Arctic Predator - Der weiße Tod

A group led by Dean Cain is searching for a long-lost ship in the Arctic and unwittingly unleashes an alien creature that looks like it's made of ice. It is drawn to any heat source, human beings included. A couple of scenes are faintly reminiscent of THE THING, but this is a paint by the numbers plot where we simply wait to see whom the monster will kill next. The monster itself is unimpressive, resembling something from an old Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon. I have seen Dean Cain in several other no-budget TV movies like this, and often wonder how he ever ended up in them. He isn't a bad actor. So I assume he has a bad manager.

Well, for a movie of this particular type and caliber, I have to admit that I have seen worse. That being said, I am not saying that "Frost Giant" is a movie that shines and is outstanding. But it is enjoyable in itself for what it is; a low budget Sci-Fi horror movie.

The story is about a strange celestial creature that brought about the demise of explorers aboard a ship named The Fury. A strange creature made from ice, a creature that feeds on heat. In present time, JC (played by Dean Cain) is at the autumn of his grant, running out of possibilities to find this eluding ship that is somewhere beneath the arctic ice. And as luck would have it, the expedition finds the ship, but finds what is buried along with it as well.

Storywise, then "Frost Giant" is adequate. Not the best and most brilliant of story lines, but still entertaining for what it is. It is a fairly generic and stereotypical build up of the story.

As for the acting, well people were doing alright with their given roles and characters.

The special effects... Well, they were there, but they weren't outstanding, nor were they particularly great. The creature itself was nice in design, but the concept of it being made of ice, yet feeding on heat, not really that thought through.

The title of the movie, now that I don't really understand. Giant? There was no giant here, and the creature was just a tad taller than a properly build adult male. I can understand the "Arctic Predator" title, but "Frost Giant"? No, not really.

"Frost Giant" is the type of movie that you watch once, most likely out of sheer boredom and because nothing else better is available. Then you quickly forget about it, never to watch it again...

While searching for a long-lost ship in the Antarctic, a scientist and his research team stumble upon a giant creature made of ice that is responsible for his missing ship's fate, and after learning it's trying to steal their life-force must find a way of stopping the creature.

Overall this wasn't that bad of a film, although it does have some problems. One of the better elements here is the fact that when this one gets going there's some good action scenes and some nifty kills featured here. It starts off rather nicely, with the creatures' attack on the shipmates that gives this a nice opening, the eerie creature attacks on the workers down in the underground ice caves are quite decent and the creature running through the works while outside on the snowbanks are quite fun as the attempt to melt it leads to some really thrilling moments. The manner of it attacking the pilot of a departing helicopter gives this one another great battle, and the numerous attacks against it while the creature tries to break into the campsite provides some even more thrilling and engaging work as it observes some rather impressive action to not only fight it off but also engages in some rather fun behavior to learn more about it. The final half, from the full backstory about it's original intention to track it down and how it attacked the first crew which leaves this one with another stellar action scene, leads into the rather fun final confrontation which uses some innovative idea and brings some solid action along that ends this on a really nice note. Given the rather unique powers it displays throughout here, these here are what make for a fun time, although strangely you just don't care as much as you usually do about these kinds of films. The biggest issue against this one is the fact that the creature here is an utter joke and barely even registers as a threat. A large part of this is due to its ongoing mystery, as there's no backstory about it appearing here on Earth and causing havoc as there's nothing about what the creature is and why appearing on Earth is needed. There's some rather lame deductive reasonings thrown about, but none of it makes any sense in the context of what's occurred to allow them to make that leap and it just comes off rather stilted and troubling to get to that possible explanation. Likewise, there's also a complete lack of gore and violence in many of the kills as the creatures' method of draining energy from victims doesn't make for a lot of opportunities for gory kills, and when they do occur it's got all the usual Sci-Fi Channel complaints that apply here as well in terms of lousy CGI to complete them. These, along with a rather languid pace in the beginning as it takes a while to get the ship out of the ice and let the creature loose, are what really hold this one back.

Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.

Over the opening credits, a meteor crashes into Earth's Arctic Circle. The year is 1825 and the object is observed by a ship's crew. A glassy, humanoid insect-type creature emerges from the snow nearby and viciously begins killing off the crew. Obviously, this monster had a very bad trip… We quickly move 145 years into the present. A descendant of the ship's journalist is looking for the wreckage of "The HMS Fury". He is unshaven and adventurous Dean Cain (as James Clark "J.C." Ross). The ex-Superman TV series star finds the ship and starts to excavate. Unfortunately, the icy creature is also unearthed – and it is still really, really mad. Writer Rafael Jordan includes an interesting angle for Mr. Cain's character. Also, a "seeds of life" explanation is scientifically sound. However, there is nothing special about this story. Most of the time, you can see the cast and crew struggle to be believable on single takes and budget constraints.

*** Arctic Predator/ Frost Giant (8/7/10) Victor Garcia ~ Dean Cain, Steven Waddington, Lucy Brown, Louisa Clein

Arctic Predator belongs in the not good, but also not bad category. Watching this film I couldn't help thinking of a mix of Alien, Predator and The Thing, except not as good as either of those movies. As far as SyFy movies go, it's not among the best or worst, but there's nothing exceptional about Arctic Predator at the end of the day. The photography is pretty good, the direction is efficient and the acting is decent particularly from Dean Cain. The effects aren't so good, the CGI digger looks absolutely horrible and the monster of the title is a cheap version of Jack Frost's evil twin. The story has moments of suspense, but overall it is dull and predictable, I mention was the prolonged battle with the tractor necessary. The script has a very stilted nature to it, and the characters I just didn't care for. Overall, left me cold but it wasn't a complete and utter waste of time like I was expecting it to be. 4/10 Bethany Cox