Why call it Bear when...
The bear is the least important character? They made the bear a plot device to reveal the drama between two brothers and a wife. But who, in the target audience, would want to watch this for the soap opera? Especially when the drama is terrible!
It's not a good sign when the only emotional scene was when the bear shared a tender moment over what I think was his dead mate. That's right; the bear was a better actor than the humans. It did in 5 minutes what the human actors couldn't do in an hour: make me care about something in the movie.
The spirit bear angle wasn't bad, but needed way more development.
My favorite part of the movie was the end credits because it just showed the bear loitering in and on top of the van. No dumb human drama. Just sweet, unadulterated bear footage.