“Post apocalypic dystopian future. Attempts to cool global warming have frozen the earth. The last survivors are all on a train traveling the global tundra. Class warfare has boiled up to it’s limit. Things get real. I’m there!
Yeah, not too hard to figure out why I’d go see this. Luckily, I also had an expiring Kickstarter reward to get me into the Brattle Theater which had the area premier. Buzz had been building so I was excited to watch. Comparisons to The Matrix were being made.
I think it suffered a bit from overhype. I was expecting so much, that when I did see this, nothing could have been enough. I was excited and into it at first. Chris Evans planning a revolt. Octavia Spencer galvanizing the crowd. Tilda Swinton terrorizing like an evil Harry Potter villain. Then something just broke. Maybe the plot wasn’t being advanced fast enough. Maybe the darkened screen for the low class cars put me to sleep. Maybe my overanalytical brain caught up to me in overanalyzing the premise. I don’t know. But it lost me for a bit.
I got back in though! Once we moved past the lower class cars and started exploring the more vivid and lively world of the upper class. Specifically once we hit the school, I was in. It started to get exciting and I was curious to see whta the next and the next cars would hold. Eventually we hit a point where things reached a confusing conclusion and my brain went into overtime trying to understand a logic that may not have been there. Perhaps it all made more sense in the graphic novel.
It was still enjoyable, and visually entertaining. The concept of filming in such a fixed width setting was kinda cool and unique. The cast was solid. Swinton was clearly chewing scenery and enjoying every minute. I would have watched a whole movie about her as that character. Evans has a lot of untapped depth (which was recognized in Puncture, helping him land this role) and is very capable of carrying a film. Oh and random trivia, in the Avengers bonus post credits shawarma scene the reason Chris Evans is holding his face with his fist is to hide the prosthetics covering his beard from having started to film Snowpiercer when the Avengers reassembled for this quick shoot. The more you know!
Snowpiercer – \m/ \m/ \m/