Arctic Predator (2010)

Too much of everything

Fantastic!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The Fury, an English ship, in 1825 encounters an "ice creature" that emerges from the ice of the Artic after a meteor lands from space. The ship's captain is struck by the alien creature in solid form, taken back to the Fury, and documents his final words about what attacked him and his crew. An archaeologist (played by Dean Cane) completely fascinated with finding the Fury (his ancestor was a member of its crew), unintentionally releases the creature after it had been buried deep in the ice when the English ship was purposely mortared by their second English ship, the Hecla. Cane's team were allowed sanctuary in a scientific research outpost on the Arctic, so they could have the resources and accommodations available. They find the Fury, and some frozen passengers, but inadvertently release the creature from the ice. No one is safe as the creature, which can exist in solid, liquid, and gaseous form, is able to freeze humans in mere seconds!Ridiculous premise, variable special effects, and characters that essentially serve on the purpose of being turned into icicles, Arctic Predator is a typical Syfy creature feature. Cane is a likable hero (always has been, really), but he's been caught in B-movie hell so long, he seems doomed to stay there. He brings an energy to his performance that is worthy of appreciation, and his sacrifice for humanity is tragic but admirable. The rest of the cast is faces that don't necessarily leave you remembering much about them; few are distinctively drawn. Lucy Brown is Cane's love interest (she tells him she hopes he'll just find the ship and leave! "Ouch," Dean says.), while Steve Waddington is the genius of the staff with an idea of how to kill the creature, eventually understanding its makeup and reason for existing. There's the plus of the isolated setting and ensuing winter storm which leaves the small crew trapped, and how the creature kills is nasty business (basically freezing victims into ice). However, the creature itself isn't that impressive. I did think it was rather interesting in gaseous form, but as a walking malformed ice sculpture, not so menacing due to the CGI form provided to it. That it is actually *drawn* to heat instead of afraid of it was certainly a development I wasn't expecting.

Well, for a movie of this particular type and caliber, I have to admit that I have seen worse. That being said, I am not saying that "Frost Giant" is a movie that shines and is outstanding. But it is enjoyable in itself for what it is; a low budget Sci-Fi horror movie.The story is about a strange celestial creature that brought about the demise of explorers aboard a ship named The Fury. A strange creature made from ice, a creature that feeds on heat. In present time, JC (played by Dean Cain) is at the autumn of his grant, running out of possibilities to find this eluding ship that is somewhere beneath the arctic ice. And as luck would have it, the expedition finds the ship, but finds what is buried along with it as well.Storywise, then "Frost Giant" is adequate. Not the best and most brilliant of story lines, but still entertaining for what it is. It is a fairly generic and stereotypical build up of the story.As for the acting, well people were doing alright with their given roles and characters.The special effects... Well, they were there, but they weren't outstanding, nor were they particularly great. The creature itself was nice in design, but the concept of it being made of ice, yet feeding on heat, not really that thought through.The title of the movie, now that I don't really understand. Giant? There was no giant here, and the creature was just a tad taller than a properly build adult male. I can understand the "Arctic Predator" title, but "Frost Giant"? No, not really."Frost Giant" is the type of movie that you watch once, most likely out of sheer boredom and because nothing else better is available. Then you quickly forget about it, never to watch it again...

Arctic Predator belongs in the not good, but also not bad category. Watching this film I couldn't help thinking of a mix of Alien, Predator and The Thing, except not as good as either of those movies. As far as SyFy movies go, it's not among the best or worst, but there's nothing exceptional about Arctic Predator at the end of the day. The photography is pretty good, the direction is efficient and the acting is decent particularly from Dean Cain. The effects aren't so good, the CGI digger looks absolutely horrible and the monster of the title is a cheap version of Jack Frost's evil twin. The story has moments of suspense, but overall it is dull and predictable, I mention was the prolonged battle with the tractor necessary. The script has a very stilted nature to it, and the characters I just didn't care for. Overall, left me cold but it wasn't a complete and utter waste of time like I was expecting it to be. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I usually get through ten minutes of these movies before I am ready to write my review, but this time it took only five.The so-called "frost giant" is the typical SyFy low-grade CGI Saturday night monster that kills indiscriminately until it is in turn killed. At least this time around the monster doesn't kill by neatly bisecting bodies. This one is a freezer. The characters it freezes are the typical two-dimensional shallow malcontent over-dramatic idiots.Boring, boring, boring. And then it gets really boring. And then it bores you to death. The pseudoscience and faux history don't help much either. It's too bad they get actors like Dean Cain to do this sort of thing. I really feel sorry for the actors. Can't these guys make enough money off their good movies and TV shows to span these dry spells? Oh well