Without its photogenic sled dogs and awe-inspiring scenery, Eight Below would be a complete failure as an adventure movie. Sadly, the human actors and the script they had to work with disappointed me big time. “I guess you have to lower your expectations," Paul Walker's character says in one scene. And that’s what I should've done in connection with this disappointing film. But where movies about snow and/or dogs are concerned, I’m usually a pushover. I even enjoyed the almost universally panned Snow Dogs. So, naturally, I was really psyched up about seeing Eight Below.

Now I’m stuck with writing a negative review for a movie I was prepared to rave about after watching the previews. Bummer! But let’s at least start with the good news. The canines at the heart of the film are wonderful. Inspired by a true story, Eight Below deals with what happens to a group of sled dogs stranded at the bottom of the world during a fierce Antarctic winter. Why are they stranded? Because a team of explorers and scientists are forced to evacuate before a major storm arrives. Survival guide Jerry Shepard (Walker) vows to return to save them, but weather conditions become too hazardous. These heroic dogs are left on their own for over 150 days.    

Director Frank Marshall (Alive) knew immediately how critical casting the dogs would be. “It was so important to us that each dog have its own individual character and unique look that we needed to find eight dogs who were completely different from one another,” he explained.  

Fortunately, each dog chosen does have its own special look -- and it’s easy to get attached to all of them. My favorite is Max (played by D.J.), a gorgeous canine with deep, expressive blue eyes. When the dogs appear on camera together during “stranded” scenes, they are fascinating to watch -- even though we know they’ve been given some unrealistic human characteristics. They bark and jump at lights in the sky, fight off a ferocious leopard seal, work as a team to catch birds, bring prey to injured team mates, and engage in other survival activities. (SPOILER ALERT) It’s sad to see a couple of the dogs meet dangers too powerful to overcome, and these scenes may be hard for sensitive youngsters to take.      

The wintry environment in Eight Below, reminiscent of March of the Penguins, also comes across with visual excitement, thanks to cinematographer Don Burgess (Polar Express). To get the Antarctica look without actually going there, icy locations in Canada, British Columbia, Norway and Greenland were used instead.

How I wish Eight Below had spent more time showing the dogs instead of including so many uninspired segments with its human actors! Walker (Noel) seems out of his depth in comparison to Max; and the one believable actor here is reliable Bruce Greenwood (Double Jeopardy), who plays a scientist saved by the sled dogs early in the movie. As a cartographer who’s afraid of flying, Jason Biggs (American Wedding) hams it up for comic relief without much success; and Moon Bloodgood (A Lot Like Love) portrays a pilot with a yen for Jerry (Walker’s character), but there’s zero chemistry between them. 

The major part of the plot involving humans revolves around how Jerry will be able to rescue the dogs -- or what’s left of them. He mopes around, talks to lots of people, tries to recruit help, mopes around some more, then decides to go it alone. By that time, we already know what will happen -- and we’re extremely happy to go back to those terrific dogs.

(Released by Walt Disney Pictures and rated “PG” for some peril and brief mild language.)