Wild wolf storyline doesn't take away from film

Written by Curtis J. Phillips
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 11:42

Liam Neeson stars in The Grey. (www.thegreythemovie.com)When Jaws came out in 1975 it seemed that everyone was scared to go into the water…be it the ocean, sea, lake, river and even, as farfetched as it sounds, the bathtub.

Shark attack was the film frenzy of the moment.  Massive size sharks eating up hapless human swimmers like minnows.

Yet in reality, statistics show that the chances of getting attacked by a shark when swimming off of the beach are one in 11.5 million and the chances of getting gobbled up one in 264.1 million.

Hollywood is Hollywood.

Now thanks to Liam Neeson and director Joe Carnahan, everyone is going to go wolf wild and be terrified to walk the trails or enter the forest after watching The Grey.

The plot finds a group of seven survivors of a plane crash stranded in the winter wasteland of Alaska with a pack of wolves on the prowl for human flesh. They must outwit the wily beasts before they become breakfast.

Now I’m no animal expert but I’m also no dummy in that the knowledge is out there that wolf attacks on humans are rare.

Without even going to Google, I bet you there haven’t been 10 people killed by wolves in North America during the last 100 years or so.

Aside from the historical retrospect, this action adventure was so entertaining, that I actually didn’t witness anyone opening their blasted cell phone to text, play a game or surf the net during the entire 117 minutes.

The tension is superb as is the portrayal of Neeson’s depressed character John Ottway.

The survival instinct against beasts—the CGI were crappy and made the grey wolves look like they were about to turn into werewolves—and the clash with the environment were well crafted by all the main characters.

The plane crash scene is one of the best depictions of such in years but the violent attacks of the wolves with supersonic speed were just too hokey.

Filmed in four months mainly in Smithers, B.C., the cinematography is excellent, as is the soundtrack which does along with a decent script. Plenty of howls along the way too.

Be sure to stay to the end of the credits.

On the scale of one to five on the Wolfman scale we give this a three.

See you on the silver screen.