I just got 'round to watching it.
The structure of the train didn't really make any sense about how it was supposed to have been survivable, or really any indication on why there wasn't a sustainable level of organization between the cars population-wise. They clearly moved the violinist up with little to no negative repercussions. They also never addressed why everyone who got moved up seemed totally different.
On top of that, the whole theme of organized chaos was just an exercise in ill-conceived futility winding up with everyone dead (there's no way the two kids survive the polarbear and winter, and even then with just the two of them, repopulation is impossible). I didn't really emotionally attach to any of the characters either, but I think that the mysterious resurrection of plot-gimmick-McKiller-guy was really weird -- as was the fact that no one addressed the totally fucked structural integrity that he & Curtis caused by shooting through the glass in the sections of the train. Also, of everything is balanced so carefully, how do you sustain a car of axe-weilding psychopaths and another of a continual rave, but only limited gardeners or other roles that seem to have virtually no one in them (like the twice-yearly employed sushi chef)?
I dunno, the reveal in the engine room did well to pick up the massive amounts of slack that the film was dragging around, but then nothing really comes of that revelation because it all falls apart. Hell, in 10 more rotations or so, they'd've all just been able to disembark in relative safety.
I dunno, I didn't really get any satisfaction from shock value even when it got relatively dark -- like with Curtis' story, and things like turning bugs into a protein-rich food source seems like a natural move despite the fact that there's a cultural discomfort with it now, it sure beats cannibalism but made Curtis gag when seeing it which seems a little odd retrospectively. Also- why was the girl psychic at first, and then apparently not later on? Lots of weird little plot points that never panned out and didn't seem to mesh in with the rest of the story, or seemed weirdly not well built in to the whole setting. My favourite part was the character of the artist photographer (since that's something you never think about in those settings and gave a lot of flavor to the back section when things were focused there).
tl;dr - Wasn't really my cup o' tea, and I don't really understand all of the praise that it received. I kinda feel like I have a weirdly objective and detached view towards shows like this, since it seems to fit in with things like Game of Thrones (which I've come to enjoy), and The Walking Dead (which I've come to stop caring about entirely), because stories in the face of extreme life or death scenarios just apparently aren't gripping to me at all. That aspect does nothing for me, so if the surrounding details aren't rock solid, I've got nothing keeping me connected to the story.
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