Snowpiercer (2014)

[JohnnyGossamer]

Elysium is terrible for a lot more reasons than that. World building is so scattershot, it is a wonder that D9 fella did this.

 

 

Really liked Edge of Tomorrow. I'm hoping that repeat viewings will make it a favourite because I really enjoyed it.

 

I'm kind of scared to see Under the Skin. Should I watch it? The premise and what I've read about it just creeps me out.

Watch it. It's slow. Let it wash over you.

[DAR]

Liked it didn't quite love it. The classroom scene was one of the best in recent memory. But Evans didn't quite work for me and his baby speech came across as silly. Still it's worth seeing at least once. B

[Romet Loodus]

Quite messed up movie ...I haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing : )

 

It's not a really good movie, but it's not bad either.

[Killimano3]

I'd give it like a B+ maybe. The first half of the movie is brilliantly done. They characters are well created the world is nicely established and you can really feel for the people of the tail of the train. Then as it goes on there are some nice plot twists that at the same time kind of make you go "oh of course how didn't I see that" and the action is really good. It starts to get really good when you start to see other parts of the train.

 

Then everything starts to kind of go to hell for everyone and it starts becoming way less about an actual story and way more symbolic in what happens. Once all the characters start dropping like flies I started to get a little annoyed. Then of course there was that one guy who was relentlessly pursuing the main character that I really hated because he seemed to just kill anyone based off nothing and of course would coincidentally survive being stabbed.

 

Then the whole end sequence I got bombarded with like 10 different plot twists that while were all pretty surprising and interesting on their own really just started to get exhausting made it feel like they were trying to hard to turn it all into an elaborate conspiracy. Then of course they blow up the train and everyone dies save for two characters who are now stranded on top of a mountain as the last survivors of humanity in an empty world. Why they thought it was a good idea to make their point of exit from the train on top of a mountain is beyond me.

 

Overall it was a pretty good movie but started to slip as it went to the end. Honestly, i think it was just because it shifted to much from one thing to another over the course of the movie. It should've either been what it was at the start, a post-apocalyptic movie about the under-privileged rising up to take what they believe everyone should have, or the super symbolic conspiracy plot it ended with. 

[Jessie]

Watched this last night, pretty good movie but extremely overrated on here. Its like people claim the films fewer people will get around to watching are the best of its year, basically they are all hipster, hate universally loved films whilst claiming ok-good films like this are up there with the years best simply because not many people have seen it.

 

That ending pissed me off because it seemed like a complete cop out. We'd already established that the outside world was cold enough to turn a guys arm into rock solid ice yet 12 hours or so later in film time they end up outside, oh and everything is conveniently fine, their faces are being frozen or anything.

 

B, it is a good film, but massively overrated. Also Jamie Bell needs to be in more films.

[Ezen Baklattan]

Its like people claim the films fewer people will get around to watching are the best of its year, basically they are all hipster, hate universally loved films whilst claiming ok-good films like this are up there with the years best simply because not many people have seen it.

 

Because the people who love this hate Edge of Tomorrow, Guardians of the Galaxy, 22 Jump Street, How To Yrain Your Dragon 2, and so on.

 

[Jessie]

Because the people who love this hate Edge of Tomorrow, Guardians of the Galaxy, 22 Jump Street, How To Yrain Your Dragon 2, and so on.

 

 

Ive seen this at the top of the list many times

[GeneralKong]

This really caught me by surprise. Highly entertaining and brainy at the same time, with great performances and some nice bits of dark satire incorporated throughout. There are a couple moments that ring somewhat false as the film attempts to build on its class warfare theme, with the 'baby' speech being the worst example, but that's the only gripe I had with it. Even with those rare moments, it is still far more cohesive than big budget, highly allegorical world-building films like Elysium, and Chris Evans is a very convincing action hero here, so I can't mark it down too much for a couple missteps. 

 

8.5/10

[JohnnyGossamer]

Ive seen this at the top of the list many times

Whatever. My favorites this year, in no particular order, include LEGO, Under The Skin, Snowpiercer, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Locke. Honorable mention for The Winter Soldier and Lucy.

[TalismanRing]

Watched this last night, pretty good movie but extremely overrated on here. Its like people claim the films fewer people will get around to watching are the best of its year, basically they are all hipster, hate universally loved films whilst claiming ok-good films like this are up there with the years best simply because not many people have seen it.

 

In other words, you personally think it's overrated so anyone that loved it is a hipster who only loves the movie because it's not mainstream popular and thinks they're too good to like popular movies.  What a load of shit in order to prop yourself up as the arbiter of what is or isn't a great movie.

[Breakspear]

Really liked the film. Wasn't a fan of the ending though.

 

A

[BoxOfficeZ]

Really fascinating. I was never impressed with Chris Evans to be honest, but in this film he was fantastic. Everyone was great. Plot was a bit iffy. 

 

Random observation, if they've been on the track for 17 years, who repairs the tracks? Earthquakes and weather would knock and destroy tracks around for sure. Where's the damn maintenance crew? FLAW!

 

B+

Edited August 24, 2014 by BoxOfficeZ

[bartonfink]

Bong Joon-Ho's another great film. He's truly one of the most visionary filmmakers alive.

[Fancyarcher]

Joon-ho Bong’s Snowpiercer is an interesting gem. A very bleak, dark dystopian styled future film. The film runs over 2 hours long, but goes at a nice pace. As bleak as Snowpiercer was, it was amazingly done. The direction was fantastic. I loved just about every minute of it and the acting was great.

 

Snowpiercer is set in 2031, where a failed climate-change experiment kills just about everybody on the planet, save for those who have been fortunate enough to board The Snowpiercer a huge train that travels around the globe with a class system. Eventually the lower literally dirty class led by Curtis (Chris Evans) tries to revolt in an attempt to get the conductors room and find out what’s going really on.

 

Snowpiercer is a very dark looking movie. The lead characters look incredibly dirty. This is no doubt from the fact that they’ve been living in a very muddy part of the train and haven’t had any water in years. The tone is consistent throughout the film as the story progresses, characters are brutally killed and bodies pile up. This type of tone may be not pleasing for the general audience, but as a longtime movie buff, I loved how they approached it, and appreciated it as well.

 

The acting is Snowpiercer is fantastic. The film features a fantastic cast, and none of them feel wasted. You have Chris Evans as the protagonist who is somewhat strikingly unrecognizable with his dirty face. Although Evans does seem to mumble at the beginning of the film, his performance does gradually get better and by the end when his character has a breakdown, his emotions and acting are terrifically done.  Among the rest of the cast includes John Hurt nicely playing his usual elderly nice guy character (only this time with a secret), Kang-ho Song as Namgoong Minsoo a higher-up who can open and close doors on the train who joins Curtis and his rebellion, Octavia Spencer as a grieving mother whose son is kidnapped, Jamie Bell as Edgar a sorta wannabe tough guy who ultimately Curtis ends up having to sacrifice, Tilda Swinton as Mason one of the films main antagonist a superior officer type, Ed Harris as the train conductor etc… The performances are all well-acted in the film, and each character serves the story well.

 

One of the things I especially liked about Snowpiercer was how the characters weren’t just evil or good. In many ways the majority of the characters Snowpiercer are quite unlikeable. It’s not just brown and grey like it is in so many films. The so-called villains of the story led by Mason (Tilda Swinton) are portrayed as being higher-ups who don’t seem to have any bit of redeeming qualities about them, and are just heartless, but seem to have good points and intentions. On the other side we have our heroes led by Curtis, who aren’t real heroes when you think about, they attack, they kill, they’re treated more like noble savages than anything. This goes along with the films excellent message about the human condition. How a society can go from being considered an elite to completely destroying themselves.

 

The direction by South Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong (doing his first English language film) is excellent. The film definitely fits his trademark style of multiple events occurring in long takes. Scenes, such as the members of the train revolting, or the scene where the train goes over the bridge, and everything is in green dark, show a lot of things going on at once being captured simultaneously. Snowpiercer does however suffer from some of its action scenes, which while exhilarating to watch, do suffer from shaky cam overload.

 

Snowpiercer is a film with a real message. It doesn’t feel like your usual average blockbuster despite the fact that it could easily have fallen into that very category. This film was clearly made with an intent. Sure there are some plotholes in the film, especially regarding the use of the train, but thanks to great direction, great directing and a great “muddy, dark” look that makes Snowpiercer a fantastic film to watch.

 

9 / 10

Edited September 4, 2014 by Pokearcher

[Jessie]

In other words, you personally think it's overrated so anyone that loved it is a hipster who only loves the movie because it's not mainstream popular and thinks they're too good to like popular movies.  What a load of shit in order to prop yourself up as the arbiter of what is or isn't a great movie.

 

Pretty much yeah, fact.

 

This and Boyhood, always at the top of everyone's list, I watch them expecting great movies then realise its just another example of internet movies geeks over praising the indie films to be 'different' lol. Not saying this was bad, but its no fucking masterpiece and no way near the best of the year.

 

"I know that babies taste the best" lmao, WHAT THE FUCK.

 

If this was a high grossing film, people would pick it apart, let alone call it 'one of the best sci fi's of the last 10 years' LOOOOL no.

Edited September 4, 2014 by jessie

[Jessie]

No, here is the explanation in short.

The idea is the train represents the world, people humanity (Wilfrod even says it), you have a constant struggle between two sides, back and front (could be symbolic for left v right, commie v capitalist, democracy v fascism) one side gets angry and feels abused so they rise up and take control only to find once they are in control they have to run the world the exact same way.No matter if the head in control is communist or capitalist, the poor suffer, and a rich minority who often don't deserve it thrive and abuse the poor. The classes exist because that's how the system works and there is no way to change it without everything crashing. (The train crashing)It appears to our eyes that any other way is impossible (the outside deadly winter, perceived lot unsurvivable) however the only way to truly change the system is to leave the train and start newly. (Hence everyone dying except the two children, a symbol for a new Adam and new Eve with the

polar bear being a symbol of hope for survival without the old systems, entering a new Eden).That's at least what I got out of it in a nutshell there's a lot more in there.

 

See I looked at this a little more realistically. You have the last 2 survivors, they've just survived a brutal train crash, they go out into the snow (baring in mind the whole 17 years there's been no mention of any animal that has survived this) yet this Polar Bear is right there, convenient. People can look at this as a sign of hope all they want but I just felt sorry for the survivors who were realistically just about to become that Polar Bears breakfast.

[bartonfink]

Pretty much yeah, fact.

 

This and Boyhood, always at the top of everyone's list, I watch them expecting great movies then realise its just another example of internet movies geeks over praising the indie films to be 'different' lol. Not saying this was bad, but its no fucking masterpiece and no way near the best of the year.

 

"I know that babies taste the best" lmao, WHAT THE FUCK.

 

If this was a high grossing film, people would pick it apart, let alone call it 'one of the best sci fi's of the last 10 years' LOOOOL no.

 

I don't understand some people mock the "babies taste" line. Why is that so funny? It evoked creepy and sad emotions and I can vividly see guilty conscience of Curtis because of that line. And no, whether it's high grossing film or not, I think it's great film and believe it will be one of sci-fi classics. You don't agree with that? Fine. But do not insult fans of the movie. 

[Jessie]

I don't understand some people mock the "babies taste" line. Why is that so funny? It evoked creepy and sad emotions and I can vividly see guilty conscience of Curtis because of that line. And no, whether it's high grossing film or not, I think it's great film and believe it will be one of sci-fi classics. You don't agree with that? Fine. But do not insult fans of the movie. 

2 years from now, no-one will remember this.

[JohnnyGossamer]

2 years from now, no-one will remember this.

Asinine comment usually reserved for forgettable films that breakout and then fade from memory not niche sci-fi genre benders that reach a select audience. People pick every movie apart. And, though I like it quite a bit, Snowpiercer certainly has warts. But, it's odd to me that you chose to view a surrealist ode to filmmakers like Terry Gilliam and his ilk so literally. You essentially miss the entire point of the film.

 

But, I want to make this clear, you're well in your right to dislike it. Though, continually coming here to piss on a film many enjoyed is a bit childish, petty. When I don't like a film most people like, I post my rant/blurb in the review thread, move on and allow others that did enjoy it plenty to discuss it. Or, I discuss it with them. Break down why aspects didn't appeal to me, etc. in a civil way. Not just some... "It's at the top of people's lists. It sucks. Only internet geeks get off to it." You bring nothing approaching intelligent debate to the table here. You're trolling, man. Cool it.

 

I like some of your posts and wholeheartedly agree with your opinion on quite a few movies. But, I'd rather discuss a movie in the review thread rather read sporadic snipes.

Edited September 4, 2014 by JohnnyGossamer

[Jessie]

I did bring stuff to the table in which people ignored.how is the polar bear alive?Why did the man's arm freeze yet the whether is survivable at the end?How did no - one at any point of the 17 year trip see any form of live, until the very end?where are they getting these bugs from? They have an infinite amount just stored on the train? And even if they can technically survive the cold, how did they get them on the train lol. Why have a shoot out from one carriage window to the next and waste the little bit of ammo Evans has? I guess because it looked cool.Why was the fat gay guy he fought pratically invincible? He was basically the fucking Terminator.Why do gun shot wounds not seem to effect the Chinese hacker? One minute he's in pain, the next he's fighting off a crowd of people lolWhy did that girl have supernatural powers? Where the fuck did that even come from? And there was no explanation as to why. (Unless I missed something) I never said this was a bad film, I gave it a B but to say people have slightly overestimated this film due to its small budget and 'artistic' filmmaker is an understatement. These things wouldn't have bothered me so much buy considering it started off like a realistic post apocalyptic flick, I was just baffled at the need of adding all this Superhuman bullocks without an explanation as to why.