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The Grey - Movie Review
Oct. 2nd, 2012 12:55 pmThe Grey (2011)
Why the pretentious quote? Well it turns out that "The Grey" starring Liam Neeson is actually an existential thriller rather than a survivalist action movie. It made me think of the quote above, so I'm just going to leave Dostoyevsky's words floating there for you to interpret as you will.
"The Grey" had some odd marketing. It made it out to be sort of a "Taken"-style action movie only set in an arctic wasteland. Once again with Liam Neeson as the badass protagonist fighting against deadly enemies with his passion for a loved one keeping him going. While in "Taken" he's fighting terrorists to save his daughter, in "The Grey" he's fighting wolves while remembering his dead wife.
Now that's not entirely misleading. Liam Neeson definitely does come up against wolves, he's still kind of a badass and, as much as the trailer had me groaning, his memories of his dead wife do play an important part. However, this is not really an action movie. As exciting as some parts might be and while there's some fending off wolves involved, the characters are mainly just running from the wolves. What's more, while some have criticised the film for an unrealistic depiction of wolves, it isn't really wolves that the characters are facing at all. It's death. (Yes, this is "Liam Neeson Vs DEATH". Interested now?)
( Read more... )
“Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!…"
- Rodion Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Why the pretentious quote? Well it turns out that "The Grey" starring Liam Neeson is actually an existential thriller rather than a survivalist action movie. It made me think of the quote above, so I'm just going to leave Dostoyevsky's words floating there for you to interpret as you will.
"The Grey" had some odd marketing. It made it out to be sort of a "Taken"-style action movie only set in an arctic wasteland. Once again with Liam Neeson as the badass protagonist fighting against deadly enemies with his passion for a loved one keeping him going. While in "Taken" he's fighting terrorists to save his daughter, in "The Grey" he's fighting wolves while remembering his dead wife.
Now that's not entirely misleading. Liam Neeson definitely does come up against wolves, he's still kind of a badass and, as much as the trailer had me groaning, his memories of his dead wife do play an important part. However, this is not really an action movie. As exciting as some parts might be and while there's some fending off wolves involved, the characters are mainly just running from the wolves. What's more, while some have criticised the film for an unrealistic depiction of wolves, it isn't really wolves that the characters are facing at all. It's death. (Yes, this is "Liam Neeson Vs DEATH". Interested now?)
( Read more... )
