Even though it’s summer, there are still places where the sun doesn’t shine, and that sentiment extends to this graphic novel film adaptation, a wildly imaginative sci-fi romp with enough action and ambition to prove its place alongside summer’s other theatrical offerings. Snowpiercer is a tour-de-force, uniquely-crafted powerhouse of a movie that, like the fast-paced train it’s named after, charges ever-forward with such uncompromising force and vision that it leaves behind any semblance of what you might expect from a typical summer action flick.
Let me repeat: this is a very certain kind of film. It’s strangely familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, as all of its cinematic stylings extend to showcase its own understanding of past cinema and the slowly-crystalizing ideas of new. It’s imaginative in its world-building, inventive in its genre-mixing, and, certainly, ambitious in its movie-making. Even though the entirety of the film takes place inside the confines of a series of train cars, it’s among one of the most dazzling and head-spinning experiences to be injected into the action genre, adding a politically conscious tone in its wider tragedy of moral questioning and class warfare. Yet the ever-odd filmic styles that are combined here only attempt to serve the groundbreaking vision of the source material which the movie is based on: the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige.
Snowpiercer‘s comic-styled origins reveal more of the specific style and artistic bend that’s really fueling the movie’s engine. Snowpiercer tells story of a failed global warming experiment (performed in the year 2014) that turns the planet into a frozen ice box. We are introduced to the last of the human race, the poorest of which eat gelatin-like “protein blocks” and live under guard by the utilitarian government-state in the back of the tank-like train, that has been making the same cyclical trip for the past seventeen years. Of course, this being the day that the lower class finally has had enough, they set in motion their plan: to charge through each car to make their way to the front of the train and free themselves from their enslavement.
Even though the entirety of the film takes place inside the confines of a series of train cars, it’s among one of the most dazzling and head-spinning experiences injected into the action genre.
It would be easier if he had his superpowers to lead the uprising’s mad dash, but here, Chris Evans, as man (and muscle) of the people, Curtis, swaps his Captain America boy scout bravado for a bearded rough and tumble civilian who leads his people in the fight to overcome their oppressors. Yet Evans’ stone-faced, cool-headed pragmatism and butt-kicking seems to only remind us that the biggest advantage of being a graphic novel character is that sometimes the most powerful asset is to a story is deft and nuanced, which the comic book artists can nail down with the precision each moment needs. Here, though, the internal strife and emotional wear that Curtis and his fellow emaciated team suffer through only hangs on to the movie like the rest of the combusting engine parts do, and so the audience is deprived of any deeper emotional connection.
With a surrounding cast including Jamie Bell as fiery youngster Edgar, Octavia Spencer as single mother Tanya, and John Hurtas the wise Gilliam, excitable talent is present here and add real personality and warmth inside the cold prison of a set. Yet as we move ever forward through the train do we meet our most cracked-out characters, including the devilishly bizarre Tilda Swinton as police leader Mason. Also enlisted in Curtis’ crusade are Kang-ho Song as the lock-picking loon Namgoong Misoo and Ah-sung Ko as his meek daughter, Yona, who mostly speak in Korean during their time onscreen. Throughout the perilous journey, and amidst military warfare, it is Curtis and the father-daughter of Namgoog and Yona who serve as the film’s primary characters.
As our heroes advance through each stage, and the movie does have that laterally-moving narrative style, new worlds are unlocked, making for some of the movie’s most worthwhile entertainment. Just as the world of auto-mechanic decor was finished being set up and accepted, we are immediately thrust into a new world of higher-class living, complete with cars featuring aquariums and terrariums that feed the socialites, as well as (in one of the movie’s funniest scene-stealing moments) a hilariously fascist elementary school classroom, a restaurant, and night club. The worlds that continue to open up also add more and more information about how things came to be, which keeps us further captivated and invested in the story. However, clocking in at just over two hours, it’s going to take a bit of patience in keeping up with the whole charade, but with such fun world-building in art and production design, the experience remains rich and wholly engrossing.
South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, making his first English-speaking feature film (after making 2009’s Mother), brings with him a blazing imagination and commitment to bringing this story to the big screen, in all its glories and spoils. Snowpiercer‘s untraditional, stylized storytelling combines sci-fi expanse and art house intimacy, but without its more tender handling of the human spirit of Curtis and company, this train’s most mettle will only entertain by making your head spin as it rockets past you.
