Survival Code (2014)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I recorded this movie and kept it for viewing on one of those days when my IQ would be mensurable only in negative numbers as I occasionally watch SyFy Channel movies or anything from The Asylum; junk food for the lazy mind, but this was from neither of the sources mentioned and was an excellent motion picture. The cast was fine, the writing and its unusual premise were top notch. The characters were three dimensional and uniformly interesting. I cared for these people and for their believable near future situation. Perhaps I am having a stupid day but the plot contained surprises that followed from preceding scenes. The violence was necessary to the plot and only the language is a bit much but that seems to be normal these day. If, as I suspect, this was a pilot film for an unrealized series it is a minor tragedy that it was not picked up. On its own it can stand proudly and is a credit to all involved.

It seems that quite a few reviewers nailed this 'movie' for an incoherent story that leaves many questions up in the air.While the 'movie' aired last year, it was never meant as a standalone movie (despite being released for TV as such). It was supposed to be a pilot for a series.As such, its potential was never accomplished. Ty Olsson is a decent action hero and while the rest of the cast were relatively unknown, many of them had potential.I found the episode to be intriguing and a bit nicer than the likes of 'Defiance' for example. What I love about it is that it doesn't pretend to more than it is.When talking Sci-Fi, I'm fairly fed-up with humanoid 'aliens' that are nothing more than exaggerations of human traits rather than really 'alien' and whose purpose is to make the human race look profound and complex.Borealis felt, shortly, like a breath of fresh air. I still hope for a revival.

I am afraid I either missed something or my copy of the movie was incomplete as the ending made no sense to me. It was more like this was a pilot designed to have the story line carried on in a series that never got off the ground. I gave it a 5 because I found the ending like finishing a huge meal and still being starved when you finish it. I really enjoyed the story line and the acting as well as the background and idea but I don't think it ever all came together to effect a proper ending, at least on the rental copy I had. I was waiting for the whole think to come together to see who was pulling whose strings, who was the League of nations lady working for and why, Who was actually bringing in the new purple pills and why, who were the other concerns operating in the area besides Russians, Norwegians and Canadians and what were they after. Did the Canadian soldier (Lieutenant)ever figure out what side he was on and what was the League lady and her soldiers really after? There were so many unanswered questions that I felt cheated in the end. Perhaps there was a series to go with this movie but I am not aware of it and it surely does not answer that question either. All and all I give it a 7 for the acting, technical movie making and story line but the lack of a coherent ending and many questions left unanswered sadly brought it down to a 5 in my book. If they ever made or make a series or 2nd half I would definitely watch it though as the movie had a lot of potential that was never used.

As a stand alone movie, I can see how "Borealis" may be slightly disappointing. As the pilot for a new series though, it's awesome. Why? It leaves one wanting more. In an all-too-near future, the arctic icecap has melted, opening the way for new trade routes, oil fields, mining operations, and other untapped resources for the international community to squabble over. At the center of it all is Vic's bar. Owned by a former cage fighter and now the customs agent for the Canadian government, the bar is the center of life in an emerging frontier town. Like many sci-fi shows, "Borealis" owes much to the genre of Westerns. The characters include a likable town drunk, a good-hearted prostitute, native Inuit, and a couple characters vying for the role of lawman, including Vic. But, it comes with a definite 21st century spin, including an American archaeologist funded by the Russians, an activist biologist determined to protect and document what remains of the arctic ecosystem, and an enigmatic international diplomat. While the premise relies on climate change, the show doesn't get bogged down in preaching about the global warming we are currently causing. It moves along at a fast pace, with murder, fights and intrigue as nations, corporations and Vic all try to establish dominance in this new frontier. And since it's in the near future, advances in technology are evident, but not distracting or far beyond our current comprehension. What really sets this apart from other Canadian sci-fi and fantasy is the acting and writing. The cast is excellent, and the main characters are entirely believable. Ty Olsson's understated energy really carries the pilot, but I also found myself wanting to see more of and know more about the characters played by Bryan Dick, Michelle Harrison, Greyston Holt and Christine Horne.To me, fiction is most successful when the characters come alive in your mind and you want to continue their stories. In that, "Borealis" completely succeeds. And I sincerely hope that a network such as Space or Syfy feels the same way, and will use this movie as the pilot of a series, as it seems intended to be.