Director: Bong Joon-ho
Cast: Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Go Ah-sung, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris
Plot: After the human race got over ambitious with fixing global warming and froze the planet the scraps of the human race survive on board a non-stop train that circles the globe. When the population of the tail carriage tire of the terrible conditions they begin a revolution against the First Class passengers living in luxury at the front of the train.
Review: We’ve already seen a positive review from Slam Adams, who noted how much this movie divided the audience, so we tried to go into Snowpiercer with an open mind with as little knowledge as possible. We’d seen the movie described as being a small movie that ‘shows Hollywood how it’s done’. We were sceptical about this statement when we saw Captain Fucking America on the poster. It may not have the CGI budget to make the scenery look perfect but it does have a solid cast who make the premise seem more believable.
On the whole the movie is…inconsistent. There’s some really solid material here, and some great direction, but you have to look past a lot of annoyances and plot holes to enjoy it. The first two acts of the film are the most interesting, although it feels as though the information about the train gets doled out late in the piece. We get something of a tour of the train as the rebels make their way closer to the front of the train and we see some of the inner workings of the contained environment amid some action sequences. We don’t get much information about the characters but Chris Evan’s puts in a performance that carries the film admirably, backed up by a talented supporting cast. Most interesting is the drug addled father/daughter team of security experts who become the wild cards and may have their own agenda.
Occasionally the movie throughs in some downright odd moments that threaten to derail (sorry) otherwise powerful moments. Characters start and stop fighting for little reason, including counting down New Years Eve. When an Oldboy style beatdown in a crowded carriage features the main character slipping on a fish it feels downright silly. Then there’s Tilda Swinton. Normally a reliable performer her every scene is impossible to take seriously. She feels as though she’s channelling a Wallace and Gromit character.
What really lets the film down, however, in the final act. When the man behind the curtain is finally revealed the film shifts down a couple of gears and the last half hour becomes a ponderous and heavy handled discussion about social mechanics with Ed Harris. The hero shifts allegiances at the drop of a hat while previously dead characters get up and carry on without much fuss. By the time the story have dragged it’s feet towards the finale the final message of hope is negated by the five minutes that precede it.
There’s some good here, but the ambition outreaches the concept. Performances are mostly good and the imaginative set design is consistently interesting. Ultimately it toes the line of silliness a few times to often, and the final act outstays it’s welcome longer than a bad smell. With These Final Hours having wowed us the previous week this is the lesser apocalypse film.
Score: FIVE out of TEN