Fireball

While this production bears most of the signature elements of a SciFi Channel original - miserable writing, terrible acting, lazy directing, and bargain-basement CGI - it's a stunning departure for the network. It involves neither giant animals eating humans, nor natural disasters. And when SciFi thinks outside the Jaws / Earthquake meta-boxes, you can count on somewhat different (if not new) cinematic awkwardness. It's like a they're installing new hamster wheel for their cable cage of tedium.

I just wish the writers would leave their bimbo-encrusted poolside chaise lounges long enough to do some actual field research. The characters are never drawn from recognizable reality, and the flat technical facts they spew in lieu of dialog sound like Wikipedia searches.

That is not to say it was a great movie, but compared to the usual schlock SyFy are capable of and have a notorious reputation for I was surprised. Of course there are some things that don't work, such as the cheap special effects, clichéd characters that are no different from the typical characters you find in the SyFy disaster and creature movies and the script has its cheesy moments. Like with all SyFy movies and most movies in general, there are about nine or ten noticeable(compared to the usual fifty plus) continuity errors like one minute the handcuffs are behind his back, next they're in front, but they are not as numerous as before or since. However, the photography and editing rather than choppy are quite good. The story is also interesting, somewhat chaotic, but it is a departure from the fantasy/adventure, disaster movie and giant creature movie genre, and it doesn't make the mistake of being dull either like other SyFy movies have. The music I found great, haunting and helping to enhance what is going on, usually it is overbearing or goes at sluggish tempos that it feels like it's slowing the film down. There is some interesting science, not all of it is plausible, but unlike movies like Miami Magma you sort of buy it. And the acting was better than I expected, Lexia Doing is especially convincing in her role. So all in all, not great but I did enjoy it. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This movie was actually alright for a movie of this genre. Unlike so many others that fail to be entertaining or full of super crappy CGI effects.

The story of this movie was fairly much similar to the old movie "Firestarter", but of course not a step by step copy. There were similarities, but that was alright. If you liked "Firestarter" or its sequel, it is most likely that you will enjoy this movie as well. And the story pretty much evolves around only 3 characters, and that works out good as well.

As for the acting? Well it was alright, nothing award winning here, but still adequate and decent to look at. I must say that Lexa Doig actually pulled off a scientific character quite well, especially when she was rambling on about science stuff and facts, it was quite believable, so hats off for that.

The CGI effects were fairly alright, and looked okay. Except for a scene where a glass dome exploded, that looked horrible. Besides some small flaws, the effects were alright.

Actually the music score throughout the movie was quiet nice, and really worked well.

In overall, this movie was adequate, but there was just something missing from it, something to make it unique and stand out. For me, it is one of those movies you watch once and then forget about it.

There's no question that "Fireball" is a very dumb movie. It starts with a flash-forward that only seems to be there to pad the running time. Some of the acting is atrocious. And there are continuity goofs, like how a vehicle is blown up with one person in it, and later a fireman says they found TWO bodies in the vehicle. But I must admit that I had a lot of fun with this movie. I like movies that show seemingly indestructible guys on a rampage, and there's plenty of rampage here. And while it may be cheap and stupid, it is never boring for an instant. Oh, for extra fun, watch this with the close-captioning on your TV turned on. Not only does the close-captioning list dialogue that isn't actually spoken by the characters, it also completely changes some dialogue as well!