If Blade and Gattaca had a baby, it would be Daybreakers.

Set in a near future where most of the population are vampires with only a handful of humans to feed off, similar to the ratio of monkeys to humans in Planet of the Apes. A scientist at a giant corporation who operates “blood farms” is working on a blood substitute to meet the growing needs of the vampire population. There are two thinly veiled and mildly lame metaphors here: a giant corporation is literally sucking the blood from people; and if you live in Boulder, replace every instance of the word blood with the word oil. It’s like a party game for those in the know.

Anyhow, a small group of wily humans led by Willem Dafoe, who has been cured of his vampirism, recruits the vampire’s version of a vegan, Ethan Hawke, the aforementioned scientist who only drinks pig’s blood, to help them turn Dafoe’s odd transformation into their secret weapon.

It’s a decent sci-fi/action flick. Visually it’s stark and well composed, the story makes sense most of the time, and the action is full of bullets and stakes. Vamps explode like an amped-up episode of Buffy, and there’s a lot of cool semi- futuristic tech, like cars with cameras on top so that the undead can drive around during the day. It’s a lot of fun, and best of all, there’s not that pesky Edward/Jacob debate. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Drama/Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 5/11/10

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