SNOWPIERCER MOVIE REVIEW, ONE CRAZY TRAIN RIDE! - STARRING CHRIS EVANS -a film review

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!”