February 1, 2012

  • The Grey

    SPOILERS

    This isn't really a review.  Just...a spew.  By the previews, this one looked like a keeper.  I mean come on, a plane crash in the mountains, survival in the snow and cold, wolves trying to kill you simply because you're trespassing, and Liam Neeson leading the survival gang? Should work perfectly, right? True, perhaps a plane crash in snow-covered mountains isn't too original, but it's still something worthwhile to watch, and as long as the plot is interesting, you can't go wrong. But as it turns out, even a movie like this can go wrong.  If I had known it was a movie that seemed intent on subliminally suggesting there is no God, that you're on your own, that when you die you die, that no matter what ugliness comes your way in life, (like a horrid crash and murderous wolves), you're on your own in dealing with it without ever having the luxury of calling upon God in faith, I would have avoided it.  Of course, you'd never know that by the trailers and TV spots alone.  The suspense was there. The gore too.  But then there was....that.  Anti-God. Anti-faith.  I didn't like that.  

    And that has to be the case, because without it, there really isn't a point to this movie.  Sure, there's the fight to survive, but that's obvious.  At least, after the plane crashes. But from the very start, Liam Neeson's character already flirted with the idea of death when he pointed the shot gun in his mouth, stopping only because he was distracted.  No fight to survive there.  I guess he wouldn't fight, seeing as how he was only trying to ebb the pain of losing his wife.  But too often was the mention of God or faith peppered throughout the movie, that this flick didn't seem like it was meant to be anything more than that.  What better way to prove that faith and God are useless than throwing our characters in the middle of insurmountable and deadly obstacles, getting them killed off one by one, and finally having the last survivor call out to God in desperation before cursing him for his "silence?" Followed by his choosing to embrace the death he longed for in the beginning and face what little life he has left on his own.  On his own.

    On the plus side, large portions of the score were pretty amazing, but that was it.  Oh well.  There will be other movies that hopefully won't be unpredictably disappointing. I shall keep my fingers crossed.