This is how I feel about a lot of things*, but certainly including Snowpiercer.
*Also feeling this about Predestination.
What was in the vat that disgusted them to look at?
The protein block vat? Roaches (or some kind of bug, anyway).
How about how it didn’t work as an action movie. The scene with the two guys trading shots from impossibly long distances with pistols and being laughably accurate. Despite the fact that maybe one of them fired a weapon before and certainly no one was practicing.
Or how the internal logic made you shut down your brain completely. Why have anyone in the back at all? How could you possibly keep the food supply going? What kind of engine goes forever? Was it built by the Macguffin Corporation? It’s a good thing that all the parts were designed to be replaced by children. Or how none of the bad guys acted like real humans.
Or the incredible coincidences. Like they just happen to pass the new year mark in the middle of a battle. And how they just happened to have a good view of the frozen people who left the train. And how the drug addict guy picked only one landmark out of the entire world to gauge if the ice was melting and he just happened to be at a window when they passed it.
How about if you realize the ice is going to start to melt you figure out a way to keep things going until the outside gets more hospitable and you don’t commit genocide of the entire remnants of the human race?
Stop calling it an allegory. Allegories are hidden.
I’ve seen better made movies on MST3K.
I read something online about how Harvey Weinstein did not want to release the movie as is. He required cuts and a prologue and epilogue. He was pressured to release it without the changes so he made it a limited release. I wonder if it would be better with the changes.
The RT rating is indeed baffling. While generally* well acted, filmed and directed, nothing about it makes a whit of sense. How on Earth does the train magically keep going after decades? They show small slides covering the track which it easily barrels thru. In the Real World, the track would have been unusable in a lot of places within a year. RR tracks require non-stop monitoring and maintenance.
Plus the telegraphing. Of course Wilford is the guy sending the notes. You knew that the instant they started talking about them.
I’ve got news for Namgoong. Snow sublimes. Especially in a very cold climate. Less snow on something doesn’t mean things are getting warmer.
Couldn’t they have plotted to revolt when the train was in a less mountainous location?
I don’t want to dogpile on the shootout on the curve, but come-freakin’-on. Shooting small arms thru extra strong glass on a moving train at a distance where you can barely see the target??? With little to no experience?
- The acting. Octavia Spencer hurt every shot she was in. John Hurt chose to do an Ian McKellen impersonation for some odd reason. Ed Harris was just doing his Christof from* The Truman Show* act all over again.
How so many critics gave a pass to such a poorly written movie is stunning.
I haven’t seen anyone mention this complaint. How did the poor people get on the train in the first place? To load, the train would need to stop somewhere, right? Okay, so if it can stop long enough to load passengers, why not keep it stationary most of the time? Would be much safer, would save energy, and cause less wear and tear.
I’m now imagining Jim Carrey cheerfully leading the axe-wielding resistance on that train, and Chris Evans as the grim throat-puncher who realizes Seahaven is a TV show.
Yep. I shake my head in disbelieving wonder that this is on some critics’ best picture lists.
As I recall, when things started going to hell you had ticketed passengers and then the charity cases. The ticketed ones got to ride up front and the charity cases got stuck in the rear. But that was before the world completely froze over and once it got moving and everything went south, it wasn’t able to stop again.
It was… surreal… I loved the pacing and passion of it, but if you try to take it seriously, I could understand how someone could dislike it.
Though I think we can all agree Tilda Swinton stole every scene she was in.
Just saw it last night. I mostly liked it. What saved it for me I think, was the first time the train wheels came off the tracks. I realized I was watching a cartoon magic train and it’s a City of the Lost Children, or a Dark City type of fantasy story. After that, everything was symbolic. Not a sci fi film, here.
The ending was a bit of a cop out. I thought the final scene should have been Curtis accepting his new station as the engine keeper, broken and resigned to the inevitability of the endless circle.
The whole thing is worth it just to hear Chris Evans say “I know that babies taste the best.”
Last cigarette on Earth? Well I ain’t taking one puff and then monologuing 'til it burns out. I’m smoking the heck out of that cig.
how is babby taste? depens on how kooked
Good to know I wasn’t the only person who didn’t like it.
I found it extremely boring and shut it off after about 20 minutes.
Sorry to dig up a zombie, but I just had to say thank you.
Thank you to everyone who expressed their contempt for this god-awful movie.
Watched it late last night (actually early this morning) when I stupidly turned on the TV just to see what was on. I knew it was going to be stupid from the moment the title cards explained that *ALL life on earth had become extinct *. . . and that the only *survivors *where now crammed into a train whizzing around the world for some reason. And yet morbid curiosity compelled me to see where this bizarre story would go. I hate myself for doing so.
To ease the pain, I intercut the viewing with episodes of The Amazing World of Gumball (which, admittedly, is probably not the best way to see a movie, but I at least hate myself a little less for doing so.)
This movie could really use a good MSTing. Seriously, it’s worse than Manos: The Hands of Fate.
[ul]
[li]“I thought cigarettes were extinct!” (Ah, yes. The great Marlboro genocide of 2020.) [/li][li]“SOYLENT GREEN IS . . . bugs?” [/li][li]Bouncing rubber eggs? [/li][li]The suggestion that the characters played by Jon Hurt and Ed Harris enjoyed caboose-to-engine-room phone sex!? (Is there any other way to interpret Ed Harris’ lines?)[/li][/ul]
Anyway, I thought it was an absolutely ludicrous movie and I was appalled to see it rated so highly.
I just . . . I’m sorry. I just had to get that off my chest.
So that I don’t make this into both a zombie and a thread-shit, I will say that the acting (for the most part) was decent and the idea, though absurd, is somewhat intriguing. (Perhaps it works better as a graphic novel.) I guess I could also say it was well paced.
I disagree
You could say the “political message” of the movie was a bit heavy handed but… not the action and cinematography and set design. Turn off the sound sand drink a beer/smoke a joint and it turns into a good film…
I was appalled with Lord of the Rings & shit. Seriously, middle earth, dwarves, mages? I puked my movie watching guts out. Who believes this shit?
Not to mention that they are trading shots on a moving train firing through bulletproof glass. I can barely work my laptop on the Acela, let alone fire aimed shots at another car 300 yards away.
Plus Captain America’s outrage at eating bug-bars was a bit misplaced, seeing that he knows what baby tastes like.
That said, in spite of the silly premise, there is something very watchable about Snowpiercer. I seem to get sucked into watching it every time it comes on Showtime and it’s on like 5 times a day. But I am surprised that it is rated so highly.
I tried watching the movie after seeing so many good reviews.
I made it about 30 minutes in and finally shut it off.
Just a dumb, dumb, dumb movie.
You chose wisely.
I too never understood this love for “Snowpiercer”. It’s absurdness just took me out of the story early on and it felt as if I was watching a comedy.
Here was my comic review* for “Snowpiercer” when I saw it in the theater last year. http://www.theblabbingbaboon.com/?p=5373
If want to see a REALLY good film set in a Post Apocalyptic world, I strongly suggest you search out the (little seen) 2014 film “The Rover” (here was my comic review for the film: http://www.theblabbingbaboon.com/?p=5230 it’s a hell of a tense drama with an ending that will kick your ass!
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- since I see about 70 movies in the theaters every year I always write/draw a comic review as part of my Daily Comic Strip.