Eight Below, a movie about a journey to find a very rare meteorite that fell from Mercury, makes you feel the icy air of Antarctica and mesmerizes you with its unique landscape.
It is a great pleasure to watch the struggle of humans against nature, and the fact that the struggle turns into an effort to survive; definitely multiplies the pleasure of watching. I would like to say in advance that my favorite part of the movie is the unique landscape full of ice.
When mankind's struggle against the challenges posed by nature is the main theme of the story, there are real or fictional stories that can provide material for hundreds of different types of productions. These challenges can sometimes be a mountain that is difficult to climb, sometimes the presence of a wild animal, sometimes the difficulties caused by the climate. I am most interested in the struggle against the climate and especially against the cold.
The movie Eight Below promises a lot of this with its story, but after watching the movie, I realized that the difficulty I expected was not staged enough. I was expecting more difficulties and struggle for survival in the difficult journey in the glaciers. The movie did not meet my expectations in this direction, but it met them in a different genre; in human and animal relations.
Paul Walker, who gives life to the character of Jerry Shepard, guides his canine friends on a journey in the Arctic, which is the main subject of the movie. Up to this point, his friendship with the dogs is dazzling and heartwarming. The way the character reflects his friendship with dogs or people close to him was one of the small details that polished his successful acting.
In the continuation of the story, something happened that I would not have expected from someone so devoted to his dogs, and at that moment the whole success of the actor was destroyed in my mind. When they had to leave the camp because of the coming winter and not enough supplies, they didn't take the dogs with them, they tied them together with chains.
The truth presented in the story of the movie was to go back and get the dogs, but when the coming storm didn't allow them to do that, the story of the movie suddenly changed and became an attempt to rescue the dogs that they had chained with their own hands. When you present a true story, this is not acceptable behavior. The strangest thing is that the animal friendship that is established and staged is damaged. How convincing is it to try to save someone you left for dead!
The acting and story of the movie are good, but I think the movie is not good enough because of the deficiencies in the story progression. However, the movie provided the audience with the setting and story that could have been much better in the first part. The moments of finding the meteorite could have been kept longer and the story of the movie could have progressed with the difficulties that arose at that time. This definitely looks like a more enjoyable story to watch.
Despite everything, I recommend watching Eight Below, especially the dogs' efforts to take care of themselves when they are left on their own and their sympathetic appearances in those moments are worth seeing. The movie can be watched with the whole family. If the gaps in the story were not created and the story was kept more acceptable, a unique movie with its scenery could have emerged.
Thank you for being here and reading. I wish everyone who will see the movie a good time. Goodbye!