설국열차
Ledová archa
Snowpiercer
Ohjaus:
Joon-ho BongKuvaus:
Kyung-pyo HongSävellys:
Marco BeltramiNäyttelijät:
Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, John Hurt, Ewen Bremner, Alison Pill, Ed Harris, Ah-seong Ko, Kenny Doughty (lisää)Suoratoistopalvelut (2)
Juonikuvaukset(1)
Vuosi 2031. Epäonninen yritys keskeyttää ilmaston lämpeneminen johtaa uuteen jääkauteen. Ihmiskunnan viimeinen turvapaikka on junassa nimeltä Snowpiercer, joka kiertää ympäri maailmaa ikiliikkujamoottorinsa voimin. Jäistä maisemaa puhkovassa junassa noudatetaan tiukkaa luokkajakoa: köyhät kyykistelevät junan takaosassa, rikkaiden ja etuoikeutettujen nauttiessa leveästä elämästä junan keulassa. Helvetti pääsee valloilleen, kun köyhempi osa nousee kapinaan... (Future film)
(lisää)Arvostelut (16)
A co-production pseudo-Hollywood blockbuster with a message? In places, Snowpiercer is OK (exciting, surprising), in
places ridiculous like the later Shyamalan movies (some characters) or this year’s Hollywood flop Transcendence. A
weird science-fiction hybrid with a stellar cast.
()
Snowpiercer is one of the purest transferences of video-game narrative structure into film. The protagonists constantly advance, progressing from bare-knuckle fighting to cutting weapons and fire to guns and explosives. Each rail car (mission) has a distinctly different design, and we can also understand the POV shots with night-vision goggles as a reference to the game’s aesthetic. After every action there is a reward in the form of plot-shaping information about one of the characters and their motivations (which vary – children, drugs, revenge – thanks to which we can clearly separate the individuals from the united group). ___ However, the narrative’s clarity and fluidity are due not only to the fact that it is broken up into many smaller parts. Though it is absolutely clear from the beginning where the plot is going (yes, forward), we are constantly kept in a state of anticipation and surprised by the various hints, diversions and ellipses (for example, we may incorrectly believe that the rabble at the end of the train are missing limbs because those limbs have “frozen to death”). ___ Besides creative contrasts (the colourful “shock” in the form of a school classroom), the straightforward paving of the way forward is livened up by unexpected incursions of other genres (a brutal massacre interrupted by the welcoming of the new year, a musical interlude with children) and by the characters’ unconventional behaviour (not all positive heroes always behave “humanly”). Bong doesn’t tell us anything that we don’t (or won’t) need to know in order to understand the protagonist and the main storyline connected to him and every seemingly superfluous item of information, conveyed verbally or visually, is utilised sooner or later (the matches, the snowflake, the polar bear, other characters’ conversations with Curtis). ___ The speed with which the individual rail cars alternate corresponds to the amount of information that has to be shared. At the midpoint of the film, Curtis correctly says “I can go faster”, and the pace actually accelerates (there are more frequent cuts to the landscape outside of the train, for example) and important characters begin to die at an increasing rate. ___ Though the direction of the narrative indicates that it will turn out to be a naive drama of social revolution along the lines of Elysium, the ideological position that the form ultimately assigns to Curtis is ambiguous. (Nor does the outlined regime bear the unambiguous hallmarks of fascism. Apart from the eugenic measuring of children and the capitalistic transformation of a person into a replaceable part of the production mechanism, we are also witnesses to the building of a cult of personality and the introduction of newspeak of the “shoe = disorder” type that characterises any given totalitarian regime.) Instead of clear answers similar to those provided at the end of The Matrix, the climax raises a number of new questions and from the space of some sort of archaically straightforward narrative (it’s impossible not to recall old slapstick farces, westerns and phantom rides), we, like Curtis, are thrown from blissful ignorance into our post-ideologically and post-modernistically unintelligible reality. ___ Perhaps I’m overstating the case, but Snowpiercer is not just another dumb action flick in which the idea is subordinate to the spectacle. At least in my case, intellectual and sensory pleasure were in balance. 85%
()
(vähemmän)
(lisää)
Mutant, from the same director, was also incredibly hyped abroad, but for me it was an unwatchable, stupid piece of crap, so I went into Snowpiercer with some healthy apprehension. The result, however, blew me away. There are some shortcomings, like the almost video-game like special effects (when we see the train from the outside, or the frozen landscape), or the ending, which I personally would cut three minutes earlier, but I’m willing to forgive them. At first I was afraid that the premise of a post-apocalyptic train riot wouldn’t be enough for a two hour film. But it is. The passage from one car to the next is a little monotonous, but it’s saved by the dirty atmosphere, the sharp action and the excellent performances (especially Tilda Swinton’s, while I felt Octavia Spencer was the weakest link of the ensemble). About half-way through, we start getting a relentless barrage of directorial ideas, plot twists, brutal and unexpected deaths (the film doesn’t go easy on its stars, in this regard Joon-ho Bong is quite uncompromising), brutality and slightly philosophical thoughts, and I was purring in satisfaction. I have a weak spot for dystopian sci-fi and this movie checked all the boxes. And, as a Czech viewer, I was happy to hear that one sentence in Czech, and the Czech names in the credits. The film was made in Barrandov Studios :)
()
Once I ignore a whole lot of nonsense (for example, the fact that I couldn’t technically imagine the train or what the purpose of the people at the end of the train was), it’s actually a pretty decent sci-fi that has a hint of murder-movie atmosphere until the very end. However, it’s still an interesting idea, a good execution and a surprise in the form of a single Czech sentence said by some Asian woman.
()
A famous film response to Aldiss's classic Non Stop. How does one conjure an adventurous and unpredictable universe from claustrophobic space? Divide the space into fragments, create each fragment as a closed ecosystem and connect them with Bong's poetics, which oscillate on the edge of cabaret stylization and (post) industrial dystopia. Despite the certain anachronistic nature of the metaphor of the eternal machine that devours the bodies of the proletariat, Snowpiercer is the best possible return to the ethos of classical dystopian sci-fi. A film that holds up where Elysium failed due to excess of theses. Excellent performances by Evans, Harris and of course the clown Song. For me, it is definitely a ride in first class, which is not brought down by the weaker "extruder" effects and the fact that Bong has set the bar in mutating genres so high in the past that it probably won't surpass it any time soon. [85%]
()
Czech-Korean-British-French-American collaboration on an unusual sci-fi about a “train that doesn’t stop, never stops, never stops anywhere" where people behave like animals. And it’s obvious who made it. The same as in his other works, this refuses to follow the rules, sometimes making it seem a little gratuitous and exhibitionistic, but most of the time it benefits to movie.
()
Some time ago this train just blew past me, but when the Oscar buzz was revolving around its director a few years later, I tried to find out what was going on at Barrandov at that time. And it's a surprising gem that's sometimes a thriller, sometimes an existential drama, and sometimes even a calm action RPG. I love that feeling when I have no idea what might happen the next minute, and when no explanation is too far-fetched to be true. And believe me, once a viewer explores the fan theory that Snowpiercer takes place in the same world as Willy Wonka, there is no turning back.
()
With Snowpiercer, Bong Joon-ho confirms his status as a maker of completely unique films who is able to brilliantly combine magnificent and intense spectacle with a unique vision and a supremely creative approach. Although Snowpiercer is based on the motifs of a French comic book, Bong took inspiration only from the source work’s basic premise, into which he inserted his own story (as in the case of his previous films, this time Bong is both the director and screenwriter; American screenwriter Kelly Masterson was responsible only for adapting the dialogue into English). Bong again builds the narrative on opposing principles, the combination of which gives rise to a unique, multifaceted work. In specific terms, we have a depressing Kafkaesque parable about our world and the individual caught in the gears of a rigid system presented using the blueprint of a seemingly Hollywood-style (but also Eisenstein-esque) tale of rebellion, conceived as a “blockbuster project with a devilishly unpredictable plot”. Together with the protagonists, the brilliant narrative gradually reveals to us the various levels of the hierarchy and the components that ensure the functioning of the microcosm, while concurrently and seemingly inadvertently giving us clues that much later will fit into the overall picture of a world founded on fear and anxiety. This world is in the form of a train, which, like a perpetual-motion machine, runs on tracks that do not have the form of a line with a beginning and an end, but an endless loop with regularly repeating cycles. Change is an illusion within this system, from which there is only one way out, but it is as intoxicating as a drug and as terrifying and final as the apocalypse. The common creative principle in Bong’s previous films, which we can describe as the subjugation of the direction of the original genre story through ambiguous and complex characters, is brought to its maximum level and meta-reflection in Snowpiercer – the ideal of the folk hero and rebellion against the establishment is gradually twisted as an increasingly complex view of the film’s world, of which the characters are integral and essential parts, is revealed to the viewers. _____ In the context of the narrative ideas contained in Snowpiercer, the story of the film’s distribution is paradoxical. What was supposed to be a magnificent story about how a distinctive filmmaker from South Korea created an international hit ultimately turned out to be a cruel slap in the face by the calculating Weinstein pigs who ruthlessly prevented any early international releases of the film (with the exception of France, where the rights had been sold earlier and where the film appeared at a few minor festivals and eventually on Blu-ray, which became the source of the copies that flooded the internet, thus significantly limiting the chance of earning box-office revenues in other countries, where the film is finally appearing after many months of haggling). Following this thorough reminder of where their place is in the global market, it cannot be expected that the disappointed director and the majority production company, CJ Entertainment, will attempt another project that goes beyond the Asian market and limited release abroad any time soon (more information on this affair is available here).
()
(vähemmän)
(lisää)
At first I felt like I was back in Train to Busan (if you like movies on a train, I recommend watching it), and got a little lost in the darkness, but once the director's favorite Kang-ho Song joined in, I started to enjoy the erratic ride. In the second part of the film, the director's favorite theme, the clash between two completely different social classes, comes into play. Bong Joon-ho revels in this and knows how to give it the right contrast. Anyone who has ever walked on a plane from Economy Class to First Class actually has a bit of a trailer for this film. It's just a little more extreme here. 3.5 stars.
()
Those who approach Snowpiercer as a dissolute B-movie might eventually have a good time with it. Anyone looking for a seriously conceived dystopia will be burned badly. My only star is more related to the fact that the film betrayed one of the most important principles I demand from the world of cinema. I have already written in my profile that from the fictional film world, no matter how fantastic it may be, I require solid logical foundations and its protagonists must move meaningfully within it. The director and screenwriter in-one did not bother to build any logical foundations at all. Everything is subordinated to the momentary effect and the next action scene. The film is a pulp crap, but it has remarkably decent casting, and Joon-ho Bong is not to be discarded as a craftsman. Occasionally, a spark of interest flashed for me in scenes that were obviously inspired by Terry Gilliam's darkly grotesque world and his famous films Brazil and 12 Monkeys (typical of this is the speech of the minister in front of the crowd of wretches from the lowest class). But those were just timid flashes that had no continuity, so in the end, my overall impression is only 25%.
()
An excellent sci-fi adapted from an old French comic book with a rather dated plot. Lots of excellent individual scenes, but the very end went a bit wobbly during an otherwise excellently begun ending. Kang-ho Song excellent, Chris Evans tried, Tilda Swinton reaches the zenith of repulsiveness.
()
You can feel a lot from the eastern touch, not only through the construction of the mise-en-scène, or the typically consistent and clear editing composition, but also by the change of settings and action scenes, they seem like copy-paste. Paradoxically, the Western faces and the English language sometimes seem awkward. It can be said that it is essentially an atypical and thematically interesting film, but brutally impersonal. I didn't feel like rooting for anyone, quite the opposite. The bigger the fight, the better. I was expecting a refined twist like the American remake of Oldboy , but I didn't get it. A similarly bold and confident film, but technically erratic and conceptually stunted although yes, there are some interesting directorial ideas.
()
Before I got to know Bong Joon-ho’s other works (if I’m saying the name right), I was a bit skeptical of Snowpiercer. That star-studded cast in a dopey-looking plot that wants to be something more... You know, it smelled. But then I saw the excellent Parasite, the great The Host, and the great Okja, and I was looking forward to Snowpiercer more and more, because it's just the kind of headlong story that Bong Joon-ho should have made. A sci-fi metaphor on rails, elaborate characters, suspense, action, humor, some quirks, and more than one surprise. To some, it may seem elementary and cheesy, and I can't really blame such viewers, because Bong Joon-ho isn't for everyone. However, this just goes to show what an exceptional filmmaker he is.
()
In terms of casting and production values, this is an American project through and through, but the credit for the effective narration of such spectacular material goes purely to the director wizard from South Korea. Bong does a brilliant job with the pacing and the dosing of information, thanks to which the curiosity of the viewer never wavers through the entire train, and he constantly drops new clues that rewrite the genre and motivational expectations. With the progression through the spatial levels, the stylistic dominants change, producing unexpected genre tricks, some of which are funny, while others tense and action-packed. The creators are aware that the premise cannot be taken seriously from a purely rational perspective, and therefore are not afraid to push aside some serious motifs with an absurd and symbolic twist (which, by the way, is a strong aspect of all Bong’s films). And though the cynicism of the story is annoying at times, and it’s hard sometimes to accept the strong ideas wrapped in violent rebellion through various conventions (whether genre or social criticism – which is another characteristic of the director’s work), Snowpiercer never abates in its specific communication with the viewer and showcases an entertaining fictional world that is a joy to discover. How good Evans, Hurt, Swinton and Harris are in their roles is something there’s no point arguing about. Give Snowpiercer a chance and try not to think, it’ll pay off. 85%
()
A post-apocalyptic sci-fi comic film with unusually high quality and which works on an attractive principle - the protagonists move from the rear cars of a long train to the front, with a surprise awaiting them in each car. With its structure, the film resembles a computer game that is fun for almost two hours, especially thanks to quality actors (the cast is incredible), excellent visuals and the director's brilliant performance. In short, an effective, imaginative and intelligent ride with a philosophical subtext, which unfortunately cools off a bit at the end.
()
A film definitely worth seeing. The great idea of post-apocalyptic sci-fi is developed deeper than expected, and surprisingly, it is not annoying. It works. I am sure it is the South Korean approach that worked wonders even with Western actors. In addition, the screenplay is not just an empty statement. There are scenes here that would not fit into a similar film in most cases, but here they work excellently. Chris Evans also proves that he can act.
()