Whiteout Review

Whiteout is about a U.S. Marshal named Carrie Stetko, played by Kate Beckinsale. She is stationed in Antarctica and is the chief security official in the frozen tundra. When a dead body is discovered, she is forced to find out how he died and ultimately track a killer in the process.

I was really looking forward to this movie. The trailer looked very intriguing, but in my opinion it's just another average movie. I was looking forward to seeing a lot of action and some mysterious elements as well. It had these elements, but not to my satisfaction.

Once Carrie finds out that she has a murder on her hands, she tries to find out more about the individual. She learns he was a geologist. He was stationed at another site with many more geologists looking for meteor samples. Once she finds out his identity, the phone just happens to ring. It one of the guy's co-workers who informs Carrie that she should come out to the base because there is something "really" important he has to show her.

When Carrie reaches the base, she finds him dead with the killer not too far behind her. She flees, ultimately getting back to safety. The scene itself just didn't feel realistic. They are in Antarctica, with winter approaching. The temperature is in the negatives with storms raging all the time. When she is outside, she attaches herself by rope to another series of ropes that keeps her from getting blown away in the storm. The series of ropes lead to all the buildings on the site. It is weird when she is running away from the killer attached to a rope and is trying to get to safety. The killer is also attached to a rope, which makes it even more laughable. There isn't anywhere for her to go but forward or backward and the whole thing just seems very contrived. There are two scenes where this happens and it just brought the movie down.

Kate Beckinsale's performance was ok at best. She didn't seem like she gave it her all. It felt like she was passive, not really there.

Another scene worth noting is that the last geologist that is alive comes to tell Carrie what his crew found in the abyss. While Carrie and he are talking, someone spooks him. He then runs away because he is afraid the killer is after him. Some scenes appeared totally random, while others were very predictable. During a few parts in the movie I was thinking to myself what the logical next step would be, and sure enough my outcome happened.

This movie felt like it was trying to take on too many genres. First and foremost it was trying to be an action flick, then somewhat of a suspense thriller with a few lines of comedic dialogue thrown in for good measure. It was trying to be too many things, most of which it was not.

The best part of the movie was Antarctica. It showed the beautiful snow-covered peaks, as well as what looked like to be the Aurora-Borealis. The name of the movie, Whiteout, works very well. The movie does a good job of showing the harsh conditions of living in the most isolated land mass on the planet.

Overall, it is mediocre. It's one of those movies that really isn't that good or bad, just average.

7 out of 10