So I pondered for a long time on how to begin this article and to say that it was arduous is clearly an understatement because it has taken me 3 days of writing and editing this first line. Sometimes beginning is hardest part of a journey, so now that I've got that out of the way I think it's apt to dive right in.
I have a lot of interests and hobbies but movie watching clearly dwarves any other in my life as it has somehow over the years become a part of my daily routine. On average I watch 2 movies per day and trust me, I have a somewhat demanding job. I've been trying to cut back on the time I spent in front of a television but it hasn't yielded much return.
In all my years of watching movies, I've seen only a few actors that I have felt indifferent about as much as I do Liam Neeson – especially recently. Sometimes I feel like the actor either directs or produces his movies because since acting ‘Taken’, it is as if he had just been stuck in some kind of time loop where he has to repeat it in almost all his movies.
Now some people might be screaming at me. You might be trying to mention a number of movies he did differently or and that he is a very charismatic actor and maybe you are right...maybe I'm being too harsh. But for someone who is big on movies, I have become so accustomed to what Liam Neeson acts so much so that once I see his name as part of the cast, I get dissuaded about watching the movie and even though I might drag myself to see it, I get bored out of my f---ing mind cause I've seen it before.
Now you might mention his role in ‘Batman Begins' as Ra’s al Ghul, or ‘ A Million Ways to Die in the West’ and a few others but the reason I feel they seem different is because he isn't the main protagonist. I can give you a list of movies where he repeats the same grin, uses the same mannerism et al for a character that is specifically tailored to suit him – ‘Commuter’, ‘Non-Stop’, ‘Ice Road’, ‘Cold Pursuit’, 'The Marksman’ all feel the same to me.
I must admit he has been in a few movies that were kinda different...a little? But that was a long long time ago and somehow his face on a movie’s front design or him holding a gun just means I'm about to watch ‘Taken’ yet again.
There is one movie that stands out to me though and I think the only reason it does might be because I was sentimental to nature's formidable stance. The movie is ‘The Grey’
I think it is apt to say a few words about ‘The Grey’. The movie is about a wolf hunter who gets stranded with staff of an oil rig after their plane crashed in a desolate frozen wasteland. The wolf hunter had been paid to hunt wolves by the company and now that they had crashed, they were being hunted...I know, it sounds like a cliché just talking about it but I liked it especially how it ended.
I particularly liked the poem Liam Neeson, who was the wolf hunter said before he was basically ripped to shreds by the Alpha of the wolf pack.
“Once more into the fray
Into the last good fight I'll ever know
Live and die on this day
Live and die on this day”
This summed up the entire movie to me and I recommend you watch it.