Movie Info
Movie Name: Whiteout
Studio: Dark Castle Entertainment
Genre(s): Mystery/Suspense/Action/Adventure/Comic Book
Release Date(s): September 11, 2009
MPAA Rating: R
Well, that can’t be good…
A body is found on the ice in Antarctica, and Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) is called in to investigate the murder. Winter is coming to the base, and the base is going into lockdown for six months. With crews leaving for the long, cold winter, Carrie must solve the case quickly if she hopes to catch the killer. The danger is growing as the temperature drops and a murder stalks the outpost.
Directed by Dominic Sena with Stuart Baird and Len Wiseman doing reshoots, Whiteout adapts the 1998 comic series by Greg Rucka. Though the graphic novel received praise, the film was heavily panned and a box office bomb.
The best/worst part of the movie…frostbite
Whiteout is the classic action-thriller that fails because it lacks action and thrills. There are moments in Whiteout, but it just doesn’t live up to the level it needs to reach to really capture the audience. While Whiteout does have a potentially decent storyline, the execution is poor.
The movie can’t really decide what it wants to be. There are a lot of indication that it is an action movie, but it easily could have been made into a horror film with the unknown killer trying to murder people in the frozen tundra…this might have worked better. The movie instead suffers from “hey, that is a pretty well-known actor…why does he/she have such a small role…oh, he/she is the killer). It is pretty predictable and formulaic.
See the amazing physics defining events of Whiteout!!!
Kate Beckinsale should be a warning that the movie isn’t going to be great. Besides some of her early stuff, she’s in some real stinkers. It is too bad because I don’t think she’s a horrible actress…I wish she just made better choices in her films. Whiteout was another in the lines of Van Helsing and all the Underworld films.
The visuals for the movie also are quite weak. You have the opportunity to play with snow and the beauty/horror that comes from it and the movie fails. There was a lot of criticism about some of the physics of the film and how sometimes the outdoor scenes didn’t work right (with wind etc.), but that is minor compared to the story problems.
Whiteout is a washout. It isn’t a very good film and it is easy to forget the comic was a well-received comic. The movie just didn’t capture the horror of the situation and it also isn’t a very good crime/detective film. Stick with Whiteout the comic book and skip this adaptation (plus you can check out the sequel Whiteout: Melt).
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