Review: ‘Snowpiercer’ crashes despite A-list cast and unique story

Posted on July 11, 2014

My attempts to catch some of this summer’s limited-release fare brings me to the second dystopian adventure of the season: “Snowpiercer.”

It’s rare for a film to leave me as conflicted and confused as this one did. I don’t mean the story is tough to follow, for it’s relatively straight forward, but “Snowpiercer” seems like a film I should have liked, but I just didn’t.

Based on a French graphic novel and brought to film by Korean director Joon-ho Bong (“The Host”) making his English-language debut, something just gets lost in translation along the way. “Snowpiercer” is one of the most tonally confused films I’ve seen, ranging from dark and brooding to absurdist and almost comical, with bloody violence mixed in throughout. Featuring a surprisingly A-list cast led by an almost unrecognizable Chris Evans (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), “Snowpiercer” is a film that reaches high and slips off the ladder somewhere on the way up.

“Snowpiercer” is an interesting film with an interesting concept and intriguing characters, but unfortunately in the end, it doesn’t work well enough to be a good film. I’m sure some will see this and love it, but I simply wasn’t one of them.

The film is rated R for violence, language and drug content.

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