Ice Soldiers (2013)

Waste of time

Very Cool!!!

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

In 1962 three Russian super soldiers are thawed out in arctic Canada after their plane has crashed and go on a rampage at an oil drilling station. Fifty years later the same three Russian super soldiers are thawed out in arctic Canada and go on a rampage at the same oil drilling station. Then the three super soldiers go off and are pursued by a scientist who has a connection with one of the soldiers. It sounds a bit repetitive but in actual fact I found it entertaining. It looks excellent, some of the snow scenes are quite beautiful, and really gives the feel of a cold, cold place. The CGI is not intrusive. The action is adequate with lots of use of snow vehicles of different kinds. The acting varies. The great Michael Ironside is watchable as usual and Adam Beach as TC Cardinal perks up the second half of the film. Dominic Purcell is bland however and Camille Sullivan is just irritating. All in all the story carries one along to a good conclusion with no major disappointments. Entertaining.

I couldn't get myself to watch the movie, because the first 15-20 min of the movie had the background music, the sound of the wind blowing but there was no voice from the people. I don't know if it was supposed to be that way, but we fast forward to the 20 min mark and there was still no music. We couldn't go past that time marker bcuz the rest of the movie hasn't played yet. But, maybe someone can tell me if there is supposed to be actual talking out loud in the movie, or should I have waited longer before the voices were actually played? Or, if there was supposed to be voices out loud, there was something wrong with the channel it was playing on because we heard the voices fine in all the other movies we were watching.

I didn't expect to have such a good time with Ice Soldiers. The plot sounded like a hybrid between The Thing and Frankenstein, and I expected it to be a piece of crap, but it ended up being a very competent B-movie with good direction, solid performances and a good dominion over the suspense. Dominic Purcell makes a credible work in the leading role, expressing his character's internal turbulence with his body language and his intense looks. The rest of the cast includes some famous faces from the fantastic genre (Michael Ironside, Camille Sullivan) and other ones which are unknown (like the trio of Russian super-soldiers), but they all bring conviction and enthusiasm to their characters. The special effects are sporadic and not very flamboyant; after all, this isn't a gory film and it didn't require any spectacular moments... just the tension of the "human hunt" in the frozen Arctic tundra, accentuated by occasional fights and a few explosions to season the recipe. I'm glad to say that that was enough for me to enjoy this amusing movie. On the negative side, the ending is kinda anti-climatic, and there are a few absurd scenes. But, for the rest, I liked Ice Soldiers pretty much, and I think it deserves a recommendation, specially to the ones who like fantastic cinema.

"It's imperative I find these three soldiers, extract DNA and verify once and for all whether or not Steinke had genetically modified human beings." After years of speculation Malraux (Purcell), a scientist, finds a hidden bunker that has been holding three frozen genetically modified Russians. Hoping to study them and figure out their make-up he decides to thaw them out. This act reawakens them and the soldiers continue their original mission. I have to admit I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this going in. The beginning "back-story" part of the movie was both interesting and cheesy. The Russians send a group of genetically modified soldiers over here in order to win the Cold War during the Cuban Missile Crises. After that is where the movie starts to go down hill, I can't say its a horrible movie because it wasn't that bad but really just flat. This is the kind of movie you forget what is happening as you watch it and by the end you wonder what made you keep watching. Overall, nothing horrible but not that good either. Very OK and good for a background movie. I give this a C.