Dark Pixels the Blog

ENTERTAINMENT/RANT

I remember when I first saw the trailer for "The Grey."  Much like everyone else that saw the trailer I was all like, "Fuck Yeah, Liam Neeson punching wolves in the face with broken bottles strapped to his fist!  How bad-ass can you possibly get?"  Really other than that scene, the rest of the trailer makes it out to be a very forgettable man vs. nature survival action flick.  This couldn't be farther from the truth.  Whoever cut together that trailer did this movie a grievous injustice.  Not only is it now one of my favorite movies of all time, but it's also incredibly deep, and hard at work on multiple levels.  After I came home from the theater that night, it was gnawing at the inside of my skull, and I couldn't get it out.  I had to know if other people saw in it what I saw, so off to the Internet I went.  I figured professional movie watchers would be the best place to look, surely they would pick up on all the subtle elements at work in this film.  That's where I discovered the second grave injustice done to this movie.

At least half of the reviews I read went something like this, I'm paraphrasing of course:

"LOL, they all get eaten by wolves."

"This was so boring, to much talking not enough wolf punching."

"I though this was supposed to be an action movie." 

"Can someone please help me tie my shoes?" 

To be fair, not everyone completely Whoooshed on the point, after all, it did clock up a 78% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.  I just can't help but think; it could have been a much higher score if it wasn't for a handful of mouth breathing troglodytes derping up their reviews.

Here's a quote from a movie critic that pretty much sums up what I thought of the film:

 "As a simple survival story it is gripping cinema, but by being rich in metaphor, filled with ambiguity and widely open to interpretation, it is so much more. Even the title The Grey suggests the unknown factor, evoking the look of the Alaskan wilderness, the depressed state of Ottway’s mind and the vast space between white and black, right and wrong, heaven and hell."

-Thomas Caldwell

See?!  This guy gets it.

All I'm really trying to say is that if you like yourself some thinkin' movies every now and again, you could do a lot worse than giving The Grey a go.  It will give you something to ponder, and if you see it with a friend, give you something to discuss.  Also, Liam Neeson punches wolves in the fucking face!


-Jer