I’ve seen it, and thank god I didn’t pay anything for it.
It’s a bunch of sci-fi & action movie cliches bundled together, with a central conceit that doesn’t stand up to even the most cursory of examinations. If I would bother rating it for IMDB, I wouldn’t go higher than a 5 tops.
Can you venture a guess on why it is so loved by the critics (84 on Metacritic, 92 at Rotten Tomatoes)?. There must be something there that is not obvious from a quick synopsis.
ETA: Then again, they also lurved Crash, so…
It did have a certain style to it that was reasonably appealing, and some of the set piece action sequences were well executed. But for me there were just too many issues, the most destructive of which was the main conceit of the train itself, it’s not spoiling to say that it is circling an Iceball Earth, and the initial explanation of the train in relation to that made little sense, and as more of the background is revealed over the course of the movie it just gets worse and more unbelievable, both the organisation and structure of the train and the carriages and the background of how it works and why it was built, etc.
I basically had little suspension of disbelief from the start, and it dwindled to nothing pretty early, which tainted the whole movie for me.
I can only speculate that those sort of details didn’t bother the critics.
Happy to spoiler box some of my specific problems if you’re interested.
Or, that apocalypse is* inevitable*, BUT!..When it looks like the feces are about to hit the ventilator, the privileged will just grab ALL that’s good and useful and hightail it to safety, leaving the masses to face the chaos bare-handed, and* nobody will be able to do or try to do anything about it () – and yet they somehow do leave the proles with just enough means so that if there’s adequate leadership and the will for it, they will rise up and breach the sacred retreat. (Which is something I appreciate about 1984 - Big Brother makes sure nobody can rise again)
Also when the masses finally get to take over the sacred retreat of the super privileged or overthrow the Hegemon, what? Everyone on Earth achieves a middling-good quality of life? Or everyone on Earth gets equalized to barbaric savagery? Postapoc/dystopian movies tend to not answer that.
(*)This first part being a not entirely unreasonable fear. Come to think of it this first part reminds me of Predispensational Rapture theology – the already-blessed will be safely assumed and then the rest of us will have to deal with plagues, disasters, persecutions, etc.
Incoherent premise, huh? It’s a regular Murder on the Disorient Express.
I read this thread, watched the trailer, I now have zero interest in the film. Looks like it’s one of those message films that delivers the message with a sledge hammer, over and over again. Also, it’s French, and when the French do Sci Fi they are often beaucoup stupide!
WOW. All I can think of is how this could have gotten beyond the 3am drunken brain storming process. Surely they were sober the next day when funding was discussed.
I haven’t seen this movie, but I have read a few reviews. They mostly say something along these lines: “The movie requires a tremendous suspension of disbelief, but if you can get past that the movie is GREAT.”
I imagine if you can’t get past that disbelief it wouldn’t work at all for you.
ETA: Apparently, the movie has already been a big hit in other parts of the world.
I’ve seen it.
It’s a pretty damn good movie. Much better than I was expecting, though I didn’t know what to expect going in.
Felt like Terry Gilliam meets Stephen Chow in the best possible way.
I don’t know if I’d call it great, even if I could of maintained my suspension, it was a somewhat paint by numbers action movie IMO, with plenty of the standard cliches. It did have a certain style to it, which in hindsight screams ‘Euro’, kind of a Fifth Element vibe in some respects. (And I love the Fifth Element).
I have no desire to see the film, but I read its wiki entry, cuz I don’t mind being spoilered on something I’m not invested it. And, based off of that synopsis, it would require expulsion of disbelief.
Wait…“suspension” of disbelief? Do we mean “paused” disbelief, or “I’m taking disbelief off and putting it on a hanger in the closet?”
If it’s the latter, then it doesn’t require suspension. It needs disbelief to have its legs broken, nailed to a cross and left to die similar to scaphism.
Saw it. Loved it! I’ll give it an 8.
Favorite when Olivia cracked her hard boiled egg open on the smart mouth little Irish girl.
Because it’s written and directed by Joon-ho Bong, an up and coming Korean writer/director who wrote and directed two other pretty amazing movies. I first became aware of him with Gwoemul (known in America as The Host, and no, not the terrible Sheersha Ronan movie). It’s a nifty little Korean monster movie that’s scary and funny and poignant at the same time. It’s at 93% at Rotten Tomatoes.
Then he did a creepy movie called Mother (“A mother desperately searches for the killer that framed her son for a girl’s horrific murder”) which got all kinds of nominations and wins during awards season in 3 different years (because of staggered release dates). It’s at 95% at Rotten Tomatoes.
Critics have been aware of him for a long time, and know to expect the bizarre and bent and interesting. Those who can go with his vision will have a good time. Those who can’t (“No way could a monster like that exist! Sheesh!”) should probably not watch any of his movies.
Why did Children of Men and Brazil get such good reviews (and audience reactions) despite their premises making no more sense than Snowpiercer did? I consider them all to be examples of slipstream fiction. They are all quasi-science fiction where the scientific background is pretty illogical. One poster above has already compared this movie to Christopher Priest’s works. I’d further compare it to J. G. Ballard’s works:
This played in the cinemas in Bangkok a few months ago, so I was surprised it’s being touted as a summer movie in the US. We didn’t get to see it then but did recently see it on DVD at home. It’s a great film. We really liked it a lot.
It’s being rolled out around the world very slowly. According to the IMDb, part of the funding for it came from American sources. Despite this, the U.S. is one of the last places where it’s being released. How many films with American funding do you know of that were released in Mongolia, Romania, Kuwait, and Vietnam before they were released in the U.S.?
I saw it recently. A lot of American movies this summer are remakes or sequels to movies that weren’t very good to start with. “Snowpiecer” had me smiling the whole time at its inventiveness and originality.
83 on Metacritic, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 7.0 on IMDb. People who’ve seen it appear to like it more than people who haven’t.
We do see a few threads here from time to time with titles like, “(New Movie) is going to be awesome!!” or “(New Movie) is going to suck”. Better to wait until there is a critical consensus or you see the film to make those judgement calls.
OK, assuming someone thought Avatar was retarded, how would you think this movie would be viewed by said person?