The Call of the Wild Movie Review

Yesterday I was able to go out and see The Call of the Wild. Due to my hectic and ever-busy life, I had not been following the movie industry very closely, so I knew very little about The Call of the Wild. About all I knew was that it was based on a book, and even at that I knew next to nothing about the book.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

The plot of the movie is relatively simple: it follows the journey of Buck, a large dog used to doing as he pleases in the South, as he is stolen and shipped Northward where he becomes a sled-dog delivering mail before finally befriending John Thornton–a man living alone and running from his past. The story breaks itself up nicely into a few different sections, and overall it’s an enjoyable watch.

SPOILERS END

Now, one of the things that I found most striking about the movie was that its protagonist was a dog. This is not a new or revolutionary concept, but whenever a movie has a dog as its lead, the dog is usually anthropomorphized and talks, either verbally or internally. That was not the case here. Buck never says a word, and neither do the other dogs. And frankly, I found that the movie did a fantastic job with this almost silent storytelling. Despite having no verbal confirmation of how Buck or the other dogs felt, I still found that I could easily tell what they were feeling from scene to scene. And this is due to the fact that the animals in the movie were entirely, or almost entirely, portrayed through CGI. I both appreciated and didn’t appreciate this choice. On the one hand, the animals were surprisingly expressive and could convey emotion incredibly well. But on the other hand, at times the CGI felt awkward and jarring, especially towards the beginning.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and I would recommend it. I found that the movie had compelling characters, even if sometimes they weren’t the most developed (both human and animal). The movie also had a good sense of tension, and it was not afraid to get a little dark, especially towards the end. I know that this is not a very comprehensive review of The Call of the Wild, but it’s better than nothing. I hope that I will be able to get back to uploading more consistently, but we’ll see. Overall, I would give The Call of the Wild a solid 7/10.