The Grey

So.... Liam Neeson is an action star now? At least that's what the trailers of The Grey would tell you. 2008's Taken kind of came out of nowhere. Before that, at least to the extent of my knowledge, Neeson always played this stoic, wise, older character. He was always the level headed teacher who helped the main character in his quest (at least this is to the extent of my Liam Neeson knowledge, and probably most other people my age). But with Taken, all of the sudden he was a viable action star. The movie made a bunch of money, and was a pretty awesome action flick. I remember it being a huge early season hit when it came out. In early 2011 he followed it up with Unknown, a movie about spies and amnesia, and Liam doing his action star thing again. Unknown was not as good as Taken, but still a fun action film.

Then in late 2011, Joe Carnahan's The Grey came out. The trailers made it look like another Liam Neeson action fest, except this time set in the snow. And instead of fighting terrorists he was fighting super wolves. Seemed pretty awesome to me. But after seeing it a few weeks ago, my initial thoughts were only partially true, which shaped my feelings about it in a big way.

Ottway (Liam Neeson) works for an oil company in the wilderness of Alaska. He and his co-workers are a gruff band of cast offs and misfits. After their plane crashes in the blinding winter of Alaska, he and five others are stranded and must band together to survive. All the while there is the haunting specter of a pack of vicious wolves that are hellbent on getting the humans out of their territory. Ottway takes the lead to try and lead the men and keep them alive.

This film is a survival film way more than an action movie. I went in thinking Liam Neeson was going to be cracking skulls in the snow (which it is my belief that snow in any movie makes everything else look cool. The snow part in Inception was made 100X cooler because it was in the snow.). Instead, The Grey is a story about survival and camaraderie. The men must band together to keep warm and fight off the wolves or else they will die. I will admit, the wolves are pretty scary. The filmmakers do a good job of treating them like any scary monster in a movie; let the audience's imagination create the tension rather than showing everything about the monster right away.

One problem I had with this movie was the motivation of the characters. Liam Neeson was given some back story, and I guess the other guys would mention stuff about their kids and whatnot, but really all of the other guys were pretty forgettable. I didn't even catch any of their names until I looked them up on IMDb. I didn't really feel like I knew any of the guys, and it made it hard for me to care about their survival.

The scenery is absolutely stunning, and the wolves were played very well. The Grey is a pretty good picture of mediocre. While I enjoyed myself for the most part, I immediately forgot about it as soon as it was over. I could have used more time getting to know the stranded guys, or if not that then some more Liam Neeson fighting wolves. The ending is pretty cool, but I still wasn't crazy about it. Ultimately The Grey does not compare with Taken or Unknown, and does not further the Liam Neeson action star status. However if you are just a huge Liam Neeson fan, you'll probably enjoy it, as he is definitely the star of the show.


2.5/5