Adapted from the French comics of the same name and directed by the Korean director Joon-Ho Bong, Snowpiercer gives us a look into a train containing the surviving population of the planet, since living outside has been made impossible by a chemical element. I had a bad feeling about that movie, and I was right! After watching it, Snowpiercer appeared to me as a first draft, a movie not entirely finished.
There is no middle ground in this movie: it’s either too slow or way too rushed! It took me a long time before entering the story and I got bored. When the action finally starts, it’s just a bloody mess and it gets really confusing, nothing more. It’s extremely violent, not that it bothers me in action movies, but I felt like the big “action” scene (the “Axe” scene) was too long and unnecessary! Snowpiercer is just a succession of scenes, of wagons, where nothing makes sense.
Another thing I’d like to point out, is the acting. I never considered Chris Evans as a particularly great actor, but in Snowpiercer his acting is horrible! You feel absolutely nothing for the character and when the scenes could be really emotional, it’s so badly played that instead of crying, you laugh. But I don’t entirely blame him, as the dialogue is poorly written. The filmmakers took a horrifying situation and made it look completely ridiculous!
The message of the movie isn’t all that bad. It gives a good criticism on today’s society. The only few things I really loved were Tilda Swinton as Mason; she is amazing and I loved the way she played the part, and all the little mistakes she makes, that in a way makes her more realistic! The “school scene” was also really good, showing the indoctrination of children, the propaganda of the train’s creator etc… It conveys a very clear message, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the impact it should have.
And that end … I don’t understand how you can spend millions on CGI and really amazing visual effects, and give us an end like this one, so obvious and badly done. It’s really the moment when I realized I had just wasted two hours of my life!
Rating: 1.5/5
Editor’s note: Margaux’s review was original published in February 2014. Snowpiercer is now out in limited release in the US!
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