Liam Neeson fighting wolves: The Movie
I really wanted to like this movie. Perhaps I do, but I need more time to think about it. Despite it's cliche horror movie conventions (think jump scares, dwindling heroes, etc.), I still found much to like about director Joe Carnahan's latest. Seeing the trailer makes it seem like a straightforward man vs. wilderness survival movie. It ends up being that, but much more.
Liam Neeson plays the main character, John Ottway, who is protecting an oil drilling team from a pack of wolves threatening their site. Neeson is solid yet again in this role, giving his character gravitas. He is very blunt when reacting to the incidents in the movie, but that is his character: cold but trying to survive while helping everyone around him. The main draw of the movie was him, which is why I went. To see him fight wolves and punch them in their faces.
The movie does a good job establishing the characters, actually fleshing them out so the audience has a chance to care about them before the bite the dust, or in this case, a wolf horrifically bites them. Unfortunately, the characters, while do get in-depth on religion and philosophical stuff, never really amount to much. I never felt attached to another character besides Liam Neeson. I might have felt something for the guy with the glasses, because he has glasses. (Sidenote: Anyone else feel attached in movies to the guy with glasses? I always feel bad for them, and hope they make it. I'm not saying that people with glasses are helpless, but in movies they are sometimes portrayed so.)
The effects are well done. The mountains and rough tundra must have been hell to film in. Director Carnahan took a very realistic tone with this movie, which serves it well. The sense of dread as you see the wolf eye's in the night reflecting the torchlight is chilling. I originally thought battling the elements was the majority of the film. It ends up being a wolf pack chasing them, while they occasionally have to deal with natural boundaries and elements. This is where the horror aspect comes in, which I did not take to very well. The wolf attacks were very intense and well done, using practical effects over CGI for most of the film. The jump scares were kind of annoying, mainly because this isn't really a horror movie, and was a cheap way to scare the audience. The intense and graphic killings took care of that. Another thing was the one-by-one picking off of the characters. Isn't there a better way than every 20 minutes or so drop another one off? The ending, though, is where the movie really hit me. It made me look at the movie differently, and I appreciated it the more I thought about it.
It's tough to rate The Grey. I mean, I liked the themes they set-up, the story, and Liam Neeson, but I keep getting hung up on some old cliches they use, which makes the whole film suffer for it.
3.5 out of 5 Stars
3 for the movie itself
.5 for the ending, because it's awesome.
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