Writer: Emile Edwin Smith (Screenplay)
Starring: Edward DeRuiter, Jenna Parker, Kaimi Lyman, Clarissa Thibeaux, Travis Lincoln Cox, Mia Danelle, Leddie Garcia
Plot: A new breed of aggressive, ravenous sharks cracks the frozen ocean floor of an Arctic research station, devouring all who fall through. As the station sinks into frigid waters, those alive must fashion makeshift weapons or suffer the same fate.
Runtime: 1 Hour 25 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Basic SyFy Channel Movie
Story: Ice Sharks starts as we meet the research team in the Arctic, David (DeRuiter), Tracy (Parker), Michael (Lyman), Alex (Thibeaux), Sammy (Cox) and Val (Danelle) who are studying the change in the ice, with the increased number of cracks being found. When local hunters start going missing the team must investigate in case of a new predator in the area.
When David and Tracy learn first hand that the attacks have been coming from sharks, they are facing a new predator unlike anything they would have faced in the cold conditions, that is smart enough to break their base away from the mainland to make their hunting easier.
Thoughts on Ice Sharks
Characters – When we look at the characters we have trained scientists that do make sensible decisions when it comes to trying to survive, rather than just panicking, the problem comes from the fact they don’t seem to have any specialist fields to make them stand out in any way from each other.
Performances – The performances are not bad because we know this is a syfy movie, we are not expecting the best, the four main stars give us the performances we are expecting without being terrible, while no one stands out more than others.
Story – The story follows a group of researches must battle against a deadly pack of sharks that are working together for their latest meal, they must prepare themselves for survival without making rash decision which we do see too often in shark-based movies. We do off course have bad lines in the story, including believing a steal base will be safe on an ice block, an ice block which the sharks created, but this never reaches the levels of riveting or so bad it is good.
Action/Adventure/Horror/Sci-Fi – The action is basic and focuses more on escaping, though no scenes will become memorable. The horror uses the idea of the sharks to create the scare, though this never feels like it is a moment that our characters will either narrowly escape or not and the sci-fi side of the film shows how an unknown creature can cause havoc.
Settings – The film mostly takes place on the base, the outside shots only let us know what we are up against, once underwater the outside shots seem like a casual dive and never feel like any peril is being felt by the characters.
Special Effects – This is as mention a Syfy movie, we know the effects are not going to be great and when the computer side of the effects are being used you can see how painfully weak they are.
Scene of the Movie – The first introduction of the sharks to the researchers.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The computer effects do take us out of the film.
Final Thoughts – This is a typical low budget Syfy movie that was jumping on the shark obsession in film at the moment but easily falls in the bracket of ‘just another shark movie’.
Overall: Simple and easy to watch.
Rating