Fire and Ice: The Dragon Chronicles (2008)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

How sad is this?

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I was interested in seeing Fire and Ice, as it did have an intriguing premise, but I was also dubious. Actually, Fire and Ice is a movie that have both been better and worse, not bad but not good. Its good points are the reasonably attractive photography, the well-done and animated dragons, good scenery/sets and charismatic performances from Arnold Vosloo and John Rhys-Davies. On the other hand, Fire and Ice also has its bad points, and they are often dull action sequences where little interesting happens and are clumsily executed in choreography, a stilted, corny script that holds few surprises, a predictable story that for a film of this genre lacks wonder and thrills, characters that generally you don't just engage with because they are either underdeveloped or on the irritating side and the remainder of the acting coming across as rather wooden. Overall, very average for me. 5/10 Bethany Cox

The movie is so bad that I didn't even bother to finish it.The story is simple. We have this kingdom called Carpia or something. People living there used to be happy and all that stuff until a fire dragon strikes simply because it felt like destroying things. After all, that's what dragons do. The burn stuff and kill stuff. So the tomboy princess of the kingdom decides to be a hero and tries to reach an ex-knight who is known for being someone who knows ways to defeat a dragon. Unknown to her though, this ex-knight happens to be dead. However, he has a son so everything's OK. So the tomboy princess reaches this guy and asks him to get rid of the dragon, which he kindly refuses at first. He eventually agrees when she offered to pay him. I guess it's probably because: "Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M., get the money, dollar dollar bill ya'll" - Wu Tang Clan Meanwhile, the king is being persuaded to give in to the terms offered by the evil ruler of another kingdom in order to keep the dragon away.Seriously, if any of you who actually plan to watch this expect this to be as good as any fantasy-related blockbuster movie, then there's a problem with you. But this movie is flat out bad. Yes, even by TV movie standards. TV movies are known for having cheesy and amateur script writing as well as B- acting, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are always bad. On occasion, they are fun to watch. XIII is a great example.This movie however, has a really terrible script. While most things in the plot do add up, the characters are incredibly weak (A dragon slayer who cares only about money but later becomes a hero? I'm damned). No matter what they do, you just can't help but think that's just stupid (Charging in while the guards are changing shifts isn't an advantage). And given the fact that this is supposed to be set in the medieval times, there shouldn't be any projectors present at the time.Of course, given that this movie has a horrendous script, it's difficult to expect any good acting to be seen. It's actually surprising to see Arnold Vosloo in this flick, as you know, he had always been a good actor and was very consistent. Most of the actors/actresses are bad in this one, especially Amy Acker. I have to admit I'm kind of a Amy Acker fan. Still, I have to say that she's horrible in this one. If you can't perform well due to a bad script, at least get the accent right. In this case, her accent is just flat out unbearable. You can clearly hear the American accent in every line she says. Seriously, a Chinese like me can play out an English/Irish accent better than her, and it's not even like I'm good at playing accents. Amy Acker is just annoying the this flick.Maybe whoever in this film participated for a paid vacation? That's the best explanation I could come up with.The soundtrack and the CGI stands out in a positive way, not because they're extremely good, but because the other aspects didn't quite work out. That's why it's surprising to see watchable CGI and a somewhat original soundtrack which was actually close to bringing up the tone in the movie.To be honest, had this movie live up to its potential, it wouldn't score more than 6 or 7 out of 10. The whole movie was a bad idea to begin with anyway. This is also why I'm surprised to see a theatrical release in Romania, as this disaster wouldn't even qualify for a straight-to-DVD release.TV movies doesn't necessarily mean bad movies. While they are actually stereotyped as cheesy, that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I enjoy cheesy movies and lines. I enjoy corny love-hate relationships and all that. You don't need a huge budget to make something great, you just need the heart and determination. You can clearly see that all of those who were somehow related to the production of this movie don't have the heart to make a good movie.And one more thing, Sci Fi should stick to science fiction.

I disagree with many of the comments on this film. I found it engrossing and the dragons were very impressive indeed. The acting was passable and the whole thing was well put together in all departments. Perhaps it was because I had read such poor reviews that I was expecting it to be worse than it actually was! But on watching it I was very pleasantly surprised! I like John Rhys Davies and enjoyed his contribution to this film. I was not expecting it to be a masterpiece of cinema, but it certainly passed 90 minutes in a pleasant manner! I think everything was just above average and so I have given the film 6 out of 10 just for the fact that it held my attention.

I was actually quite excited to see Fire & Ice, simply because the Sci-Fi Channel rarely makes fantasy-productions, as they tend to produce more horror and natural disaster trash than anything else.The acting is okay in this, John Rhys-Davies and Arnold Vosloo were the strongest, and the rest of the cast were ho-hum. The special effects are predictably terrible, however, that only applies to the stingray-like dragons because the landscapes are quite enjoyable to look at. The dragons do not look good, and it was quite a letdown to be honest.The other flaw would have to be the cinematography and editing. I don't think there's one shot that doesn't try to be "artsy" and "flashy", as the majority of shots are all done in a sweeping-pan. Another flaw would be the mediocre story. The problem of the fire dragon is so quickly solved, that defeating it is the remaining two acts.The music is bland, and hardly worth listening to a second time. The action is dull, and poorly shot and edited.All in all, Fire & Ice has an overall okay production value, making it seem like an expensive project, but with a mediocre story, all it really adds up to is a snooze-fest. It's a good thing i recorded this, because I fell asleep the first viewing and unfortunately had to re-watch it to know how it ended... which is predictable, go figure.I highly recommend on skipping this, unless you, like me, are into Sci-Fi's lame productions.