Snowpiercer (2013)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Snowpiercer (2013) – J.-H. Bong

As usual, the dystopian future looks pretty grim (and John Hurt is there, fitting right in, appropriately named Gilliam).  In its infinite wisdom, humankind has released a chemical into the stratosphere to cool the planet and stop global warming – this freezes the Earth and causes all life to die except those who manage to escape on an insulated supertrain circling the globe. Director Joon-Ho Bong, in his first Hollywood feature, takes this high concept and brings it to life (although there is truly a lot of death). A grubby pitched battle in a crowded boxcar eventually takes on greater grandeur as a sociological look at the class struggle (with the 1% enjoying obscene privileges again, embodied by Tilda Swinton as a Thatcheresque grotesque).  Ed Harris, the engineer, gets to deliver a sermon about evolutionary theory and ensuring that the ecosystem is balanced before Bong and his Korean team blow everything up.  A bit too cramped in this train for me, as Bong favors action over thought, but this might be the key to a successful commercial career.