Daybreakers

Zombie films and infection films that count as zombie films are filled with such a void. They all end in the same way that they began, except that when they end everyone is worse off, but newly educated on some silly parable-like lesson. This is how it is with DAYBREAKERS, a vampire-zombie hybrid movie. Vampires have taken over the world after being infected by bats. Everyone is power is a vampire, and everyone goes about their nightly lives in a similar fashion as to before, except that now, everyone is a vampire. However, the vampires get their power from human blood, and humans are a dying race, existing only in scientific farms or on the run. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a scientist for one of these farms. He is a reluctant vampire, drinking only animal blood (also on the decline). Because of this open reluctance, Dalton is approached by a few human refugees. Working with the refugees, Dalton seeks a cure, and finds one with a hunter named Elvis (Willem Dafoe). DAYBREAKERS, in between its bloody, murky violence, finds some interesting things to say about corporations, and the evil Charles Bromley (the head of Dalton's human farm and played by Sam Neill) conveys how the vampiric world does not desire a cure, because that would be bad for business. The miscalculation in DAYBREAKERS comes from its desire to juggle gross violence and political half-notions. These half-notions are half-understood, and that makes for a pretty timid movie, filled with characters who just serve as obligatory fillers for a statement or action movie.
Daybreakers: ★1/2