To say I’m tired of ‘abandoned planet’ sci-fi flicks would be an understatement. It’s hard to remember a time when Will Smith wasn’t wandering around an Earth that resembled a typical Sunday on Wolverhampton’s high street, so imagine my surprise when this film about a post-apocalyptic planet actually looked pretty good!
It’s a genuine danger that you could read the opening line of Snowpiercer‘s plot synopsis and fall into the giant void created by the intensity of your own disinterest; ‘In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet’ just screams barren wasteland snore-fest. But if you stick around long enough to actually watch the recently released trailer then you’ll see that this destroyed world stuff is just the backdrop to a film based around the idea of class war.
The story goes that the last remnants of society now live on this extremely long train that travels around what is left of Earth (yeah, erm…I’m not entirely sure why either). A class system develops over time, with the wealthy being situated in the front and the ‘huddled masses’ being cast to the back, this should sound familiar to anyone used to traveling on the East Coast train-line. As a film is nothing without a bit of conflict, the lower level passengers are led in a revolution by a non-blue Chris Evans in order to free themselves from the shackles of the class system in true Billy Bragg fashion.
Apparently the film is based on the concept of a French graphic novel called ’Le Transperceneige’ which Korean director Joon-ho Bong became fascinated with and the visuals have that graphic novel feel to them, being gritty but still very much using a heightened reality.
The trailer may only be a minute long but it’s enough to have me intrigued by a great visual style, full blooded action scenes and a domineering Thatcher-style performance from Tilda Swinton. I’m going to put my neck on the line and say this will become a cult hit, which may not pull the biggest crowds at the cinema but could fast become a hot DVD property.
There is currently no-set release date for Snowpiercer, but this trailer should keep you interested for now.
