Whiteout arrived in theaters back in September where it was greeted with a resounding silence. Its opening weekend saw it land in seventh place and that would be the only time it would appear in the top ten at the box office as it took a rather precipitous tumble down the charts. Not only was it a popular dud, it did not fare too well with the critical set, mustering a mere 7% on the Tomatometer. To think, when I saw it I enjoyed it. Honestly. I did not think it was anything particularly special but I did enjoy the setting and thought it was an effective thriller that didn't rely on big effects and the typical trappings of other graphic novel adaptations.
Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, Whiteout is not a superhero story like Watchmen or a new take on a genre like 30 Days of Night. No, it has smaller aspirations. Instead of drawing the impossible, it took the possible and put it into the drawing. Now, the the story has been taken back from the black and white pages and put on screen in the form of an unassuming thriller whose success lives and dies with the setting. If this were set in, say, the American Southwest it would just be another thriller. Move it to the South Pole and you give it a little more bite. It is still as familiar as ever, but it's just a bit colder.
Now, I mentioned that I liked it the first time I saw it and I am not lying. Although I did realize that I was likely to be very lonely out on the frozen tundra inhabited by those who liked it. I didn't care, why should I go along with the crowd? Should I betray my integrity and not say I liked it when I did? Without my ability to write how I feel, what use am I? Wait, don't answer that.
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