Snowpiercer

I think a person's appreciation of this movie is going to come down to their approach to it. And that's weird for a movie where the basic premise is "Earth's last survivors are on a train after a winter apocalypse". That should not be a deep pitch, but Snowpiercer isn't as straight forward as it seems. Unfortunately, each of those approaches also drags behind it an anchor that keeps the movie from reaching its full potential. Before I get to the different ways this movie can be judged, I want to compliment the cast and acting here. Chris Evans does a great job as the physical leader of the group, bringing with him a raw desperation and anger; this isn't just Cap on a train in a snowstorm, this is different, and it's good. Sir John Hurt is always excellent, and here, as the spiritual leader of the lower-class, he brings a wise but sad weariness to the role. Tilda Swinton is alarming and unnerving as the weird minister of the train, and Ed Harris (who is always criminally underrated) is excellent as the inventor of the train. Somehow, he manages to make you see his side, even as you know he's a scumbag. Now then, the approaches to this movie. There are three ways to view it, and each one, as I said, isn't wrong, but each one has problems, because they're all pieces of puzzles that don't fit together. If you come for a straight action movie, you'll get it. The action is shot well and has a visceral, desperate feel, as almost all of it is hand-to-hand combat. But it isn't flashy and amazing like an MCU movie, or smooth and ballet-like as in a John Wick movie; this is gritty, ugly, people with nothing to lose fighting for a spark of hope. Nobody here absorbs 11 punches, 9 kicks, 3 bullet wounds, and an impaling on the way to being merely knocked out. That feels refreshing when so many other action movies feel so clean, they're almost antiseptic. The problem is, the action is a very heavy coat on a very flimsy wire hanger; it doesn't occur often enough to be a full-on action movie, because Snowpiercer is busy with its two other fronts, so the lulls between action feel out of place. If you've come for a dystopian sci-fi movie, Snowpiercer is that too. The amount of world-building in this movie is, frankly, insane. There's so much backstory that gets reduced to a voice-over in the opening credits and a very quick pair of text cards at the beginning, with some lore drizzled in here and there like scrolls in Dark Souls. There is a rich world just hinted at the edges of Snowpiercer and it makes me very curious about it. The problem is, it's too much for a movie. It's no surprise this got rebooted into a TV show, because the lore just hinted at in the movie is threatening to explode and overwhelm it. At times, the lore is more interesting than the movie itself. I can see why this became a TV series. I could see this as a series of books. I could see this as a video game. But as a movie? It is 1000 pages of story in a 300 page script, and it feels like it every moment some of the lore is hinted at. If you've come for social commentary, you'll get that as well. Snowpiercer is definitely trying to Make A Statement, and about several things. The fact that the front end of the train has personal saunas and dance clubs and sushi bars, while the tail section is squalor and rations and no running water, and that this is done to "maintain a balance" in a "closed ecosystem" is a not-even-thinly veiled jab at the imbalance of power in the class structure of this planet. And that's before you bring in topics like eugenics and population control, ecology and humanity's interference in it leading to disaster, the moral lines one has to consider when faced with live-or-die survival ... Snowpiercer Says A Lot. Or, it WANTS to say a lot. It has a lot of themes (probably a few I missed), but very little of it is insightful commentary. Most of it is "these things are bad" level of simple, and I'm not sure if that's because the writers weren't capable of subtlety, if they didn't want a stronger message clouding the sci-fi and action, or if the movie is so over-stuffed with everything else that it choked out the ability to Make A Statement in a meaningful way. That also means all of the statements are as delivered with all the grace of a tack hammer to the face. It isn't as cliche-ridden and hacky as something like Sissy or Black Christmas 2019 (oh, you will never stop being the best punching bag for this), but it is so basic and lacking in any nuance, it feels wrong somehow. I can't quite put my finger on how, but something about it feels off. Like a grade-schooler's understanding of politics. If you turn your brain off and just try to enjoy a well-made, tense action movie, you should be okay. Snowpiercer is carried by some strong action and some good performances. But the minute you turn on your brain, the seams of this movie start to show, and they're stretched to the breaking point. It's a good movie that is kept from greatness by its own ambition.