A very well made film with some good actors, stunning photography, wonderful location work and strong direction... but at the end of the day it's just about a bunch of guys in the snow trying not to be eaten by wolves. Yeah, they add stuff about the meaning of life, and what it's like to die, and a few other philosophical discussions, but still it's man against nature and wolves. A shooting gallery movie.
There's nothing wrong with that, as long as the action is good, which it is, and the deaths vary, which they do. The wolves are a scary threat, and Liam Neeson has the tormented male action hero down pat by now. But the story doesn't really develop - it's one person killed at a time, with no real twists and turns, and differences among the group raised then resolved quite quickly. (NB Liam Neeson's plan actually turns out to be a bad one in hindsight - they would have been better staying at the plane).
The fact its a star vehicle lessens the suspense since you know Liam will be alive at least for the final confrontation. Also the other characters aren't really well defined - there's the guy with glasses, the one called Diaz... but it's hard to tell who is who really when they are running through know and their faces are buried underneath snow, beards and parkas.
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