Thursday 7 August 2014

Snowpiercer

I liked The Host, so was definitely interested in seeing Snowpiercer. And many people had also said it was good. And now we have this cautionary tale of what happens if you take Global Warming seriously...

After the earth is frozen because scientists tried to fix the heating earth (stupid scientists), all that is left is a train. And as everyone on a train knows, you got the people in the front and the plebs in the back, and so it always is. Until the plebs decide they've had enough, and we follow the tale of Curtis as he leads his band of riff raff through the long train and takes over this unbalanced society. Although with everyone in their place, what can he really achieve?

Oh, I liked this movie. While we are talking obvious class division here, we aren't bombarded with huge action set pieces, but more thoughtful character drama. What is for the good? Can you see the big picture? What does it really mean to be human? We get the characters answer, what would yours be?

Chris Evans is fine as Curtis (although I did keep thinking this would be an alternative universe Steve Rogers story). Kang-ho Song comes back from The Host, and is playing rough and ready in this. Tilda Swinton gets to show off her range, and I’m sure John Hurt loved getting into his prosthetics every day.

The production with the full train is lavish, from the downtrodden areas through to the full on decadence that the upper class can achieve. There is some unnecessary slow mo action sequences but everything is shot well.

Ultimately, this felt like Bioshock on a Train... as led by Captain America! I can easily see this hitting mainstream cinemas.

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