Daybreakers 2010

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Daybreakers reminds us that from Twilight to Underworld, True Blood to The Vampire Diaries, this is one genre where supply has utterly overwhelmed demand. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Peter and Michael Spierig's earlier, campier horror outing, the zombie picture known as Undead, was even bloodier than this one. The movie-makers are after bigger game here, and a subtler mixture of speculative nightmare and action film. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: The narrative may flag, but the doomsday atmosphere and George Liddlea(TM)s production design remain vivid until the final, blood-splattered reel. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Daybreakers finally comes up with some comments on the predatory practices of Big Pharma, but that's an awful comedown from the blood-rushing brilliance of the early scenes. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: The Spierigs get a lot of points for inventiveness, but their cleverly constructed, uncomfortably familiar world makes a deeper impression than much of what happens within it. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Daybreakers isn't a great film, but it's a good one, and in a market oddly lousy with vampire tales, it's an original. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Just when you think popular culture has exhausted all the metaphorical and allegorical possibilities, the film unifies all the usual tropes (bloodlust, heliophobia, fangs) into a complete science fiction whole. Read more

Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader: Writer-directors Michael and Peter Spierig equip this unpretentious, low-budget, high-functioning shocker with some sharp satirical teeth, and Dafoe has a ball behind his Manson goatee. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's like Children of Men with exploding-plasma shock effects. The best thing you can say about the movie is that it pours some very old blood into a new plastic bottle. Read more

C. Robert Cargill, Film.com: Daybreakers is the pinnacle of fun, modern sci-fi horror actioners. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: There are more revisionist bloodsucker stories out there than you can shake a stake at nowadays, and they're getting tiresome. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Interested in societal collapse - that is, when it's not more interested in the super cool way these vampires explode when stabbed Read more

Michael Ordona, Los Angeles Times: It can't be a good sign for a vampire movie when its most memorable trait is how desperate Chrysler's product placement appears. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Despite the Spierig brothers' punchy visual style and satiric tone, Daybreakers eventually devolves, though Dafoe and his Southern drawl goose things up and Hawke has a greasy romanticism. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: For the lowbrow, the thrill is a level of fleshy explosiveness reminiscent of David Cronenberg's Scanners. No one dies quietly; he must either detonate like Hiroshima or burst into juicy red chunks of viscera. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's undeniable fun to behold the likes of serious thespians Hawke and Dafoe slumming around in this cheeseball stuff. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Even though I'm pretty much vampired out these days, I appreciated the grossout thrills and the B-movie dialogue. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This intriguing premise, alas, ends as so many movies do these days, with fierce fights and bloodshed. Inevitably, the future of the planet will be settled among the handful of characters we've met, and a lot of extras with machineguns. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Highbrows will condescend to this movie like nobody's business. But there are a few of us left out there -- junkies for smart exploitation -- who will relish this stuff. You know who you are. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Hawke gives his all here -- or maybe just half his all -- and it isn't quite enough: He's trying to be soulful, but he really just looks a little tired. The real delight is Willem Dafoe. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: The average human body holds approximately 1.5 gallons of blood. Unless you're someone in the film Daybreakers. Then you're carrying closer to 47 gallons, 46 of which will end up splattered on a wall. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Daybreakers is more fun than foreboding; it's fright-lite, yet that's par for the bloody course in these busy apocalyptic days. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Daybreakers has substance and smarts, plus lots of visual treats for the fanboys -- a mix to keep everybody happy. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: An ambitious premise about a future world ruled by corporate vampires is explored with some intelligence, sly humour and blood-splattering brio by the Spierig brothers. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It is a happy alternative to the tepid appeal of pre-teen vamps and werewolves. But why make a vampire movie lacking the allure of the enticing fiends? Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: The script doesn't wring many surprises or much character involvement from the premise, and the brothers' helming, while slick, is short on scares, action setpieces and humor. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: Wearisome "Ain't it cool?" video-game splatter-violence is all that's memorable of the action, while a (mixed) metaphorical subtext of conservationism can't save a text that squanders its actors. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: In the end, Daybreakers doesn't really want to make anyone think too hard. If that were to happen, they might stop to wonder why all the human survivors out there hiding in fear of their lives don't just become garlic farmers and call it a day. Read more