Theo Robertson 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 ?

Dorian_Hawkmoon ........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. 5/10The 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!!"

siderite 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.

midnight1138 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, andC) don't say I didn't warn you... I thought I could digest just about any SF movie, until Ice Planet came along.