Polar Storm (2009)

Very best movie i ever watch

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

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

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It was fun watching this movie, as it shows how good, really good movies are difficult to make. In a world that surrounds itself with electronics, movie goers have become familiar with how all things electrical work. It's not good enough to come up with some bad science, illogical concepts or half hearted graphics to satisfy a savvy audience. If the Director can't afford good graphics, get good actors, can't afford good actors, write great dialogue, no great writing, choose beautiful scenery..... but don't combine the least of everything and expect to have a memorable product. Polar Storm is the perfect storm of all the worst that B movies possess. Now that I've unloaded on this half-hearted attempt at a Sci-Fi video romp, It has some redeeming features. Canadians watching this will recognize places they know, we get to see some newbies put in front of a camera and watch earth take a licking and keep on ticking. The best line , and perhaps the funniest ....when sonny shouts to Stepmom hanging on for dear life over a bottomless crevice...." Don't let go!" If you like to see what not to do as a Director, this is the movie for you.

So the premise as other people have stated is that the magnetic poles are destabilising and causing various problems because of an asteroid/comet strike.Well the science is almost complete nonsense in this movie.But before I get to that...I like the fact that the president of the United States only talks to his experts via video conference (in spite of the fact that the communications satellites were fried and there is an almost world wide communications blackout as stated in the movie)...and the total number of people he seems to consult are his main adviser, a scientist who broke the story to the world and his father who is also in the military. I would have thought they would have at least had one or two (or more likely 100) guys from NASA in the meeting! The special effects are lame...for example when James Mayfield's wife and son drive through the town and the crack in the road opens up and swallows the car...the long shots show other cars, buildings and trees...only a few feet away...and none of them are moving...in fact there isn't even enough of a breeze to make the leaves in the trees move! Yet we are led to believe that a twenty foot wide chasm has just opened up! The guy with the pacemaker lived in a town where one of the mini-poles is...seems to survive until he gets in the car with them...then he dies because of the EM pulse! He would have been a goner when the first EM pulse struck not the twentieth! Also she tells them to cut the engine and turn off all electrical stuff...well...I was unaware that switching off the ignition in a car switched off all power! The last time I got in my car, the central locking worked without the engine running...the clock ran on the dashboard...the cigarette lighter worked...you get the idea...essentially you would have to disconnect the battery to switch off all electrical equipment within the car. The jump start of the car is also completely stupid...going against the previous logic in the movie and physics! Then there is the plan to drop a couple of nukes (a cliché in itself) to solve the problem. So they send one plane...and when that doesn't work because the plane is hit by a EM pulse...the answer is not to do as James says...send another one...send twenty...no, the general says no more, come up with another plan! So the other plan is to send the nukes via submarine! OK...rubbish plan for so many reasons. Drop the nukes down in the Marinara Trench...because that would be an easy place to get the nukes into the core right! Wrong again...Can't even be bothered to go into why that is so wrong a suggestion. But they do mention massive tectonic shifts...but no mention of massive world wide earth quakes, tsunamis etc...which would have been triggered...and most of the scenery shown on the various travelogues in the film would have been unrecognisable because of earth quakes, tidal waves, volcano eruptions etc. Come to think of it...why is the sky always pristine blue in this movie? Surely if bad things were happening...there would be huge clouds of dust, acid rain, nuclear style winters with all light blotted out from the ash produced by the erupting volcanoes etc??? I also hate the we're going to die while saving the world...no wait...I have a way out...we'll get into the super heated water vent and get shot to the surface nonsense...no..if you do that...you'll die! And the typical last five minute of a movie fix for everything and then back to normal...is also so unbelievable for such a catastrophic occurrence. And why is there always only one solution available and one set of people able to do it in these sort of films? OK...I know the answer to this...it is to make the movie more exciting and dramatic...well supposedly!IMO the acting is wooden and the story line could have been OK if they'd have got the science right...or taken it way off track (like 2012 extremes)...where you suspend your reality check and just enjoy it for what it is...entertainment. Suggestion to the directors/producers/writers - stop doing this and become more productive members of society!Anyway...give this film a wide berth as it will annoy more than entertain.This review is based on my reality and is my own opinion...which you are more than welcome to disagree with!

The magnetic polars are disturbed and realigned with the result that there is much death and destruction as mankind tries to solve the problem.Not particularly good science fiction film might have worked had their been more money and some better people before and behind the camera. The first problem with the film is that the special effects aren't special. I'm all for the suspension of disbelief but there is a point where it becomes much too hard to disbelieve. Almost every effect in the film is computer generated and since there are so many I don't think the effects crew had any amount of time to do them properly. One or twice or now and again you might have been able to forgive it but the scenes of epic destruction is just asking too much. On the plus side its so bad it distracts you from the uneven performances and the plot holes you could drive a comet through.Clearly I'm at the negative polar on this film and think you should pass.

This movie is along the lines of most Sci-Fi Channel movies, but definitely a tad better - mostly because it tackles a different theme (magnetic storms / polar shift) and has a good lead character.The basic setup of the story is that a fragment of a comet has hit earth and strange electrical storms are popping up in multiple locations. There are two sub-stories: (1) a scientist (Jack Coleman from the TV series "Heroes") tries to warn the government that the storms are going to get worst, not better and (2) the scientist's son and wife are trying to escape an area hit by one of the storms.One thing that's very impressive is that the story can be effectively told within the budgetary constraints typical to these types of movies. The filmmakers put just the right amount into effects (simple, but passable), locations (small towns/open roads) and the number of characters (very few) to make it work.Furthermore, Jack Coleman and Holly Dignard (who plays his wife) are decently interesting to watch - so that helps. Both carry an air of seriousness that helps keep the atmosphere of the movie in urgency mode.If you're sick of the channel's overused themes (mutant undead/rat/insect/etc.), then this is a step up from that. It's not really good or great, but if you're hunting for sci-fi on TV and nothing else is on ... might as well watch this.