As Teen Wolf's finale is on Monday and I really need reasons for people to come here other than that, I decided to look at the 2012 movies I wanted to see, but never got round too for one reason or another. I am also perfectly self aware that American and UK release dates can be sometimes months apart and so some of these films, to my non UK readers may have come out in 2011, but they are 2012 for me at least. So deal with it. Enjoy!
The Grey was based on a short story whose writer helped write the screenplay for this. The Grey was met with much critical appraisal. It was claimed to be an entertaining survival movie with a surprisingly deep plot and surprisingly well thought out characters. However the film has been criticised for having a bad ending, and many felt the numerous undertones the film had, were unnecessary.
What did I think? Well let's dig into, The Grey.
Liam Neeson plays Ottway, a grumpy, old, tired and miserable hunter who is very handy with a sniper rifle, he is ready to die and spends much of the film either killing wolves or reflecting on his own life with much contemplation on suicide. And within this sad, desolate landscape, Liam Neeson really works. He is just so incredibly bland - almost dreary, but in this setting, it feels almost like the point, just another snowflake to blend into the scenery another thing of beauty worn down by years of heavy storms.
The plane he is on crashes, he almost calmly straps himself down as the plane around him disintegrates, and the people around him get thrashed around. When it is all over, carnage is all around him, but he is practically unhurt and snaps into action to help any survivors. The rest of the near two hour long movie is simply about survival, weaving in and out of reality and dreams, as the eight people still alive after the crash do everything they can to hold off before rescue comes - if it is even coming at all. Building fires, fighting off wolves, dealing with corpses, trying to keep peace and order amongst themselves and battling their own human fragility as one by one they die, succumbing to their own injuries, the cold or being picked off by the wolves. By the last fifteen minutes, Ottway is alone, all lives and hope for survival is gone, leading to an admittedly disappointing ending.
The plane crash, although at first seems simply there for thrills, soon begins a central, thematic plot device as each survivor finds themselves questioning why so many died and yet they survived, theorising death, the afterlife and higher powers as you slowly realise that these men, despite the triumph of surviving the crash have still given up, defeated by the constant threats of the cold and the wolves, they are going to fight - give everything they have got, but none of them really believe they'll survive this - and that is what makes it all so heartbreaking, they do the incredible feat of surviving the crash...somehow but are thrown immediately from one danger into the next. They could have perhaps done more with this, having each survivor from a different culture and use different beliefs to cause tension, but you also easily forget that this is a blockbuster, the fact the film is as deep as it is, is mind blowing. I wonder how many average cinemagoers simply cast this film off as boring with a lot of this deep, intellectual contemplation going right over their heads.
The first thing to probably mention is The Grey is eye porn. The scenery, the atmosphere, my God, this film is fucking gorgeous. You need to see this on Blu-Ray, on the biggest TV you have. Damn, I wish I had gone to see this in the cinema, I mean all films are made for the big screen, but some simply belong there. It isn't just in the beautiful shots of the scenery either, it is also the way the action is captured, the camera gets right in, throws us around - in every big spectacle moment, the camera makes it as if we are right in the heart of it, going through exactly what the characters are. It is insane fun.
It isn't just Masanobu Takayanagi's beautiful cinematography that makes this such a lovely watch either, director Joe Carnahan just stages the whole thing beautifully in the first place, the two things combined just make such a beautiful package and all this glorious eye porn is undercut with a beautiful score by Marc Streitenfeld and the sound of howling both for the ice cold wind and wolves that surround them - and I also noticed as I watched that The Grey uses a lot of music from my favourite film of all time, Ink. Doing a flashback sequence to 'John's Walk'? You better fucking believe I cried like a motherfucking bitch.
This is all finally cemented in the acting itself, I didn't recognise a lot of the actors in this movie, but my God, they do a truly fantastic job. Each character captures a different part of the human psyche, each one capturing a different form of human chaos, with Ottway as the stoic rock at the centre, doing his best to hold everything together, to hold himself together, as the very world around him fights against him.
This slow, methodic almost art cinema like dreamscape the film creates, means you get action quite unlike anything you've ever seen. This movie is less about thrills and more about emotion. This also allows us to appreciate things on a much smaller scale, although in many films we simply shrug off huge gun battles as tens of guys are getting gunned down, here we sit on the edge of our seat, sick with tension at a guy simply with a cut, because the film cements that nature itself is our enemy and never tries to overplay the more spectacular moments to somehow outweigh the threat of that. It is perfectly balanced to make us appreciate every moment, no matter how big or small, every death, every injury, because nothing is ever quite big as the desolate Alaska Landscape that surrounds them and so the threats never are either. This also means, with a movie so understanding of human emotion, we'll be devastated by deaths of characters we don't even know. There'll still be explosions, there'll still be be CGI, there'll still be visceral action, there'll still be chase sequences, there'll still be fist fights, there will still be spectacle, don't worry - we even see Neeson punch a badly animated CGI wolf in the face but this film isn't 'Taken with Wolves', it is so much less than 'Taken With Wolves' where action is concerned but so much more more in every other regard. Although I must admit I was slightly disappointed we didn't get to see Neeson fight an Alpha. Oh also, prepare to jump, a lot. This movie has more jump scares than a 2000's remake of a horror classic, Jesus Christ!
The special effects on the other hand, however, are a...mixed bag. We get some great practical wounds and blood, that of course look great, especially with this beautiful staging and cinematography - I mean the action is truly brutal and gory and they do actually use real wolves for a lot of the film but there occasions, especially in action scenes, where Ottway is punching wolves in the face and the wolves are replaced by CGI ones...laughably CGI ones and the film tries so hard to edit and shoot around it, so we see as little of them as possible...but it doesn't work, it looks bad. And I mean I know I hate CGI and probably hate on CGI that doesn't deserve as much hate as I actually give it, but I am not exaggerating here, the CGI wolves are genuinely bad. And in an otherwise gorgeous film, it just makes it all the more noticeable.
So do I recommend it? Call me pretentious if you want, but the Grey is a masterpiece, almost completely flawless. Admittedly I was slightly disappointed by the ending, but I guess fist fight with a shittily animated wolf could have perhaps ruined the film, there is probably a reason it wasn't included in the final cut. Either way this is easily the best film of 2012 after Chronicle. If you came looking for 'Taken With Wolves' you will be disappointed, for everyone else, what you have here is something truly special.
Think About It!
-Locke
What did I think? Well let's dig into, The Grey.
The plane he is on crashes, he almost calmly straps himself down as the plane around him disintegrates, and the people around him get thrashed around. When it is all over, carnage is all around him, but he is practically unhurt and snaps into action to help any survivors. The rest of the near two hour long movie is simply about survival, weaving in and out of reality and dreams, as the eight people still alive after the crash do everything they can to hold off before rescue comes - if it is even coming at all. Building fires, fighting off wolves, dealing with corpses, trying to keep peace and order amongst themselves and battling their own human fragility as one by one they die, succumbing to their own injuries, the cold or being picked off by the wolves. By the last fifteen minutes, Ottway is alone, all lives and hope for survival is gone, leading to an admittedly disappointing ending.
The plane crash, although at first seems simply there for thrills, soon begins a central, thematic plot device as each survivor finds themselves questioning why so many died and yet they survived, theorising death, the afterlife and higher powers as you slowly realise that these men, despite the triumph of surviving the crash have still given up, defeated by the constant threats of the cold and the wolves, they are going to fight - give everything they have got, but none of them really believe they'll survive this - and that is what makes it all so heartbreaking, they do the incredible feat of surviving the crash...somehow but are thrown immediately from one danger into the next. They could have perhaps done more with this, having each survivor from a different culture and use different beliefs to cause tension, but you also easily forget that this is a blockbuster, the fact the film is as deep as it is, is mind blowing. I wonder how many average cinemagoers simply cast this film off as boring with a lot of this deep, intellectual contemplation going right over their heads.
The first thing to probably mention is The Grey is eye porn. The scenery, the atmosphere, my God, this film is fucking gorgeous. You need to see this on Blu-Ray, on the biggest TV you have. Damn, I wish I had gone to see this in the cinema, I mean all films are made for the big screen, but some simply belong there. It isn't just in the beautiful shots of the scenery either, it is also the way the action is captured, the camera gets right in, throws us around - in every big spectacle moment, the camera makes it as if we are right in the heart of it, going through exactly what the characters are. It is insane fun.
It isn't just Masanobu Takayanagi's beautiful cinematography that makes this such a lovely watch either, director Joe Carnahan just stages the whole thing beautifully in the first place, the two things combined just make such a beautiful package and all this glorious eye porn is undercut with a beautiful score by Marc Streitenfeld and the sound of howling both for the ice cold wind and wolves that surround them - and I also noticed as I watched that The Grey uses a lot of music from my favourite film of all time, Ink. Doing a flashback sequence to 'John's Walk'? You better fucking believe I cried like a motherfucking bitch.This is all finally cemented in the acting itself, I didn't recognise a lot of the actors in this movie, but my God, they do a truly fantastic job. Each character captures a different part of the human psyche, each one capturing a different form of human chaos, with Ottway as the stoic rock at the centre, doing his best to hold everything together, to hold himself together, as the very world around him fights against him.
This slow, methodic almost art cinema like dreamscape the film creates, means you get action quite unlike anything you've ever seen. This movie is less about thrills and more about emotion. This also allows us to appreciate things on a much smaller scale, although in many films we simply shrug off huge gun battles as tens of guys are getting gunned down, here we sit on the edge of our seat, sick with tension at a guy simply with a cut, because the film cements that nature itself is our enemy and never tries to overplay the more spectacular moments to somehow outweigh the threat of that. It is perfectly balanced to make us appreciate every moment, no matter how big or small, every death, every injury, because nothing is ever quite big as the desolate Alaska Landscape that surrounds them and so the threats never are either. This also means, with a movie so understanding of human emotion, we'll be devastated by deaths of characters we don't even know. There'll still be explosions, there'll still be be CGI, there'll still be visceral action, there'll still be chase sequences, there'll still be fist fights, there will still be spectacle, don't worry - we even see Neeson punch a badly animated CGI wolf in the face but this film isn't 'Taken with Wolves', it is so much less than 'Taken With Wolves' where action is concerned but so much more more in every other regard. Although I must admit I was slightly disappointed we didn't get to see Neeson fight an Alpha. Oh also, prepare to jump, a lot. This movie has more jump scares than a 2000's remake of a horror classic, Jesus Christ!The special effects on the other hand, however, are a...mixed bag. We get some great practical wounds and blood, that of course look great, especially with this beautiful staging and cinematography - I mean the action is truly brutal and gory and they do actually use real wolves for a lot of the film but there occasions, especially in action scenes, where Ottway is punching wolves in the face and the wolves are replaced by CGI ones...laughably CGI ones and the film tries so hard to edit and shoot around it, so we see as little of them as possible...but it doesn't work, it looks bad. And I mean I know I hate CGI and probably hate on CGI that doesn't deserve as much hate as I actually give it, but I am not exaggerating here, the CGI wolves are genuinely bad. And in an otherwise gorgeous film, it just makes it all the more noticeable.
So do I recommend it? Call me pretentious if you want, but the Grey is a masterpiece, almost completely flawless. Admittedly I was slightly disappointed by the ending, but I guess fist fight with a shittily animated wolf could have perhaps ruined the film, there is probably a reason it wasn't included in the final cut. Either way this is easily the best film of 2012 after Chronicle. If you came looking for 'Taken With Wolves' you will be disappointed, for everyone else, what you have here is something truly special.
Think About It!
-Locke
No comments:
Post a Comment