My star rating: ⭐⭐
Summary:
Snowpiercer is a movie that represents modern society through using the metaphor of different sections of a train car to represent different classes in society. The poor people are situated in the back of the train, middle class in the middle of the train, and the elites of society are at the very front of the train controlling the engine. The movie follows a character named Curtis who’s main goal is to travel throughout the train (different sections of society) to make his way to the front to fight for better treatment for the back or poor section of the train.
The good:
There is not a lot I enjoyed about this movie other than Chris Evans. I will say, however, that the plot kept me on my toes the entire movie. The movie was never a total snooze fest because the plot was always quickly evolving to introduce new characters as well as new parts of society located on the train. It seemed that one of the goals of the director, Boon Joon-ho, was to make this movie incredibly metaphorical of parts of society today. Although it was hard to piece together the plot of the movie, it was relatively enjoyable to try to understand the metaphors he was representing through different parts of the train and obstacles against Curtis. The of the movie was also relatively enjoyable. The movie ends with the head of the train, Wilford, explaining to Curtis that his father figure in the back of the train, Gilliam, was in on the plot of Curtis creating a revolution to divert Curtis’ attention away from the poor part of the train to allow for the elite to kill a number of them to keep the population down. I was not expecting this ending at all, especially considering that Gilliam died during the process of Curtis’ revolution.
The bad:
This movie was extremely difficult to follow. The movie would introduce several, sometimes unnecessary, characters to the plot just for the audience to never see them again or for them to be killed off moments later. This made it difficult to understand the point of the characters within the larger plot of the movie and how they helped or were special to Curtis and his mission during the movie. There were also aspects of the movie that were not explained well or seemed unnecessary, one of these moments included the end of the movie where Yona and Timmy escaped the train after everyone perishes from an avalanche and they see a polar bear. I assume this is to represent that there is life outside of the train and to prove Yona’s father’s point that the ice age is getting closer to ending. However, this scene felt unnecessary and as though it did not adhere to the overall goal of the film. Overall, this film was extremely confusing which did not make it very enjoyable.