Daybreakers: Similar movies?

hey guys, i really loved this movie as it was like i was entering a completely different world and it gave me a chance to try to understand how a society like that functions in such a different environment.

i'm not looking for vampire movies necessarily... i'm just looking for a film that'll give me a chance to look at an entirely different society.

thanks for any help!

 

Gattica... Ironically another Ethan Hawke film...

 

^ yup, was going to suggest Gattaca too.

There's also more obvious stuff like Blade Runner. Oh, and more recent movies like Aeon Flux.

 

I would recommend the TV Series Kings. It only aired one season, but it was about the Biblical book of David. It was set in the modern age, in a world similar to ours, but ruled by a King, as an absolute monarchy. It was an interesting look at a world similar to, but not, our own.

The DVDs are out there.

 

Equilibrium.

 

ok thanks i've seen gattaca and blade runner, but i'll check out Aeon Flux.

cool. Equilibrium looks like a good movie.

 

are there any others that i could check out? i like films where i get to see a completely different society.

 

anyone?

 

I'm sure there is a list of "dystopian sci-fi" out there somewhere.

 

If you're going to return and have everyone start compiling random lists of scifi tropes in numerous threads for you again, have a little patience. People don't work for you, they're doing you a favor.

It's also bad form to keep bumping your own thread when there hasn't been any new replies for a little while. Just give it time.

 

Mad Max, Judge Dredd, Robocop, Akira, Bunraku, Nolan's Batman movies, Demolition Man, The Fifth Element, Escape From L.A./New York, Riddick/Pitch Black, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, Underworld Trilogy...

 

What a weird coincidence... I just saw Daybreakers and liked it too... although I liked it more for daring a unique twist on the Vampire legend: what if the vampires actually win.

 

I just watched Equilibrium for the first time a few months ago. I really liked it, and think it deserves more attention.

 

I really liked it too, and was shocked to find that its a 1 star movie on cable...

 

ok awesome thanks!

 

I think it deserves more than one star for sure, but I can understand it being fairly poorly rated by critics. I've called it "the dumbest movie that I love" here before.

It's sort of like The Fifth Element. If you really break TFE down to its core idea, which is "giant interplanetary ball of evil is defeated by an alien love beam" you'd laugh your ass off and be surprised that it was a big budget film and not a SyFy movie of the week. But when you take in the whole package of the humor, music, fight and other choreography, the spectacular and unique production design/costuming/world building, etc. it becomes something special.

Equilibrium is sort of the same way. The whole suppressing emotions/emotions causing global war bit is straight out of Star Trek and Vulcans (in fact, just for fun I've pictured that world as one where the Vulcans landed post-WWIII and forcefully imposed their ideology on us), right along with some of the actors not getting the memo that they were supposed to be unemotional (I'm looking at you, Taye Diggs), just like some actors playing Vulcans never got it. It's kind of a silly premise to begin with.

But once you look deeper, the visual style --especially the creation of and the almost religious philosophy behind Gunkata-- and the fight choreography really makes the film unique and interesting and exciting beyond the rather mundane premise (also, they play Patty Cake with guns!). Plus, the deliberately uniform blandness of the world they live in (all beige and grey concrete and Earth-tone clothing, like a post-Soviet/Nazi hybrid vision of the future -- right down to the scifi Nazi-ish Swastika symbology) really sets the tone for the world. Also, in a totally unique twist, Sean Bean dies in this movie, which has, like, never happened before.

So, if you're a critic who is not impressed by more peripheral features like those and are solely concerned with the story itself, I could get you dismissing those films as silly. But it's the whole package that really makes those films special and enjoyable to me, and they transcend the simple, dumb plot.

 

Bueller?

 

I thought there was a story reason for why Taye Diggs character was emotional? I do remember being confused by why he was so emotional, but I then I realized why. Maybe it was just something I came up with that wasn't actually in the movie.

 

Well, Bale's character was emotional because he went undercover with the resistance, and Father was emotional because he was running things and therefore could break the rules (plus, he wanted to think like the resistance to outsmart them), but I don't recall Diggs having any reason to display emotions. He was still dosing regularly from what I remember, and was not undercover, so he didn't need to be emotional.

I just think his extreme ambition and anger got the better of him and overcame the effects of the drug. That could have been a deliberate choice on the director's part and indicate that the drug is not as effective as they think and only dampens emotions rather than eliminates them outright (for that matter, it might even have something of a placebo effect and it's the people themselves who are suppressing their own emotions to blend in).

 

It took me a while to recover from seeing this movie. I really loved how I got to see a completely different society.

Are there any other recommendations out there for where we get to see a different society?

Thanks!