Daybreakers (film): Not the best vampire film, not the worst. Still skip-able

I will admit that when it comes to making films about vampires it can prove to be a very difficult genre to do anything original especially since so many of them have been made. Just think about how many times the original has been told or how Nosferatu was essetially the same film as Bram Stoker's Dracula but with different actors and less "I am an FBI Agent!" leads.

In Daybreakers we take on a topic that as far as I know has never really been approached in vampire films and after watching it, I think there is a very good reason WHY it was never attempted.

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I like all three of these guys so I expected to get solid performances out of all three of them and as far as that is concerned, the film delivers. I am one of those people that thinks DaFoe can really do no wrong in acting, Ethan Hawke is pretty damn solid as well and Sam Neill is normally pretty good but I have a chip on my shoulder towards him because I think he does too many films. Regardless though, they all play their roles in this film flawlessly.

That isn't the problem though. The problem for me and many others was that this entire film isn't about vampires trying to stay in the shadows in order to not upset the balance of the world as far as humans are concerned, we are thrust into a rather preposterous situation where humans have basically been near eradicated and now there is a shortage of blood or food for the vampires that now almost completely control the world.

This is preposterous for so many reasons, the main one being that we are dealing with a supernatural group of creatures who are incapable of doing anything for 16 hours of every day. Therefore, that would be a pretty limiting factor as far as domination of anything is concerned, especially complete global dominion.

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They attempt to explain this away at the start of the film by explaining that a plague of sorts took the world by storm that turned almost everyone into vampires even if they weren't bitten (I think, I wasn't paying 100% attention) but now the humans that remain exist as cattle of sorts and there are not enough of them to sustain the vampire population. Again, they attempt to explain this in a fast-forward sort of sense but the entire setup just seems preposterous to me.

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There does seem to be some sort of evil corporation that is intentionally making the situation like this but again, this is not enough of an explanation for the absence of humans. They touch base on this very briefly towards the end of the film and I wont spoil it for you, but the explanation is so brief that it almost felt as though the people who wrote the screenplay also thought it was kind of stupid.

Without spoiling too much - which ultimately I am not all that concerned about because I don't think you should watch this - they spend a lot of time talking about how there are so few humans remaining in the world but just 10 minutes later we are introduced to a rather large settlement of humans, with more on the way. If humans are so vital, then why is it that instead of trying to work something out with said humans, that they instead come along and slaughter all of them?

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The scenery is good, the acting is solid across the board (even for minor actors in the cast) and the vehicles and what not are plausible for vampires to be capable of operating during the day. But there are some glaring inconsistencies that exist in the story simply for the advancement of the rather weak plot.

For one thing, there is a convoy of humans that decides to make this journey from one place to another at night. Are you friggin kidding me? I would have been happier with it if there was just some sort of magical vampire bullshit vehicles and suits (and they have these too) that allow vampires to operate during the day but humans intentionally travelling during what they are extremely aware if the most vulnerable time possible for them? Sorry, that's just too far-fetched.

Also, a great many of the important moments of this film depend entirely on insane coincidental interactions that happen at the last moment. I mean, it's ok if this happens a couple of times but it is just one after the other in this thing to the point where the character development and where we are going and why don't even matter anymore. Once anyone is trapped, if they are a "good guy" and part of the main cast someone is going to rescue them at the last second. There is no reason for any sort of tension at all. This is something I cannot tolerate in any film.

Should I watch it?

I hate to say this about a film that has 3 great actors in it but no, I don't think you should. The reason why I am having difficulty remembering all the details of this film is because it just becomes so convoluted and stupid so quickly. The story is so disjointed and filled with plotholes that there is no cohesion here and in the end there really isn't any way to wrap it up. Combine this with the fact that every little thing that happens is remarkably predictable, and we have a film that can easily be skipped and just move on to the next thing.

_{this movie can be legally streamed as part of a subscription to ParamountPlus, Starz, AppleTV+, Amazon, and Roku}