Ice Planet (2001) User Reviews

Left Me Cold

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 18 June 2013]

This starts with a voice over stating that 30 years earlier there was a world wide war between The Union and The Consortium that left 10 per cent of the Earth's population . This leads to a mental image of a labour dispute getting out of hand . You'll have to use your own mental image for this war because an obvious montage isn't used . Actually there is a vague internal logic for world wide wars happening when mankind has developed interstellar travel because who's going to start world war 3 when everyone is confined on Earth ? There's also a logic to have an extremely cosmopolitan crew on a spaceship . After all China , India and possibly Brazil will be superpowers in the late 21st century so there is a bit of thought given to the future premise . Alas thought doesn't seem to be given to anything else

While watching ICE PLANET I had the gut instinct that I was watching a pilot to some TV show . Everything about the way shots are framed to the not very special effects and the segments where the screen fades to black gave me the impression I was watching a feature length TV pilot . Even the premise of a human colony being attacked by mysterious aliens reminded me of a previous TV series SPACE ABOVE AND BEYOND . I went on Wikipedia and guess what ? This was indeed a pilot for a TV series that was never produced

This leads to a fundamental problem and that is that ICE PLANET never feels like a story in its own right . There's just a basic exposition that sets things up and there's a host of characters who have a backstory just waiting to burst out . Of course if you're going to go to a full series characters and situations will be embellished and built upon but if it doesn't this means you're watching something that is terribly unsatisfying in its own right which is something commentators on this page have mentioned . Perhaps the fact that this pilot didn't go to a series tells you something ?

This is not the worst movie I've ever seen

[slimfan · 3/10 · 27 August 2013]

My granny always said, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything. That's a pretty tall order for this movie. If you can get past the incomprehensible plot, the ridiculous costumes, the cheesy sets, the 1990s looking "special effects," the awful dialogue, and especially, the terrible acting, you will eventually reach the end. So the best thing I can say about "Ice Planet" is that it does end. BUT - be warned - that's 83 minutes of your life you'll never get back.

Happily, this was not the swan song of the late director, Winrich Colby, who did direct some quality and memorable episodes of Star Trek (TNG, DS9, Voyager). Rest In Peace.

Nice FX - bad plot - nonsensical ending

[yanpat · 4/10 · 12 April 2003]

Just saw this one. Although I was really expecting a bad movie, in the beginning I thought I was wrong. Some very well done fx fooled me for a few minutes... It's a shame too. The acting was OK most of the time, the photography is good, the special effects are really decent, and the only thing lacking was a coherent plot that would make sense. The end is *really* incomprehensible and it looks as though it's a pilot movie for a series or something. Not worth watching unless you're really into this stuff.

Probably one of the worst Sci-Fi movies

[radursm · 1/10 · 8 June 2003]

If you want to see a mixture of the '50's and '60's Sci-Fi scripts and special effects with modern techniques, then go see the movie. Probably a low budget movie, since they couldn't afford a better scenario, as it starts with a story of a war (what's new?) between two terrestrial factions and it ends with some 1000 people on a strange planet, starting a new life... The connection between the key elements of the story is weak, the people inside are not interesting (old models of heroes from Star Trek, mostly, some elements of the oldies - "The forbidden planet"; "Time Machine") as well as not original at all, as if the movie-makers discovered the bicycle at the beginning of the 21 century... Sorry to say, no logical story, cheap FX, actors are not convincing at all; and the story is not even funny, to recommend it for kids. If I take into account its complexity, I'd recommend it to 10-11 years old kids. It is one of those movies that made you think why you have spent 2 hours of a lovely night for nothing?

honest to god sci-fi

[john-711-11290 · 13 June 2013]

This is actually very good science fiction. As most of this movie does NOT consist of giant robots fighting each other, stupid people probably shouldn't try to watch. There is lots of plot, although the dialog can be sketchy at times. The whole thing move fast enough that you actually have to think about whats going on. The effects are last generation but the delivery is erstwhile.

This movie does not bore us with endless fighting sequences. It takes the time to develop a complex plot line while sparing us the details of character development. As many of the characters seem to be arch-types one could surmise they would receive further treatment if the series were produced.

This movie is a surprise gem. Far far better than Syfy has ever produced on it's own.

Totally incoherent...

[Enchorde · 2/10 · 1 January 2010]

Recap: A military outpost from earth are attacked without warning by a mysterious and previously unknown enemy. The humans weapons are totally ineffective against this enemy and they must flee. Fortunately a disrespected scientist appears at the last moment picking up the refugees. During their flight they head out to a set of mysterious coordinates that might hold some answers to the attack. Suddenly they experience a jump and end up on an ice planet, way beyond all of known space.

Comments: A bold attempt to make a space opera sci-fi movie, but it fails completely. The effects are not at all up to the task, but not everyone can have a big budget and the effects don't really annoy me. Not when the story is a complete mess and can only be regarded as an embarrassing failure. And with the script and story you can't blame on a little budget, a good story is a good story however the amount of money you put into it. And by the same token, no amount of money can save a poor story.

The story is a incoherent mess. The best description I could give is that it feels like someone has mixed up the pieces of at least five different jigsaw puzzles and then pulls pieces by random. Different scenes after each other more often than not doesn't really connect to each other, it seems like something totally unexplainable or unmotivated seems to happen in some vain attempt to connect them. And in some cases they director simply seem to give up and fades to black, completely resets the story and starts on another thread.

There are numerous different substories, none of which are really resolved. And it is no small questions that each story puts forth, it is aliens, it is the attack, who is the enemy and why did they attack, it is aliens that appear to be able to shift between energy and matter and possess humans, and why do a mysterious tree/computer know ancient Sumerian? Not even the cast seem to be convinced or even aware of what they are acting, in some ways I feel for them. When the writer's poor imagination seem to fizzle some characters just stand around and scream, totally pointlessly. But I'm not even sure that is what annoys me most. It might be the snowboarding, equally lost, American natives that appears on the distant planet mid through the movie, and then just as quickly disappears again. It might be the Han Solo-rip off that completely fails or the energy-being (or whatever it is) that appears like the mother of all Deus Ex Machinas and defeats the enemy by screaming at them. Or it might be that after suffering through the incoherent mess it doesn't even end properly, just with a quote that so begun the Ice Planet Archives.

What I try to say is that this was a miserable attempt of making a sci-fi movie. The effects and props where not bad, actually quite decent, but the story is just a little more comprehensive than a mad man's ramblings. Make sure you're getting paid to watch this.

2/10

Combine Star Trek and Galaxy Quest and Battlestar Galactica and ...

[xenolupa · 3/10 · 22 April 2005]

If not for the special effects and the sets, I would have given this movie not a 3 but a 1. There's hardly any explanation what the story or the plot are about. I have seen the whole movie and I really have no clue why this movie was made. Or what this movie was about.

Weird combination of plot less Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Star Wars, Galaxy Quest, Stargate, Starship Orion, Starship Troopers and a whole lot of other space opera with space fights, silly uniforms, actors who have no idea what role they are supposed to be playing or what the texts mean they are saying. Technobabble galore... (even the subsonic).

The end was weird, was it an end? What happened there? It was a clueless ending. One thing was clear though: it was supposed to be followed by a TV series. I'm glad it wasn't.

I lost 85 minutes of my life. No idea why I did that.

Watchable and Forgettable German Sci-Fi With a Horrible Screenplay

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 19 March 2005]

In an undefined future, the human race is attacked by some alien force and Earth planet is destroyed. The military and civilian crew of a space base become the survivals of the human race, escaping before the attack in a state-of-art spacecraft to an unknown coordinates in the universe, following direct orders of Senator Jeremy Uvan (Reiner Schöne). They arrive in a mysterious ice planet through a hyperspace gateway, and they are informed that the project of the spacecraft and the coordinates were informed by an unknown alien race. They fight against the enemy and begin life in a new world. "Ice Planet" is a confused collection of many sci-fi movies. There are battles, like in "Star Wars", the military and civilian humans wear costumes and look like the characters of "Star Trek" and escapes like in "Galactica", a spacecraft is built to get people to a new world, like in "Contact" and so on. The problem is the horrible screenplay, where the characters are badly developed, the situation of the war between humans and aliens is not explained and there is no connection between the most important elements of the plot. This film seems to be a pilot movie of a series, and probably in the middle of the shooting, the budget was cut, becoming a huge patch of scenes already shot. At least this was my impression. In the end, "Ice Planet" is a watchable and forgettable German Sci-fi B-Movie, indicated only for fans of this genre for killing time in a rainy night. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Planeta do Gelo" ("Ice Planet")

sh*t-planet would be a more soothing name for this so called movie...

[stefthe1andonly · 1/10 · 4 February 2005]

If you don't have anything to do and you really love to see bad movies without a red line. Well I still wouldn't recommend this. Some movies are so bad that you can laugh at them. But this is so bad you'd probably be more likely to become a serial killer before likening this movie. this is a movie that has OK effects which is sad on such a bad movie. I think it's a waste of space in the video-stores..

Sh*t-planet is a more soothing name for this so called movie.. I would probably recommend it to my wurst enemy...

What ever you do don't watch this movie.. it's not only the wurst Science fiction ever seen it's also the wurst movie ever...

Better than anticipated...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 31 December 2015]

Odd how this movie managed to score such a low rating, as it actually turned out to be a rather good Sci-Fi movie. I found it to be much better than I had expected it to be due to the low rating. I still did give it a chance because I had the chance to sit down and watch it.

The story is about the human space fleet coming under a sudden attack. And after suffering massive losses, the remaining fleet flee for their very lives, ending up at an unknown ice planet where the fate of mankind will be shaped.

As for the story, well, it was adequate. Not the most captivating, thrilling or innovative of stories, I will give you that much. But it was still enjoyable.

What impressed me was the atmosphere of the movie, the costume designs and the special effects. As for the atmosphere, then I really enjoyed that frozen tundra feeling, always have since "The Empire Strikes Back". The costumes in "Ice Planet" were nicely designed and crafted, and had a very unique sense of authenticity to it. And as for the special effects, while they were not blowing-you-away-impressive they served their purpose and came off realistically enough.

The acting in "Ice Planet" was good, although I can't claim to pint out any single one to be outstanding or memorable for that matter.

An adequate Sci-Fi movie which genuinely surprised me and turned out to be entertaining. If you like Sci-Fi you should give "Ice Planet" a chance.

Ice Planet - to survive you must evolve

[Dorian_Hawkmoon · 5/10 · 2 June 2006]

........

I did however research it with CHUM, Scifi, and other companies involved in this new show. Yes, they were all happy and excited, no surprise there then they have to be, after all it's there money not mine... not yet anyway. I've watched the trailer, I've read the press releases and so on.

What did I learn about "Ice Planet - 2001"? It was a pilot for an intended new show that is now in production and is to air later this year in the UK on the Sci-Fi channel and Canada.

The bits I've seen (as they are) are few and would amount for about 40-50 mins of the film. So about half of the film. The bits show some great CGI, some nasty bad guys that you never really meet, so they are presented in a dark fashion. I was reminded of the "Shadows" in B5. The science is not to fantastic, say like ST:TNG, so is more believable than some shows.

The story, now this is an fun point, there are simply hundreds of hints, and comments through out, (the half of the film I've seen) the show seems to want to want to explore the "Why are we here"? and a little like SG1 opens up a door to the possibility to human kind being a old race that can be found all over the universe. Now thats not a bad story, has it been done before, yes it has but was it done in this way, no not like this, will it work, only time will tell.

The cast is to be completely change, and will now include Michael Ironside as Commander Trager. So we have a "Hard man" playing a hard man role, thats not bad , what about other actors, well nothing has been announced, so we will have to see.

As I read the messages, the acting and the ending are the bits that make people angry. Well to answer the acting, new unknown people trying to break into the Lime light, more effort is needed. Wes Studi was Commander Trager, who is Wes? We all loved him in "Last of the Mohican's", so a complete change of story for him then! I'd like to see him in the new show, maybe he could play as the character Blade, he would work well in that role. In all not bad for a crew of almost completely new people. 5/10

The CGI, is clean, neat and fast, no joins unlike some shows actually on air today! Now to the ending ..... um...... shame on you guys, the ending works, it is supposed to throw you out the window ..... it is only confusing if you didn't follow the story, you need to note the hints that odd comment mentioned as you were watching...guys I could see it without watching the whole film. What on earth were you doing? Anyone that watched Matrix, picked up on such bits and pieces, I was able to do that here and I only watched bits. Go figure!

It looks like it wants to be a complex story that is being told in a simple manner, whats not to understand here? In all this promises to be a clean, maybe a very clever show.

I've given this film an eight, good idea for a story, great CGI, the writers are aware of where they want to go, unlike some writers for shows that are on air today.....

"An edit: I watched the film in full (I brought the DVD) the story is nice even clever. It's not to clear about what the reasons are for the situation, a planned aspect of the story telling that does let it down. Best advice I can offer you is not to place this pilot on the same shelf as the new upcoming TV series. Put it lower, save space for the 2006/7 version on the upper shelf!!"

Epic Sci-fi

[Altuniverz · 8/10 · 8 May 2005]

Even if this is not a perfect movie, it's packed with powerful ideas (isn't that what sci-fi is supposed to be) and some spectacular effects and Special FX locations. After an attack by an unknown alien entity on a series of human outposts in the solar system, a crew is thrown thru a time-space portal in an alien world where ancient alien conflicts set the agenda - what's cool (besides really great special FX battle scenes), is how haunting much of the film is, and how different the new world is.

The acting isn't the greatest in all places although some of it is just fine. Wes Stdi seemed not to have a director -probably there could have been a better choice for the lead. Still, independent pictures that have ambition are the heart of an exciting time in movie-land. This film meets that test.

Great concept, great originality.

You may want a bran muffin to deal with all the cheese in this

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 1/10 · 27 May 2012]

It's after a war between two factions that are not mentioned again(so don't worry about remembering their names), and the Magellan, a new spacecraft is on a mission so secret that it's apparently not known to even Captain Badass(Wes Studi... and no, that isn't really what he's called, but it is what he's good at being). When they're attacked by a Black Hole Fart, that kills... some... people... yeah, it's not properly established, and it's not the only thing in this. Anyway, they stand no chance, so they activate the hufrgmh in their craft, which transports them... somewhere, sometime, to the titular Ice Planet. If this sounded confusing, that's just the beginning. This hardly explains *anything* at all. Mostly, when it tries, it just raises more questions(someone call Hermes). Maybe it's trying to outdo Lost. And this, by the way, is a failed TV pilot. How they figured this would successfully launch anything other than the audience from their seats, I have no idea. It doesn't draw you in. Heck, the first dozen or so minutes, this shows these fragments of scenes that are supposed to, I guess, establish characters, environment and technology, and do none of the above, as they are so short and full of new stimuli that we don't know who, what, where or when before it moves on to the next one. FX vary between being so poor that you can't tell what's going on(that giant cloud? It attacks with strobe-lighting... does it hurt anyone? Dunno, you'll have to ask that guy trying to swallow his tongue whilst bathed in a green glow, as the budget evidently didn't allow to *show* if it does or not), and being fine. We do get a brief, kinda cool action sequence near the end of the 80 minute running time, featuring the Interceptors that Protoss Carriers use. Acting is poor. Armor and props in general tend to look goofy. Sets are decent. This has no ending, and with the TV series still not in production after nearly a decade... yeah. There is a little bloody, disturbing and violent content in this. I recommend this to those who gotta see for themselves how confused it is. 1/10

I thought the film didn't take you anywhere!

[Jaymes_butler · 27 December 2003]

The film it's self was not that bad ... I have seen worst . I think the problem with this movie , was that it was written for a pilot series and therefore you had to many elements and not enough character development.

Also the film was a German production and you just don't have the budget that you would receive in an American Produced Si-Fi .....And what do you mean that there were not any known Actors.... What about ...Wes Studi he is probably one of the best Native American actors that there is... films like "Heat" etc

Absolute crap...

[midnight1138 · 1/10 · 3 February 2004]

Well that about says it all. I couldn't agree more with the other commentators on this movie. After watching it for 10 minutes the first thought of pressing the "STOP" button on the remote was triggered.

But being a big SCI-FI buff and not wanting to jump to conclusions after the first minutes of viewing I decided to show mercy and watched it to the end, thinking it might become better as it went along.

Big mistake..

It didn't got better. After the ending I had absolutely no idea what this "movie" was about. The characters are as thin as cardboard and the storyline.. Well, if any of you figure it out feel free to drop me a line.

On second thought let's forget about this movie and speak of it no more.

<Conclusion>

Don't:

A) waste your money buying it.

B) waste your time watching it, and

C) don't say I didn't warn you...

I thought I could digest just about any SF movie, until Ice Planet came along.

Worst of the worst

[Fahrenheitz · 1/10 · 1 January 2004]

Oh my God! I have never seen anything like this before. The actors are the best thing about this movie - and they perform like high school kids on too much caffeine. The plot is quaint and dosn't really lead anywhere. The whole movie progresses slowly with lots of pointless chit chat and keeps feeding the viewer with questions without ever providing any answers. Big parts of the story makes no sense and seem to be there only to show off special effects - which BTW would seem outdated 15 years ago. This movie is a complete and utter waste of time!

Pure and utter... well, crap.

[Annunpaur · 1/10 · 27 February 2004]

This was bad. Really bad. Extremely bad. Let's start with the most important element of any movie: the plot. Or actually, the lack of any. If anyone sees the plot, please return it to the filmmakers. Questions... questions... where are the answers? Isn't a movie supposed to give at least one answer? Ah wel... The SFX. Now those were quite good, for a B-movie. Don't really have to complain about those (except perhaps the use, which they don't have) The actors. This movie was poorly acted, the characters stayed as flat as can be. But hey, there was no room for character development, they had to move the 'story' along! The overall feel. If you watch the first three minutes and feel like pushing the 'stop'-button, do it. You won't regret it.

So, my conclusion: a one-way ticket to the trashbin for Ice Planet.

Coma on, it wasn't THAT bad!

[siderite · 5/10 · 14 May 2005]

This is obviously an attempt for a scifi series pilot. While the acting leaves a lot to be desired and the script is full of ideas that are neither explained or appealing, the movie does have its good parts. One of it is the way the aliens are perceived, as weird light and matter beings which was rather original, the fighter were also pretty cool. The second would be that it opens nice possibilities for the series. Wait, there is no third good thing :)

OK, let's take this deeper: 1. Plot Really confusing. A rule in script creation states that all the things that you put in the script must be references for future scenes, else it's just a waste of time. There are a lot of things that have no explanation, they are just put there and I am sure as hell that they will not be used ever again, even in the series. Characters are not developed. At all! They are just there, doing silly things, completely disconnected from reality (theirs or ours). 2. Acting You may recognize actors playing secondary villains in Hollywood movies, and that says it all. But there's more: lots of European actors that nobody heard about, with terrible accents are found all over the place. Some of them die, but that doesn't help, there's lots more. While I can respect the lead's actor attempt for better casting, you can see that it failed especially when you notice that the series has veteran Michael Ironside planned for the part. 3. Sound and music First I thought it was from my head set, but no, from other users comments I understand that this is how the movie sounded for everybody. The only right word to describe it is "Whooshy". There are lots of things whooshing. From weapons and engines to doors and even voices (yes, there are alien controlled people in the film and yes they talk funny).

All in all it felt like an anime film that somehow got drawn with real actors in it. "It's not me acting bad, I was drawn that way". Lol! Considering the load of crap that came my way lately disguised as scifi series, this is average and I do have hopes that it can get nice.

This is a film for retardes

[aghory · 1/10 · 18 November 2003]

This is the worst movie I have ever seen...I didn't know at the end if I had to be angry or to cry for my time spent watching it.The scenary is bad,the actors sucks and the special effects are pathetic.If you really want to watch it you need a brain control.

Oh My God

[tata_lu_stefan_cel_mare · 1/10 · 6 July 2004]

Well, not probably, but surely the WORST movie EVER! I can't believe it. The thought of people paying to see this piece of crap sends a chill down my spine... The story is, well, lame, about the race that threatens the human kind, and the chosen few who save the day. The special effects look cheap (I personally think that the special effects in this movie were created using MS PAINT... They couldn't be worth more than 20$),not to mention that the actors' performance is weak.

Don't do make the same mistake I made. If you have to choose between seeing this movie, and stapling your eye lids to a rally car, staple your eye lids...

Ice Planet 2001 showed great promise.

[vincent-fox · 8/10 · 23 October 2006]

I have to agree that this was not the most technically advanced film I have ever seen, but it was made 5 years ago and we are used to seeing great effects today, but it is a good story. Wes makes for a very interesting lead and the plot leaves clues and questions that only the planned series could have answered. It was unfortunate that the series was not picked up at the time, but it has left the door open for the remake that is currently in production in Canada/Germany. And with todays CGI, and an industry first from VICON, there are only good things destined for this show. I can see Ice Planet (2001) quickly becoming a new classic in sci fi. thefoxcub . ice-planet.TV

Runner up for worst movie of all time.

[ecwh-1 · 1/10 · 25 January 2005]

OK, I've seen some doosies in my time, but this one is pretty bad. Continuity is apparently a foreign concept to this writer/director duo. I understood "The Wall" and "Pulp Fiction" right off the hop. Discontinuity was a good tool used in an expert fashion in both those films. This movie however just seems to have randomly placed cuts in which the DVD seems to be faulty and just randomly skips ahead.

The characters have zero depth. You might as well entertain yourself with sock puppets, you'll get more out of it. We spend time with one actor in the finale as he cries over the loss of his son. I had to ask myself, where did he come from and did the camera even land on his son once? Why the play to feel for him? There's no attachment here... just very poor acting.

The good stuff... hmm...Let me see:

Well, I didn't pay to watch it. I stuck it out to the end just to see how bad it would be.

Perhaps if the story was written by a different writer and was spread out over a few good novels, it would be decent.... but it isn't.

Just avoid this one folks, this is fair warning. If you're looking for little known good science fiction you haven't already seen, try "The Quiet Earth" instead.

Pass...

[zoompook · 16 November 2004]

I viewed this last night and it was simply a horrific script, direction, budget and acting. There was almost nothing original in the script, it seemed to take old ideas from about 3 generations of Star Trek and was utterly confusing. It appears by the ending that it was supposed to be a pilot for a continuing series but I don't think any networks would take this up. It could have been promising since the only thing really going for it were the CGI action sequences but the acting was sooo bad that it destroyed the film. The worst actor was the commander. His entire crew were close behind. I'd like to say something positive but I can't. The plot? Basically the earth, and all it's outstations/colonies are under attack by an alien race. They can destroy worlds and earth has nothing that can stop it (kind of like the planet eater in the original star trek or star trek the movie (i think #2 or 3, the one with the dolphins!!). The script had potential right there but tanked from that point forward.

leaves a nasty after taste

[macetace · 5/10 · 10 July 2005]

Let me state with explaining the summary, The ending of the movie stinks, thats all i'm going to say not to spoil it.

I thought the movie was not bad, I actually enjoyed it I did have a feeling it was meant for TV though, every 30 minutes or so there was a "fade to black" and I actually was waiting for the commercials.

The acting in the movie was not really good, I think the person who did the casting in this film was either blind, deaf of stoned out of his skull, the main "bad boy" (when you see the movie you'll know who I mean) had a weird accent, reminded me of Antonio Banderas, maybe he was trying to be I don't know, but when you look beyond that it was an great movie (for a B flick).

still gave it 5 out of 10 (not feeling generous today)

Where is the book?

[lotdox · 5/10 · 27 December 2006]

During the movie I was thinking of an Edgard Alla Poe guideline, where often there's nothing explained until the last word and still amazes the readers in the 21st century.... but nothing like that happened. I was even thinking it was something like David Linch's "dune" ('84), where the movie tries to be as close as possible to the book but not everything can be explained. Now, I totally agree to other guys that says it might be a pilot or a too low budget realization. For some films, spectators should decide to pay the ticket after watching the movie, not before; fortunately I borrowed this DVD from a friend! Hope to find the related book, let me know if someone finds it.

Thank you