'Snowpiercer' A Review

Snowpiercer is a dystopian scifi thriller, the last of humanity is trapped on a perpetually moving train after an attempt to combat global warming backfires and the world is thrust into an ice age. When the train was boarded a class system was developed, the elite housed in the front in comfort and the poor packed into the tail. Seventeen years after the trips beginning an uprising is imminent. The film opens on life in the tail and the subsequent revolution.

The film weaves together some stunning visuals, each train car serves it's unique purpose and has its own unique design(a green house, an aquarium, a school room, a dance club etc.), the beautiful sometimes bizarre train cars are juxtaposed by periodic shots of the ice blasted waste land outside the windows. The action is bloody, brutal, and lithe, there's a shocking amount of fluidity to the action sequences given they are subject to the confines of the train.

The performances are equal parts sincere, emotionally resonant, and darkly humorous. Chris Evans puts forth more depth than he has previously as vengeful warrior and reluctant leader. Tilda Swinton also makes a power house appearance as quirky and hateful administrator in charge of the tail. The entire cast brings both a gravitas and uniqueness that make the surreal setting come alive.

The main issue of the film is the ending. Towards the end Chris Evans gives a convincing but overlong and too-little-too-late speech explaining his motives and providing exposition that would have been better placed at the beginning. The final moments of the film feel a bit cliche, for a movie of this type, and leaves a bit to be desired.

This is all to say nothing of the overarching and thick social, political, and economic commentary of the film. It plays more like a bloody parable than a future-train-adventure. Snowpiercer raises many questions and leaves you a little uncomfortable which is presumably the intention.

Vibrant, disturbing, and thick with meaning.

See It.