The Grey is a film starring Liam Neeson and is about him and a bunch of other guys being involved in a plane crash and getting stranded in the middle of nowhere in the Arctic where they have to avoid being ripped to shreds by a bunch of human hungry wolves.
It's a battle in the wilderness, surviving the elements- humans v wolves. It's a bit of a thrashing for the humans, one gets half eaten whilst turning his bike around in the middle of the night, one falls out of a tree right next to some lingering wolves with their napkins and knives and forks out.
To be honest, it was a bit of a disappointment. It was a decent film, quite intriguing and I'm glad I watched it but it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. Firstly, we don't know where they are when they crash. We don't know what their aim is, they're just wandering in the snow trying to get to the woods. Usually in that sort of situation they'd make it clear what they're trying to do, where they're trying to head to to get help or to get home, not just randomly walking to the woods and then to a river. Maybe I missed something. I suppose they wouldn't have the foggiest where they are but in that case tell us, the audience. We don't know what they know- wouldn't they have any equipment to tell where they are, wouldn't anyone have known where they were before they crashed? There are quite a few unanswered questions as to where they are and how far away from home they are.
The other thing is that everyone dies. OK, have a few dieing but not all of them for Liam Neeson's sake. One of them non-sensically decided to just give up and sit at a river for some reason and I think the best way to end these sort of films is to have 1 or 2 people surviving at the end- like The Day After Tomorrow where a few survive, Anaconda where 2 survive, The Flight of the Phoenix, Jurassic Park, Poseidon. Otherwise it's just like 'oh, so what was the point in that?'
The animal hunting the man concept is one that seems to intrigue and excite us- we are enticed by the idea of escaping the beast. I think it's an innate, instinctive fear of mankind's, one of the top ones as well, to be hunted as prey by a superior beast. It sparks adrenalin and fear. A show I like is Primeval about dinosaurs coming into the modern day through gaps in time, and my favourite episodes are the ones with the scariest animals, why is that? It relates to the question of 'why do people like horror films?' What is it about watching a monster or killer hunting down people that we enjoy- the adrenalin the fear causes? Watching it on screen as fiction is exciting. It's just something that interests me- why do these films interest us so much? In relation to that, why do we like action films and scenes? What is it about a mass gun- fight where people get shot killed that we like?
The Grey fits in with this, it's a thriller and the best and most exciting aspect of it is the men out in the middle of nowhere with no help, having to fend for themselves, and escape the pack of ravening wolves stalking and hunting them. Liam Neeson's a good main character for it, his charisma and tense persona match the plot of this movie well, he's a good leader although the supporting characters could be better. There should be a woman in there (they're all men- 7) and they could be more likeable, some hardly have any lines and it seems a bit too revolved around Neeson's character, there's very little sub-plot and this makes the story less dense and less interesting than it could be.
Overall it's a 6/10, there are far better films out there but far worse. It's a decent film with plenty of action and intrigue but with a frustrating ending and a lack of depth of story.
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