the action scenes worked for the film was that the rules of the universe were used.  The car chases could have been simple chases scenes, but they managed to include the vampire mythos in the scenes.  Personally I think they should have spent more time on the subplot, than the largely forced action scenes.  The subplot was not ignored, but it wasn’t explored to the detailed scope to which it could have been explored.

Willem Dafoe’s characterization was the most disappointing aspect of the film.  Dafoe plays a good ol’ boy, and uses a barely convincing accent to match the intention.  It makes sense that his character would be a little country, but it plays into the stereotype of the grease monkey.  Dafoe would have used his own voice, and his performance would have been stronger for it.  Dafoe’s performance as Lionel ‘Elvis’ Cormac was adequate.  Although the film is largely successful in its creative endeavor, the blame for Dafoe’s character falls on the writer and director.  Cormac’s lines were intentionally comedic and were forced into the film like the action.  I think that at some point someone thought that the clever comedy in the film was not enough, and decided that they needed more blatantly presented humor.  It flows against the established tone, and wasn’t needed.  But then again, maybe the lines wouldn’t have been so problematic if Dafoe was allowed to be himself.

The Verdict:  I’ll give Daybreakers a 3 out of 5.  It has everything it needs to be funny and exciting, but it fell into the pitfalls of ignoring the potential of the subplot, and underestimating the worth of its own comedy.

Ninja Assassin… here’s a film title I didn’t think could possibly make for good cinema. First of all, it’s redundant– all ninjas are assassins! It sounds like a really bad B-movie. But I saw the film anyway, and was very glad I did. Despite the silly title, Ninja Assassin is a surprisingly well-made, big-budget film that has deep affection for its genre and a good handle on character development.

It’s probably one of the bloodiest films I’ve ever seen, but that didn’t turn me off because the story is immediately engaging and each of the main characters is sypathetic, quick-witted, and given intelligent and interesting things to say. A lot of the credit for that should probably go to J. Michael Straczynski who co-wrote the film, and is best known for creating Babylon 5. This isn’t just a bunch of ninjas jumping around and fighting people– there’s a real story here, and Raizo is made a real person. He’s kidnapped as a child by a ninja gang and brought up to become a killer, and while he becomes one of the best there is, his relationship with one of the girls there helps him develop a conscience. When his training is finally over and he’s presented with the final test– kill a girl who, like his friend years earlier, tried to escape and therefore betrayed the “family”– he draws the line and fights his way into as free a life as he can get. I also like how, despite his hard life, he isn’t without a dry sense of humor.

This movie uses its flashbacks well. They aren’t just thrown in at random to give you glimpses of the past. They’re interwoven into the scenes of the present and shown in linier fashion, so it isn’t hard to remember the last part of that story. It’s like watching two subplots about the same character at the same time, and it does a lot to help the viewer appreciate the extremely harsh life Raizo has had and why he still kills, though not for the ninja gang. Even his mentor, who later becomes his enemy, is made sympathetic– he truly believes his group is a family and that there is honor in the bloody business they do.  I was reminded a lot of Batman Begins; this ninja gang is a little like the League of Shadows and Raizo is a little like Bruce Wayne. He’s trained and believes in his training, but his mentor goes too far and they become enemies. That isn’t a criticism though– they are too very different movies, and it’s a similar story point that works well for both of them.

Ninjas have become a little over-saturated lately, like zombies, and I like that this movie doesn’t over-glorify them. When Raizo is brutalized by his mentor for losing a match with one of his “brothers,” is on the verge of death, and told to survive the night, it sure doesn’t make me want to be a ninja. I mentioned the League of Shadows, but these guys make them look like the postal service. Most people don’t have what it takes to become a ninja in this movie, and a lot of them die. Those who don’t are able to transcend human abilities– they can even heal themselves and run in short bursts at super-human speeds– and that’s the best explanation for ninjas having “super powers” I’ve ever seen. A lot of movies will say characters are trained to do these things, like it’s a mind-over-matter thing (Elektra is one example) but this film shows it and makes it quite believable.

By the third act, the film becomes much more about the action than it is about character drama, and I became a little disengaged by that point. I found it interesting that when it started getting action-heavy, it actually felt like the pacing was slowed down. It picks up again toward the end, though, when Raizo faces his mentor for the last time, and all that character stuff comes back to the forefront.

Not the best movie this year, but certainly one of the most entertaining.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan