The Grey (2012) Review

**Spoiler Alert: This page might contain spoilers.**

The audience is divided over this one. On one side, people are calling it unrealistic. And on the other side, people are praising it for its philosophical agenda. I'm going to cover both sides of the argument.

First, I'll address some of the hate. I admit that this movie is unrealistic. The way the wolves behave aren't correct. What do I think about that? I think that point is both valid and invalid. It's valid because suspension of disbelief can only last so long in movies before we reach our breaking point. This movie sure does have a lot of it and it can easily bother someone because the wolves play a major role in the movie.

But, I also feel that the argument has a bit of hypocrisy to it. Let me explain. Take the movie Jaws. In real life, sharks don't kill as many people as possible. But, when I look at reviews of Jaws, I don't see people complaining about the accuracy. Both of these movies have flaws about a type of animal yet only this movie receives hate. I don't get that. You can't call out this movie for being unrealistic and ignore it when Jaws does it. If you look at my profile then you would see that I gave Jaws a 10/10 so obviously suspension of disbelief didn't affect my review of that movie. I'm also going to ignore the errors for this review because it really didn't bother me that much.

If you want to hate this movie for having these errors then I'm fine with that as long as you say the same things about Jaws and other movies that have the same errors.

Another big point people are bringing up for why they hate the film is the ending. After Liam is the last survivor, he comes face to face with the alpha wolf and just as they're about to fight, the movie ends. Some people dislike this because they wanted to see the outcome of the fight. But what many don't know is the scene that plays after the credits. After the credits, we do get to see the outcome of the fight. We see Liam and the wolf both laying on the ground. So the movie's ending is ambiguous.

Some people still may not like that which is understandable. But again, I see some hypocrisy in that as well. Take the ending of the 2010 movie "Inception". In the end, it appears that Dom is going to be reunited with his kids but the last shot shows the spinning top and it doesn't show us whether he woke up or is still dreaming. The movie cut out but no one complained that the movie didn't show us the ending. Everyone seemed to be okay with it. My point is that you can't complain about this movie's ending and ignore it when "Inception" and other movies have ambiguous endings. I like endings with ambiguity so I enjoyed this movie's ending. If you didn't then fine. Just don't let other movies get free passes.

Now it's time for the positive parts. I strongly agree with the philosophical points. This movie is pretty philosophical. We kept on seeing glimpses of a woman and Liam in bed. The woman kept saying "Don't be afraid". He also said in the beginning that he can't be with her because she left him. So I assumed they divorced. But at the end, it shows that she was in a hospital bed and she died. I think that's a great scene because it lets us relate with him.

Now there's that poster line that read "Live and die on this day". This has a lot of meaning to it and it sums up the movie. It means that every single one of us no matter who or where we are will have only one day, that upon which we will both live and die. It's up to us what we choose to do while we live on that day, but death will find us regardless.

Liam Neeson does an excellent job of conveying so much. Everything about this moment, where he carried the emotional weight and legacy of all those men (symbolized in their wallets) and he was willing to fight vicariously for them, against this literal and metaphorical beast before him, embodies the traits of a man. The willingness to face adversity; the will to press on with life, despite its numerous vicissitudes, is life's ultimate purpose. There is no goal at the end of this. It's the struggle that imbues life with meaning and significance. I really love that scene.

Also, "Into the Fray" is a really fitting song for that scene.

I cared a lot about Liam Neeson because of that. Unfortunately, I can't say the same with all the other men. At the end, we saw their wallets and we found out that they had families and that was supposed to make us care for them. However, the scene happens in the final few minutes and the movie didn't give me enough time to make any real connections with them in those few minutes.

Also, I thought many of the action sequences were repetitive. And that plays a big role in my opinion of the movie. Despite this, I feel that this movie is underrated and it deserves a lot more praise.

I think all of the people giving it low scores need to stop and think about the message the movie's trying to convey. The movie did play second fiddle with the other survivors and the action sequences were a bit tiresome for me but it's still a great movie.

Final Verdict: 8/10 Great