Film Review: Snowpiercer

 

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s first English-language production, an adaptation of a French comic book series starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton, centers on a revolution in a class-segregated train carrying the last human survivors on Earth after the world is iced over.

All the world’s a train, and all the men and women are merely passengers -- a twist on one of William Shakespeare’s most oft-recited lines could serve well as a summation of director Bong Joon-ho’s latest film. An adaptation of the cult French comic book series Le Transperceneige, Snowpiercer is an epic yet nuanced, contemplative yet entertaining vehicle that uses its titular locomotive as an allegory for human existence as we see it in the here and now.

Boasting a stellar cast that will certainly help open doors to the international market -- with the presence of Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer and Alison Pill to whip up the interest of U.S. filmgoers, and Tilda Swinton and John Hurt to cement the film’s art house credentials -- Snowpiercer sees Bong maintaining his own artistic grip on the proceedings.