Hannerhan
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
- Messages
- 365
- Reaction score
- 44
Watched "The Grey" the other night. Don't read the below unless you're OK with spoilers. And if you haven't seen the movie, you should just read the below so you know to avoid it.
This movie had a 79% ripe rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it's about Liam Neeson kicking a bunch of wolves' asses around Alaska, so I figured it would be basically a can't miss.
First, it's not really a story about Liam Neeson kicking wolf ass, as much as it is a story about how a person or people both individually and collectively handle life and death struggles, and the prospect of their own death in certain cases. So far, so good actually...because I think it's interesting to frame the story in this light, and frankly the straight action approach to a movie like this would have been a little boring unless it was done perfectly. But here's the problem: the movie really, really sucks.
If you're going to make a brainless popcorn action movie, a plot hole here and there is acceptable to a point. But when the director decides to get a little more serious and ask some genuine questions in the movie, I think the viewer has the right to demand a little more in terms of the story. And if you're going to make a movie about wolves, maybe you should do at least a small amount of research on the creatures. So that's where this film really jumps the shark and had really lost me within 45 minutes. I have assembled a short list of plot holes, and these are just the major ones:
1. Liam Neeson's character believes for some reason that the survivors of the plane crash should leave the crash scene in order to get rescued. This runs counter to what any rational person would think.
2. Wolves start eating people immediately, the first night after the crash when fires are still burning. In reality wolves wouldn't go near a plane crash scene for days if not weeks.
3. These "super wolves" don't appear to be afraid of fire.
4. In the most climactic scene of the movie, the 4 surviving characters string clothes together and cross a gorge, with Neeson's character saying at one point "it's either over the gorge or stay here and deal with the wolves." The last guy ends up falling after he gets across, and miraculously several wolves immediately pounce on him and drag the body away, while the rest of the characters don't seem to think it's odd that the wolves somehow managed to cross the gorge faster than them.
5. 2 guys end up in an icy river for several minutes. One does actually drown (thankfully, because that meant we were down to one survivor...meaning it would be over soon), but Neeson's character makes it out. I was thinking "surely they'll at least make him take off his wet clothes and start a fire, because in real life he'd be dead in 10 minutes" but no. Cut to next scene and he's walking again with no ill effects or wet clothes.
6. The fear the men had at the beginning of the movie was that they were close to a wolf den, which might be the reason that the wolves were so aggressive. After 3 days of hiking, crossing gorges, going down icy rivers, etc, the movie ends with Neeson's character being surrounded by wolves and him realizing that he has in fact walked right into their den (it's made painfully obvious by the large mammal carcasses all around, as if wolves would drag a dead elk miles to their den to eat it).
And don't get me started on how the digital wolves look like **** and aren't even remotely realistic.
So in short, I really can't remember ever feeling more out of touch with an RT rating than I am on this one. I feel literally robbed after having spent $5 to rent this on-demand at the house, and I hold all these so-called critics responsible. I don't mind the fact that this really isn't an action movie. I don't mind the fact that it's pretty bleak and it's a pretty long movie. I do mind the fact that it is just a big pile of stinking wolf feces disguised as a film.
This movie had a 79% ripe rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it's about Liam Neeson kicking a bunch of wolves' asses around Alaska, so I figured it would be basically a can't miss.
First, it's not really a story about Liam Neeson kicking wolf ass, as much as it is a story about how a person or people both individually and collectively handle life and death struggles, and the prospect of their own death in certain cases. So far, so good actually...because I think it's interesting to frame the story in this light, and frankly the straight action approach to a movie like this would have been a little boring unless it was done perfectly. But here's the problem: the movie really, really sucks.
If you're going to make a brainless popcorn action movie, a plot hole here and there is acceptable to a point. But when the director decides to get a little more serious and ask some genuine questions in the movie, I think the viewer has the right to demand a little more in terms of the story. And if you're going to make a movie about wolves, maybe you should do at least a small amount of research on the creatures. So that's where this film really jumps the shark and had really lost me within 45 minutes. I have assembled a short list of plot holes, and these are just the major ones:
1. Liam Neeson's character believes for some reason that the survivors of the plane crash should leave the crash scene in order to get rescued. This runs counter to what any rational person would think.
2. Wolves start eating people immediately, the first night after the crash when fires are still burning. In reality wolves wouldn't go near a plane crash scene for days if not weeks.
3. These "super wolves" don't appear to be afraid of fire.
4. In the most climactic scene of the movie, the 4 surviving characters string clothes together and cross a gorge, with Neeson's character saying at one point "it's either over the gorge or stay here and deal with the wolves." The last guy ends up falling after he gets across, and miraculously several wolves immediately pounce on him and drag the body away, while the rest of the characters don't seem to think it's odd that the wolves somehow managed to cross the gorge faster than them.
5. 2 guys end up in an icy river for several minutes. One does actually drown (thankfully, because that meant we were down to one survivor...meaning it would be over soon), but Neeson's character makes it out. I was thinking "surely they'll at least make him take off his wet clothes and start a fire, because in real life he'd be dead in 10 minutes" but no. Cut to next scene and he's walking again with no ill effects or wet clothes.
6. The fear the men had at the beginning of the movie was that they were close to a wolf den, which might be the reason that the wolves were so aggressive. After 3 days of hiking, crossing gorges, going down icy rivers, etc, the movie ends with Neeson's character being surrounded by wolves and him realizing that he has in fact walked right into their den (it's made painfully obvious by the large mammal carcasses all around, as if wolves would drag a dead elk miles to their den to eat it).
And don't get me started on how the digital wolves look like **** and aren't even remotely realistic.
So in short, I really can't remember ever feeling more out of touch with an RT rating than I am on this one. I feel literally robbed after having spent $5 to rent this on-demand at the house, and I hold all these so-called critics responsible. I don't mind the fact that this really isn't an action movie. I don't mind the fact that it's pretty bleak and it's a pretty long movie. I do mind the fact that it is just a big pile of stinking wolf feces disguised as a film.
