I'm not going to do an in depth plot summary because most reviews I read are 3/4 about the plot. However I'll sum it up. Nicolas Cage plays Jack Halcombe and it's up to him and the Alaskan police department with the help of Cindy Paulson, played by Hudgens, to catch Robert Hansen who is played by John Cusack.

Positives

Acting

To start with I'm going to talk about the acting. All three of the main cast give great performances, nothing mind blowing but they're all solid performances that don't dip in quality. Nicolas Cage and John Cusack deliver wonderfully and its just a joy to watch them do what they do. As many other reviewers have said, Vanessa Hudgens has come a long way from her High School Musical days and is showing real talent, she did very well- which is probably the biggest surprise, some might not even know its her! 

Writing

Again, nothing mind blowing but it gets the job done, it highlights the important scenarios and treats the real events very well, allowing characters the breath and develop while also delivering scenes of pure tension as Halcombe desperately tries to find Cindy or Hansen stalks his pray or worse. The interview scenes between Cage and Cusack can get quite heated and leave you on the edge of your seat. As does most of the movie, it's an edge of your seat thriller and it succeeds. However, the ending sort of came out of nowhere and I was honestly surprised when it ended, but it's in no way bad. 

The director

He needs a special mention. For a first time director, he picked a pretty hefty topic. A topic I still question why he chose. As a first time director, let alone for an established director, any number of things could have gone wrong with such an important issue like this. However, if the quality of his content is THIS good on his debut. Then there's no telling where he could go. 

Negatives:

The cinematography/ visuals

This is where the negatives start to seep through. While I think the visuals are amazing beautiful at times, the cinematography wasn't the greatest. A film can look brilliant but if the camera never sits still for you to see it, then you can't appreciate all the effort that was put into it. That's not to say its terrible. It wobbles a bit when there's a chase scene or when characters are walking, I can see why it's done, it's done to make it seem like you're there with them and increases tension and that makes sense, but when they're sitting down at a table and the camera is either moving a little or obstructing someone's face or not even showing it, then there's an issue. For example in one of the interviews between Cage and Hudgens her face is hardly showing because its blocked by more then half of black space. It's not as bad as I'm making it out to be and it won't ruin the movie buts it's noticeable to be annoying. To be honest, the camera is like a friends bad habit, when you notice it the first time it's all you can see but after a time you get used to it again. It gets better pretty quickly but it's not perfect. However, the visuals are great and when it's not shaking around, it looks very nice. Some of the long shots of Alaska look great.

The music 

Again, not the greatest but it won't ruin the movie. It was fun while I listened to it during the movie but nothing memorable. If the music and the camera are the only negatives I can think of, then the movie must be good. However, I'm sure to change my mind when it comes out on iTunes n I buy it and listen to the main theme hundreds of times, that's what usually happens. Actually, the irony of this is that while I was writing this section, one of the films little jingles popped into my head. I still stand by what I said, however. Music isn't usually a topic covered in my reviews but this movie was a hard movie to find negative in, so I had to say something.

Improvements:

I don't normally do this in my reviews but I feel that the cinematography could have had a little work. It needed to stabilise. The film was supposed to come out November 31st 2012 and it's been pushed back to July 19th 2013 in the UK and August 23 in America and a film getting delayed is never usually a good thing but sometimes it is and in this case, it was, but I have to ask, what was going on in that time? 

The verdict:

This movie honestly surprised me. Brilliant debut by a first time director with a cast who know what're they doing and very successful. Even with how dark the film is, it's just a pleasure to sit there and watch it. 

(This is quite a bit different to my usual movie reviews and I don't usually write them this way, anyway, I hope you like it)