Polar Review: 3 Ups & 6 Downs
1. The Cheap, Ugly Cinematography
In addition to the depressingly poor CGI, the movie as a whole just looks really, really ugly.
You can argue that this is at least partially on purpose in order to evoke a suitably grotty vibe, but much like most of Åkerlund's previous movies, the over-saturated colour grading is more offputting and amateur-looking than in any way an inspired stylistic flourish.
Even on a basic level, though, the cinematography looks painfully low-budget and is entirely unaided by both Åkerlund's flat direction and the headache-inducing editing.
But on the other hand, it's impressive if not aspirational that a production so cack-handed could actually convince a talent like Mads Mikkelsen to star. And with that in mind, here are the few aspects of Polar that actually hit the mark...