Der Polarsturm

I do dislike a vast majority of SyFy's films, though in all honesty I don't revel in tarnishing them no matter how much some of them deserve it. Polar Storm is not their worst, either The Apocalypse or Alien vs. Hunter, but it is down there. Visually, it looks alright at first, but then from the half-way mark to the end, the special effects look slapdash and done with no heart and the editing becomes increasingly half-hearted. The story is another problem, for its running time like I've said with a few SyFy movies it is very thin and the ending feels like a farce more than anything else and a very predictable one at that. The script is trite complete with illogical lapses and scientific factual errors, and the characters are clichéd and I didn't care for any of them, and my guess is the actors didn't either. And the acting was so wooden from across the board. Overall, as much as I liked the theme that they tried to tackle, Polar Storm is a mess. 1/10 Bethany Cox

As a Canadian, I can only say I am embarrassed and saddened that my country makes such total 100% garbage as this pathetic movie. One would think that after many years of major productions, we could come up with cinema that stands up with the rest of the world. But it's pretty obvious that our film business is a total joke. The sight of Vancouver's perennial DJ and Man-About-Town Terry David Mulligan dressed up as a General, is so utterly hilarious and totally absurd that it defies description. Everything about this movie STINKS. Story, acting, directing, special effects----you name it, on every level it's got to be one of the most God-awful pieces of junk ever.

POLAR STORM is another in a never-ending line of incessantly rubbish disaster movies distributed by the Sy Fy Channel in America. As with the others, this one has far too low a budget to do justice to the sometimes-silly storyline, which involves a rogue comet sending the Earth's magnetic fields out of sync, causing all manner of electric storms and disturbance across the country.

Viewers of this particular genre will know what to expect by now and none of it is good. There are two plots, one involving a heroic scientist trying to figure out how to combat the storms, and the other involving his family trying to evade one of them. What it all boils down to is a whole deal of melodramatic overacting combined with a handful of ridiculous action scenes which seem to involve the same bad CGI effect over and over again of the ground cracking open. Even fans of disaster flicks will be hard pressed finding something to enjoy here.

As far as this movie goes it's pretty safe to say that its' not going to win any awards so I have to agree with those reviewers that have said it it isn't in their top 10 so-to-speak. However, I DON'T agree with several who seem to have gone out of their way to castigate the film in every way possible either. It's obvious that the budget was low and bearing that in mind I think the overall result wasn't that bad at all. The acting was fairly sound, Jack Coleman, Holly Elissa and Terry Mulligan were convincing in their respective roles - and I think one reviewers 'apology' for Canada producing such a rubbish film was both unnecessary and over-the-top. The subject matter about shifting Poles causing Magnetic Storms after a Meteor hits earth is a well-used one we know BUT this WAS really more of a family-film type entertainment and NOT in the genre of Alien or Predator.The scenery used was impressive and I think as 'Family Entertainment' there has been a lot worse.

Alright, well first of all I would like to say that this movie is somewhat of a step up for TV aired disaster movies, both in storyline, effects and cast.

Initially, I hadn't heard anything about the movie, so I was expecting something in the likes of "The Day After Tomorrow", because I was thinking in the terms of polar caps, not magnetic poles. But the movie turned out to be quite interesting nonetheless.

The story was actually quite good and takes a hold of you, and you want to sit through the entire movie and see how it ends. Although, and hold on to your hats, you already know the outcome of the movie from the very beginning. Yes, it is one of those type of disaster movies.

Throughout the movie there is a handful of CGI effects that weren't too shabby, truth be told. Of course it is not major Hollywood million dollar effects, but they still managed to pull it off adequately enough.

And the cast of the movie, well the people chosen for the individual roles actually did good jobs with their characters and portraying them. I especially liked the performance of Jack Coleman (playing Dr. James Mayfield) and Holly Dignard (playing Cynthia Mayfield). But the other people in the movie did good jobs as well.

"Polar Storm" is actually a much needed breath of fresh air in an otherwise genre of TV disaster movies that are suffering from horrible effects and laughable story lines. "Polar Storm" manages to captivate and keep your thralled throughout the entire course, despite its predictive nature.

The ending was, well, not really that believable, but hey, it is a movie, and just meant for entertainment. Oh, and one thing did puzzle me, when the chunk of ice struck Alaska and wrought havoc, how did Dr. James Mayfield manage to get transportation back to the USA? Just something to think about...