Ice Road: Vengeance

Well, to start positively: This movie offers nice action with buses, the scenery of Nepal is beautiful, and it has a well-picked and capable cast with Liam Neeson as the lead, and I like Liam Neeson; always did.

But that is not enough to call this a good movie. Everything is just a vehicle for action. That may have worked twenty years ago, but nowadays that's not enough. It's just too superficial and predictable. The character development and their relationships have too little space to allow me to build up any attachment whatsoever. There are some interesting side characters with potential, but they all get killed way too soon. And I'm not talking about the antagonists, which have no depth at all.

So all that remains is the action. It's solid but not overwhelming. There are quite some logic issues that spoil the fun, and the editing is way too fast-paced, sometimes confusing.

This is a routinely staged action movie with superficial characters, with questionable editing and without any surprises.

So, let's not talk about the story - you already know what you're getting. "He will hunt them down" is back in business.

The plot is solid but offers no surprises. And that's a shame, because surprise is often what separates a good movie from a mediocre one.

The CGI, however, feels like it's from another planet - and not in a good way.

That planet is cheap and artificial. Take the CGI bus, for example: it's empty, even though it should be full of passengers. The scenes with falling cars look low-budget, and at times it seems like they didn't even film in Nepal - just in front of green or blue screens. The lighting was also off in several scenes.

In the end, the film didn't entertain me. It mostly screamed "bad CGI" again and again.

What a shame.

At this point, Liam Neeson's situationship with perilous situations has become a tiresome actioner trope. All the characters, except for Neeson's and Bingbing Fan's, are directly imported from the generic action template guidebook. This could've been tagged a Taken movie, and it wouldn't be any different. And for a film titled "Ice Road," there were hardly any icy roads. I forgot almost everything about the first film except for the name, Neeson's character, and the poster.. so I didn't even realize that the protagonist's brother was dead (lol!). Also, I read that most of this was shot in Australia and not Nepal, which makes it matter even less. Can Liam Neeson do less of these and more of In the Land of Saints and Sinners types with better character depth?

An attempt to shoot a B-movie? It makes no sense for Liam Neeson to want to be remembered for such bad films, but if he keeps making them, I guess this is how he'll be remembered! Once again, we're subjected to an extremely weak script and the 'White Savior' trope being shoved in our faces. The same old conflict with greedy power brokers and forced, unconvincing scenes.

Lifeless Action and Flimsy Logic: Illogical character choices, poor pacing, and fight scenes devoid of impact-sometimes unintentionally making the film's tone comedic.

Aging Action Star Syndrome: Neeson clearly wants to prove he's still formidable, but he no longer has the agility needed for believable fight scenes against younger opponents.

Overall, a waste of time! With one exception: the breathtaking visuals of Nepal's countryside... But hey, it's not even shot in Nepal!

I love Liam Neeson, even his rehular predictable fare after Taken 1 and 2. Here he growls his way through another revenge mission, this time set against the stunning backdrop of the Himalayas. But Ice Road Vengeance barely escapes the avalanche of its own clichés.

The plot: a frozen road, some dodgy mining conspiracies, a dead relative (naturally), and a long drive toward payback. It wants to be Taken on Ice, but ends up somewhere between a forgettable TV movie and a rejected episode of Ice Road Truckers: Nepal Edition.

The real letdown? The glaring lack of authenticity. Nepali politicians speaking English in a speech to the local crowd, not a single notable local actor in the main cast, and cultural details that feel as deep as a Lonely Planet summary. It's Hollywood exoticism on autopilot... all scenery, no substance.

That said, the cinematography deserves credit. The icy roads and mountain vistas are easily the film's best performers. But even Neeson's stoic charm can't steer this one out of the ditch.

Verdict: A missed opportunity: half-hearted action, surface-level storytelling, and a setting wasted on stereotypes. Watch only if you're stuck indoors with bad Wi-Fi and no popcorn left.

5/10.