So much of the entertainment culture is based on the illusion of freedom. Cinema is a good example of this *. It's such an expensive medium that the choice of what you can see is limited to what has been greenlit and financed by movie studios and often to what has been promoted enough to make its way to you. You're probably watching what a fat executive and a marketing major want you to see. I'm pretty sure that SNOWPIERCER has been financed in the post-HUNGER GAMES movie studio frenzy. It's a movie that has enough similarities to interest the fans of Katniss Everdeen, that presents itself in a more mature and intellectual way, and that is original enough to stand out in a galaxy of movies with no soul. SNOWPIERCER is, both in its qualities and its flaws, one of the most interesting and unique movies I've seen this year.
In a distant future, where a failed climate change experiment killed all life on the planet, a couple of survivors are holding on inside the Snowpiercer, a train that's been traveling around the globe without stopping for the last 17 years. Curtis (Chris Evans) has been living at the back of the train with the poor and the downtrodden for all that time. He's grown into a strong and smart worker, who's been fighting the oppression of the ruling class that lives near the engine. A few revolutions have been attempted in the Snowpiercer, but they all failed. Curtis and his men don't intend to repeat the errors of their predecessors. They aim to take the engine by any means necessary. But it's a long way to the top of the Snowpiercer and things can change while you get there.
SNOWPIERCER is not the most sublte movie. It's a rather blunt allegory about the silliness of political and religious beliefs. It's two hours of a class struggle put in perspective through an apocalyptic future and a train. It's actually based on a graphic novel by French artist Jean-Marc Rochette. Despite its stellar cast, SNOWPIERCER is a visibly low-budget movie (estimated at 39 millions), and it finds awesome ways to deal with its own financial limitations. The violent scenes are almost always downplayed and rely on choreography, the actors' game and Korean director Joon-ho Bong's creativity to make a unique visual impact. The use of lighting in the sauna scene in particular, I thought was a clever throwback to 1990s action/science-fiction movies like FORTRESS and JOHNNY MNEMONIC. Why not, after all? This time of movie was very enjoyable, I'm all for a revival of the style.
That scene.
I think I liked the idea of SNOWPIERCER more than I liked the movie itself. It's a smart and uncompromising action movie with a high visual appeal despite its apparent lack of budget. It's plot-driven, yet the characters are archetypal but dynamically flesh themelves out along the way. SNOWPIERCER competently crams a LOT of information within a mere two hours. It doesn't pack surprises for veteran viewers, though. It's a pretty straightforward tale of underdogs risking everything. I'm sure you've seen that story before. There were no plot twists that blew me out of the water and Josie and I pretty much figured everything out a half hour before the end. Oddly enough, it's a movie that banks on its visual style and its mastery of successful movie narratives to win its audience and you know what? It works. I don't think SNOWPIERCER ever intended to be an intellectual odyssey.
I kept having nostalgic flashbacks of 1990s filmmaking while watching SNOWPIERCER. It's an era where movies just delivered without second guessing their box office results. It showed on the SNOWPIERCER financial numbers. It didn't even come close to make its money back and it's a movie bound to become a cult hit through Netflix, iTunes and illegal movie download. It's a rather dark fate for such an original and dauntless movie, but I don't see how it could've competed in theaters with your latest superhero movie hogging all the screens. In the end, you're going to see what the fat executive and the marketing major want you to see, but it doesn't mean you cannot do the extra work on your own and find the diamonds in the coal. Watch SNOWPIERCER, it might not be perfect, but it's good for the soul.
I kept having nostalgic flashbacks of 1990s filmmaking while watching SNOWPIERCER. It's an era where movies just delivered without second guessing their box office results. It showed on the SNOWPIERCER financial numbers. It didn't even come close to make its money back and it's a movie bound to become a cult hit through Netflix, iTunes and illegal movie download. It's a rather dark fate for such an original and dauntless movie, but I don't see how it could've competed in theaters with your latest superhero movie hogging all the screens. In the end, you're going to see what the fat executive and the marketing major want you to see, but it doesn't mean you cannot do the extra work on your own and find the diamonds in the coal. Watch SNOWPIERCER, it might not be perfect, but it's good for the soul.
* ...and literature in the age of the eBook would be the counter example.