Ah, comic book adaptations with high production value and piss poor realization, how we loathe you. Who do you blame? The director? The studio? The producers? With the surge of comic book-to-movie conversions, it’s easy to lose sight of an important question: “Was the comic book itself any good?” For Whiteout, the answer is actually yes. Greg Rucka’s original story was nominated for a few awards and featured a compelling story, a strong heroine, and an aesthetic made all the more interesting for its Antarctic setting. The use of white as a backdrop which threatens to swallow every character and every frame whole put Whiteout in a league with 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles. I guess in that way, it’s only fitting that the film adaptations of both are equally horrendous.
Life at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica is a life changing experience. You learn a new appreciation for a deadly cold which can leave you dead after mere minutes of exposure. You become used to a certain level of isolation that someone living in a crowded city might recognize but will never understand in its completeness. U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) is ready to leave that life. She arrives on the base as a mere pit stop on her way back to civilization, but finds herself ensnared in a murder investigation which takes her deep into the icy nether regions of the lost continent. The body of one of the base’s staff is found mauled out in the ice fields, and more bodies turn up at another base. The man responsible has a brief run in with Stetko from which she barely escapes, losing two fingers to the cold in the process.
In such an isolated locale, the choices for murder suspects are very low; meaning the murderer walks amongst the inhabitants of the base. Stetko works to uncover the secret behind the series of mysterious events. She has two colleagues, Robert (Gabriel Macht) and Delfy (Columbus Short), helping her investigate, and Dr. John Fury (Tom Skerritt) offering his sage advice as the plot requires. While the ultimate object of the killings doesn’t become apparent until the end (a disappointing revelation), the audience is given a clue courtesy of the compelling opening sequence of a suspicious men downing their own plane through betrayal and gunplay in the icy backdrop of Antarctica.
Despite the realistic filming location of northern Canada, the film falters in almost every other respect. The screenplay adaptation drips with sloppily written, expository dialogue that has all the drama of a bad soap opera. Even the tense scenes of a murderer chasing Stetko through an abandoned base are defused by a total lack of suspenseful direction. Even the cast leaves a lot to be desired. Kate Beckinsale, ever since appearing in the entertaining Underworld, has taken on a load of subpar projects which excel in attempting a high-concept premise only to fall flat thanks to poor direction and writing. She may be a fine actress, but even she can’t elevate the faux-drama Whiteout attempts. As the countdown to the titular event draws near (a whiteout is a monstrous blizzard which blocks all hope of outside communication), the matter of resolving the murders never has a sense of immediacy or importance. It’s just there and everyone seems to be going through basic motions. Maybe it was so cold and that’s all people could muster; whatever the case, Whiteout lacks any depth outside of its interesting setting.
The Blu-ray treatment lets the CGI-generated landscapes of Antarctica come to life, but it also reveals them to look like fake computer composites. High definition usually means beautiful landscape shots (just look at any of the BBC nature specials on Blu-ray), but the opportunity was squandered here by a budget which just didn’t allow for it. If there was anything good to say about the inert score, we’d suggest the Blu-ray sound boosted it. But there’s not. So it doesn’t.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Rucka discusses the transfer of his vision from page to screen and seems generally pleased. He’s not wrong, because director Dominic Sena does a genuinely fantastic job of recreating the southern ice cap, he just failed everywhere else. So Rucka’s praise only ever seems misguided when he lends it to compliments of how Beckinsale gave Stetko a great incarnation (though he notes she’s easily more attractive than the woman he created on the page). The second and final featurette talks about the Canadian location which served as a perfect setting for Whiteout. Both featurettes are surprisingly interesting considering how poor the film is. Additional scenes conclude the set.
"Whiteout" is on sale January 19, 2010 and is rated R. Action, Drama, Horror. Directed by Dominic Sena. Written by Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber, Greg Rucka. Starring Gabriel Macht, Kate Beckinsale, Tom Skerritt, Columbus Short, Alex OLoughlin.
