Movie Review

Snowpiercer is yet another apocalyptic movie that reveals humanity at its worse. One difference?  It has a very unique version of Noah’s Ark.

You know, it’s very difficult to have much faith in humanity these days.  We’re on the cusp of catastrophic climate change, our world’s population is unsustainable, and our neighbours to the south are about to hand over the keys to a racist misogynist.

Like a lot of people, I too enjoy “end of the world” entertainment, but the more I read and watch, the more I come to believe, that human beings suck!  Snowpiercer, though entertaining, reinforces that belief tenfold.  Bleak right?  Don’t worry, it’s just a movie hangover.

Plot

When an experiment to counteract global warming causes an ice age that kills nearly all life on Earth, the only survivors are people travelling on a massive train called Snowpiercer.  Powered by a perpetual-motion engine, it travels on a track that spans the globe.

The inhabitants of the train soon find a class system installed, with the wealthy taking over the front of the train and the starving poor forced to live behind locked doors at the tail, where food is sometimes delivered to them in protein blocks by armed guards.

One of the leaders of the tail inhabitants, Curtis (Chris Evans), stages a revolt to unlock the doors dividing each car so they can get to where the elite live in luxury and take over.

Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette.

How was it?

We seem to be obsessed with the apocalypse these days, myself included.  There are movies being released regularly that play on our fears regarding our species’ future.  Snowpiercer is no exception but it does include a few unique elements.  The train?  This is the first time I’ve seen one used as an ark for the last of humanity.  It makes sense though. A train is already divided… economy, business and first class.  Snowpiercer takes that idea and multiplies it by 100.  It’s the Titanic on tracks.

The movie is good.  Stark imagery, lots of action and great acting.  A very different role for Chris Evans but he plays a good martyr…er hero.  I would say that Snowpiercer would be the result of an angry one-night-stand between The Hunger Games and Titanic.  And it works.  There is a lot of CGI and unfortunately it is more obvious in some scenes than others but the set design is pretty amazing.

Snowpiercer may have a lot of action but in my opinion it is more of a think piece.  If you like gritty, dystopic thrillers that will make you think when it ends, then give it a try.  It was released in 2013 and I found it on Netflix.

Rating… B-

Image(1)Giphy