SNOWPIERCER IS A CRAZY TRAIN RIDE!
Don’t go into this movie thinking you’ve seen it all,
because you haven’t.
This movie stars
Chris Evans as a man named Curtis who is leading a revolt on the Snowpiercer
train. What is this train? It’s the train that is carrying what’s left
of the human race after the world has been completely frozen over. You see, in a reaction to global warming,
multiple countries activated rockets of chemicals that were supposed to make
the situation more tolerable, but instead it made the human race more
extinct.
So, the various social classes of the world are packed into
this giant train that is continually moving around the planet. If it stops,
everyone dies. Sounds like a fun time, right?
Anyway, Curtis and his friends belong to the lower classes
in the back of the train. They have to
eat a “protein” bar that is gelatinous goo, while the privileged classes, in
the front, eat steak and listen to live violin music. Curtis wants to set everything equal among
the classes or least stop the suffering of the lowest classes.
Tilda Swinton plays a lackey of Wilford,
played by Ed Harris, who made the train and runs the engine. She’s the evil, yet mild-mannered looking
thug, who does devious things to keep the masses in order. Curtis doesn’t like her and her kind who keep
maiming or killing or mysteriously taking his class.
So, he finds the keymaker, who has been shut
in a coroner-type body drawer (as well as his daughter) and leads a revolt
throughout the train which allows us to see how this ecosystem balances itself
through extreme inequality.
I can’t describe much more because I don’t want to give away
the ending. What I would like to say is
that this movie was very intriguing, exciting, and in the end, befuddling. When you get to the last 20 minutes and you
find out about Curtis’ real past and meet Wilford, you will be shocked and you
will have to judge the ending for yourself.
Is this wild ride justified by the ending? If not, what could have been a better
ending? For me, as politically incorrect
as it might seem, the film is saying that Wilford’s idea in terms of how
everything ended, actually is the better answer. You’ll have to see the movie to understand
what I mean. Each side had a point and I
wonder why there wasn’t a better balance since everyone was in the same boat. I believe it will have people talking or at
least thinking about the lesson or ideas presented in this narrative.
Chris Evans was great in this movie. He really had me believing he was the
character right from the beginning.
Captain America who? He was
handsome, dirty, powerful, and vulnerable in his role. He really impressed me.
Tilda Swinton, whose character was originally
a man in the graphic novel, put her usual unusual bent on the character. She reminded me of Vanessa Redgrave so much,
that I almost forgot she was playing the character. She was perfect for the role, combining humor
and deviousness effortlessly.
Ed Harris
was rekindling his Truman Show character, a person with a literal God complex and I wonder if that is
why they cast him. He does fit these
types of characters nicely.
Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer and Academy Award Nominee and BAFTA award winner John Hurt should have been utilized more for
their prodigious talents.
There is a crazy scene with axes that will get your heart
racing and will allow you to see the extremes the train’s leaders will go
through to keep “order”. You’ll be
wondering, “How will they get out of this?!”
It takes you through a loopy adventure and when it ends, you
will be wondering, “What did I see?” and “What does it mean?”
I say, “TRY IT!”
