Review of The Grey (2012) by Rory R — 23 Dec 2013

When you first pop this into the DVD player or hit "play" on Netflix, you're going to get the impression that it's going to be a less than satisfying attempt at recreating Christopher Nolan's early years.

But by the end of the movie, you're going to be convinced that Joe Carnahan has it in him to recreate Christopher Nolan's early years. Filled to the brim with metaphor and symbolism that is present in enough great films to be especially emotionally connecting but has not over inflated the market enough to where you'd resent seeing the metaphors.

The pacing clunks a little bit at the beginning, but once you get in the forest, the pacing is perfect. Liam Neeson does a great job at playing Liam Neeson (let's not kid ourselves, that's what he does in all movies) but the rest of the characters felt samey.

There's like, the same white scumbag repeated over and over, and then that character turned into a token black dude. C'mon, bring us some variety. Maybe one of these guys aside from Liam is classy? Maybe one of them is super old, or maybe a young adult? Maybe a female character? Maybe this stuff wouldn't work in the story they set up, but it wouldn't be hard to get what I'm asking for and retain the quality of the film if not enhance it.

If they can do it in Predators, they can do it here. The music is good but mostly ripoffs and samples of other conventions and musical artists. You even hear the Hans Zimmer Bwowm in one scene. Visually the movie is sick.

Some of these camera shots made me feel like I was in the forest in these situations, and the way everything is arranged visually plays perfectly to the metaphors, especially the mountains looming in the background.

It's a bit of a mixed bag, but in the end you should come out of this movie feeling more than satisfied. B-.