Exclaim.com:
Initially, the glossy sheen, clever anti-capitalist subtext, gorgeous storyboarding and stellar art direction mask the many faults of Daybreakers, with dry exposition hiding behind top-notch set designs and tightly assembled action sequences. After awhile, however, we begin to tire of the bland, humourless characters and the piecemeal story patching together what is essentially a series of vampire-related, science fiction ideas and prospects without focus.

There is a message, sure, and a heavy-handed one at that, but it’s difficult to care with nothing but wooden archetypes blurting out prosaic babble without subtlety or nuance.

Set in 2019, this political fable features a society loaded with vampires, and a dwindling human populace farmed for blood and hunted like animals. The problem with this is that without food, vampires mutate and regress to an animalistic, bat-like stage, killing anything in their path, which proves problematic in the face of social order.

With worldwide blood depletion looming, the pressure is on expert haematologist Edward (Ethan Hawke) to find a sustainable substitute. Unfortunately, his moral compass goes haywire when powerful businessman Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) unveils a financially-driven plan to use this impending invention to exploit humans and vampires alike, leading to an alliance with a band of ragtag humans with a plan.

While exploding vampires and aggressive battle sequences keep tensions at a high, erroneous undeveloped storylines involving things such as Bromley’s human daughter (Isabel Lucas) detract from a standard road movie narrative, delivering little more than groan-inducing clichés in search of profundity. A camp value in slow motion slaughters and deliberate hokum in serious scenes help with this slightly but not enough to make the film a success.

Boring exposition and corny, convenient developments aside, Daybreakers delivers enough fun on the visceral and visual front to make the big screen experience worthwhile. It’s just a shame that more cohesion and characterizations weren’t included in the mix.

Collider.com:
Vampires are all the rage these days, between the tween thrust of “Twilight” and the sexual abandon of “True Blood”.

But “Daybreakers” is not like its current brethren – it’s a classic vamp movie that follows some beloved myths while also introducing the genre to a whole new world of deadly circumstances. One, I might add, that doesn’t have any diamond-studded bloodsuckers. Read on to see why you should see “Daybreakers”.

With an explosive bat screech, “Daybreakers” flies to the year 2019, a future where Earth has been plagued by a worldwide vampiric outbreak. But this isn’t a world rife with anarchy. Society is much like it is now – everyday life soldiers on, but now the politicians, workers, and inhabitants have pointed teeth and a thirst for blood. Life is now conducted by night, and things seem orderly, except for one big problem- the blood is running out. There’s not enough “food” to feed the world and scientists like Ethan Hawke’s Edward are hired with the task of finding a substitute – not a “True Blood” sort of dish for political correctness, but a source of nourishment that will end the rapidly increasing starvation the world faces, as starving bloodsuckers turn into “subsiders” — a sort of human-sized vampire bat. Meanwhile, desperate for food, the military vampires hunt the streets for the human stragglers who have not been changed. At the head of both quests is blood-centric businessman Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) – a man who loves his undead life and the human reality it saved him from, even though his turning lost him his human daughter (who has run away to try and live out her human life).

Edward loyally works for Bromley, but he has ulterior motives for his faux-blood hunt. Sure, it’s his job, but he’s also a man who loathes who he has become, and wants a way to survive without drinking human blood. Just as his world is dark, so is his view of life until he’s literally slammed with a dose of daylight. When he comes across a band of underground humans – led by Audrey (Claudia Karvan) and Elvis (Willem Dafoe) – who are fighting to stay alive, Edward discovers a secret that might do a lot more than end his need for blood – it could save the human race.

For the most part, “Daybreakers” is a serious and wild ride of vampiric intensity, but its also suffers a sort of identity crisis where the serious is smashed with flitting bouts of campy horror left over from helmers Michael and Peter Spierig’s Undead. One moment will have the slow, unwinding chills of a dark thriller, while the next will have an overly campy exploding geyser of dead vamps, or another dose of over-the-top flamboyance from Dafoe’s Elvis. Both aspects are enjoyable within the film, but don’t always blend together, sometimes bursting forth as campy fits of enthusiasm in a sombre story.

But these faults are almost inconsequential because of the world the Spierigs have created. The vampire’s blue-hued night contrasts nicely with the human’s bright day. Neither world becomes monotonous as the story reaches out like an intricate web, dipping into the many ways this world functions, without becoming too entrenched in any one part. The joys of vampiric life are balanced with the struggles and self-loathing of those who wish to still be human. The chaos of perfectly eerie creature-feature subsiders are balanced with the regality of the elite and the socially organized politicians. But even that small slice of government is given its due by answering our questions over what kind of government a vampire-ridden world has.

But most of all – and the reason I recommend this to anyone itching for a good horror movie – is that the Spierigs have reclaimed the vampire genre and given love to classic tropes while also breaking the world out into a whole new playing field. There are new myths to consider, and best of all – a certain, distinct sense of “humanity” in these vampires and in this world. For the most part, this outbreak hasn’t created a wild and anarchistic society. Status quo remains, and doesn’t really fall into the oft-used habit of making evil things bringers of anarchy. All of the bloody fun is there, but there’s also depth – which is at its most explosive when detailing Bromley’s plagued relationship with his daughter. One of the most suavely campy and devilish of the “bad guys” offers the most heart-wrenching moments as the audience feels their way through his relationship with daughter Alison (heart-tuggingly playe by “Transformers” Isabel Lucas).

Campy laughs, serious storylines, scary creatures, blood, guts, and thrills – “Daybreakers” seems to have it all. And while it might not come together in a perfect package, it’s most definitely a fun package.

JoBlo.com:
PLOT: In a world where 95% of the population are vampires and slowly starving to death due to lack of human blood, a vamp blood chemist, Edward (Ethan Hawke) tries to find a way to save both species from existence. In the process, he teams up with the human resistance, led by a battle-hardened survivalist named Elvis (Willem Dafoe). This pits him against his own brother, who hunts the few surviving humans, so that a blood supply corporation (led by and evil vampire executive played by Sam Neil) can continue to feed the dying vampire population.
REVIEW: DAYBREAKERS is the latest film from the Spierig Bros., who’ also helmed the popular Australian zombie flick, UNDEAD. Here they more from zombies to another type of undead- vampires. Lately, thanks to TWILIGHT, and shows like TRUE BLOOD, vamps have been making a big time comeback- and this film actually has a bit in common with TRUE BLOOD (thankfully, none with TWILIGHT), as both are about a world where vampires are real, and mingle freely among the population.

However, the vamps in DAYBREAKERS are nowhere near as well behaved as Bill & the gang from TRUE BLOOD. Rather, they’ve spent so much time feasting on humanity, that the race is all but extinct- with the few survivors either in hiding, or hooked up to machines in blood banks that slowly drain them until there’s nothing left. Of course, not all vamps are bad, with Ethan Hawke playing a reluctant vampire who abstains from human blood, and is trying to develop artificial blood in order to keep the starving vampires from turning into murderous bat-like mutants- which happens after vampires feed on their own blood in desperation.

Obviously Lionsgate has a lot of confidence in DAYBREAKERS- with them showing it at TIFF well in advance of it’s January opening. I think it’ll prove to be a very successful outing for them, as it’s a fun, action packed horror thriller. I’d be willing to bet that the Spierigs have a bright future ahead of them in genre films, as they really know how to please their audience. The TIFF Midnight Madness crowd went crazy for it, and it has to be said- this will definitely please the gorehounds as it’s a very HARD R, with tons of gore on display. Bloody as it gets though- I’m not sure if I’d really call it scary, as it’s more of an action flick with – similar to some horror elements. Basically it’s EQUILIBRIUM meets UNDERWORLD.

I was a bit surprised to see Ethan Hawke in the lead, as he’s not really known for his genre work (although he was excellent in the unfairly overlooked GATTACA). He’s very good here, and despite his star-billing, he doesn’t really go over the top in terms of action movie heroics (although he does kick some serious ass towards the end). The film’s real bad-ass has to be the great Willem Dafoe, who plays an Elvis Presley-obsessed human resistance leader. He gets a lot of cool scenes, including a few nifty car chases- with the vamps pursuing in custom SUV’s with blacked out windows to protect them from the sun.

Also worth mentioning is the always awesome Sam Neil as the chief antagonist. Neil hasn’t really been in much lately, and I have to wonder why, as he’s an excellent baddie, and pretty much looks exactly the same as he did when he made JURASSIC PARK even though it was sixteen years ago. TRANSFORMERS 2 hottie Isabel Lucas also shows up as Neil’s human daughter- and she actually did a pretty solid job, with her getting a lot more to work with here than she did as an evil Decepticon.

Of course the film isn’t perfect. The pace tends to lag a bit towards the middle of the film after a great introduction, before bouncing back in the last act. I think this may be the result of a limited budget, as it could have used an extra action beat in this section- but that’s a minor quibble.

I really think DAYBREAKERS is going to have a lot of fans when it finally comes out, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns into a very successful UNDERWORLD-style franchise for the studio. Horror fans should be looking forward to this one.

RATING: 8/10

Hitfix.com:
I wasn’t crazy about the first film by the Spierig Brothers, but I respected it as a piece of independent filmmaking just in terms of what they accomplished and how much it cost. It’s a very, very tiny film, but there are some gigantic moments and images in it that had an almost Gilliam-esque approach to effects work. I remember writing at the time that I had faith that if they ever had some greater resources behind them and a better script, they had a really good movie in them.

“Daybreakers” is, for the most part, that movie.

I’m impressed by the gore noir look of the movie, set in a world about 20 years from now, once vampires have completely taken over the world. They don’t just outnumber humans… it’s gotten to the point where humans are basically extinct except for giant private blood farms. It’s reached the point of crisis, so Edward (Ethan Hawke) works with a research time to develop a blood substitute that can keep the vampire population alive. Those that starve, unable to find real blood, become monsters, crazed and powerful. The last pockets of humans have been driven completely underground. It looks like everyone’s going extinct at the same time, with no hope.

Until, of course, hope comes walking in the door in the form of a crossbow-weilding former vampire named Elvis, played with visible relish by Willem Dafoe. Now, the thing I thought they got most wrong in “Undead” was their hypothetically-iconic lead character, a zombie-killing farmer. I thought they tried too hard, and the result seemed like a hollow echo. They almost lapse into self-parody with Dafoe’s character, but he’s having so much fun that it’s hard to fault the way he plays it. And yes… I said “former vampire.” Elvis was cured by something, and he offers Edward a chance to research him and try to recreate the events.

The film I would compare it to most directly is Kurt Wimmer’s “Equilibrium,” a very familiar genre exercise in some regards, but one that is stylish and makes good use of both practical and CG gore. It’s not particularly scary, but instead emphasizes the more-insidious horror of a society crumbling under the weight of its own hubris. As an exercise in world-building, it’s even more proof that the Spierig Brothers are ready for their giant whatever-it’s-going-to-be, their outsized effects picture/franchise adventure whatever. Someone needs to go ahead and hire them. They pull off such an audacious ending that any pacing concerns seem less important, delivering enough red meat to send audiences out happy.

Sam Neill plays the head of a company that seems at first to be the head of the vampire nation, but then by the end, I wasn’t sure how powerful he was or wasn’t, because there’s not reallly a lot of explanation of how things work. Most of the exposition is handled as art direction, and it’s actually very clever, with the environment telling the story through headlines, landmarks, advertising, propaganda, and more. Neill’s best stuff is with his estranged daughter, a still-human who has been on the run, hiding, afraid of all of them and especially her father. Isabel Lucas, who is probably best known to audiences as the blonde hot robot shapeshifter in “Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen,” does sad, heartbreaking work as Neill’s daughter, and it might be my favorite stuff in the film in terms of selling the reality. Likewise, Michael Dorman makes a strong impression as Frankie, Edward’s vampire-army-loyal brother. I don’t think they quite know how to resolve his storyline, but he does good, charismatic work

But for the most part, the film’s all about looking good and playing cool. And it does. “Daybreakers” opens 2010.