Whiteout (2009)

Dir: Domenic Sena
Warner DVD

I read the comic when it was released and was certainly impressed with it and particularly it's writer, Greg Rucka. I've since become a fan of Rucka's comic book writing and, if nothing else, am glad he collected a paycheck with this film adaptation that works hard to ignore all the things that made the source mataerial interesting. Let me say, I don't normally complain about movie adaptations being unfaithful to the source material. I prefer to like or dislike the movie based on it's own merits. So looking at Whiteout by itself, it's a mundane, predictable thriller with one dimensional characters, loads of red herrings, and a flat ending that doesn't end soon enough. A lot of the major plot points are kept intact, but the details that made the story fresh are typically missing. The story is about a U.S. Marshall (Kate Beckinsale) stationed at the South Pole. A murdered body is found and that starts a series of murders that she must investigate. Along the way she meets a UN Agent played by the bland Gabriel Macht (in the book this character was a female British Agent, but this way we get a suspect and a love interest rolled into one!) and uncovers a ludicrous plot to smuggle a canister out of the area that was found on a downed Russian plane that's been in the ice for fifty years (why a Russian plane was doing flying over the South Pole is a mystery for the ages). Beckinsale isn't bad but it's hard to buy her as a U.S. Marshall. There's absolutely nothing new or interesting about this one making it one to skip, but whether you see it or not, you'll never think about it again.

3/10