Fireball (2009)

Lack of good storyline.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Admirable film.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

While this production bears most of the signature elements of a SciFi Channel original - miserable writing, terrible acting, lazy directing, and bargain-basement CGI - it's a stunning departure for the network. It involves neither giant animals eating humans, nor natural disasters. And when SciFi thinks outside the Jaws / Earthquake meta-boxes, you can count on somewhat different (if not new) cinematic awkwardness. It's like a they're installing new hamster wheel for their cable cage of tedium.I just wish the writers would leave their bimbo-encrusted poolside chaise lounges long enough to do some actual field research. The characters are never drawn from recognizable reality, and the flat technical facts they spew in lieu of dialog sound like Wikipedia searches.

Yup, this is typical Sci-Fi Channel. Or maybe it's SyFy Channel now. Get a crew up to Canada, pretend it's somewhere in America, have at it.To be fair, this is a step above most of its schlock.A pro-football player abuses steroids, becoming in effect a human torch. A local fire investigator and a dapper federal agent team up to stop him as he burns a swath of destruction through Canada... Err Nevada. No, Nevada, really.The tension/chemistry between Lexa Doig (who apparently figured out how to act some time between this Gem and Andromeda's well deserved cancellation!!) and the actor playing the federal agent is probably the best part of this movie. Some of the lines are kind of clever.

I didn't have high hopes for FIREBALL since it's on the Sci-Fi Channel , a station best known for broadcasting material involving the worst CGI to have featured outside a Stephen Sommer film . But still anything would be better than the no budget sword and sorcery stuff they've transmitted recently The synopsis reads like like an episode of THE X-FILES in " Bitter sociopath finds that he has the ability to cause people and objects to burst in to flame " and early episodes of THE X-FILES such as Fire and Soft Light do have similar plots . Unfortunately if you compare these episodes with FIREBALL you'll find it sadly lacking That's not to say it's a bad SF TVM because it's certainly better than a great number of stuff the station shows . It's just it goes out of its way to be inoffensive . At least with THE X-FILES it didn't pull any punches in giving the audience sleepless nights . For example the villain gets revenge on someone who betrayed him and burns him to death off screen . Likewise a scene where the villain walks in to a nuclear power station he dispatches the guards on the gate off screen and you do become irritated by the TVM's obvious agenda of telling a thrilling story without upsetting the audience

Like every sci fi channel movie, Fireball has its highs and lows. Lows in sci-fi channel movies are always the special effects and the budget.That being said, I enjoyed this more than usual "monster" schlock you find on Sci Fi.I enjoyed the science of this movie as well as Lexa Doig's character as the walking textbook. As a science teacher I enjoyed the science (and the pseudo-science) of explaining a human torch. Is it possible? No. But I bought it.I also like that the the guy who played the Agent was a pretty boy instead of the usual aging-alcoholic-just divorced-john McLean-type.All in all it's worth your time if you like Sci Fi Original Movies and of those movies is one of the ones I have enjoyed more.