FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

UmpahpahBg A documentary made through the lenses of Anthony Powell, photographer who spent many years in Antarctica lead you to the incredible journey to the world we really don't know much. The author describe just a portion of this amazing place over one year of time, combining short interviews, wonderful time lapse photography and just a glimpses of ordinary life of the small population that works on Antarctica. The movie opened many fascinating phenomena, from the mighty storms and winds, cold, 4 months in constant daylight and than darkness and the ways people adapts to those conditions, (T3 Syndrome, for example) which can really be a separate topics for more than one documentary.Although the movie is not perfect, by my opinion, as it lack some inside to the geography of the place and at least some facts about the conditions there, it basically opened many more questions form me. This movie and its amazing topic with conditions where it was filmed basically don't give you the space to moan about imperfection that surely exists. Instead, it make you wondering about all what is seen, with a feeling that you would like to see much more.

Annie Shaw Antarctica. Perhaps it is a place more unknown to us on the big screen than the likes of our moon or Mars. It is intriguing to have a relatively untouched frontier still left on our planet. I tuned into Antarctica: A Year on Ice to quench my curiosity on the matter, and despite the wondrous offerings, was left feeling only slightly satiated.Anthony Powell gives us a glimpse into what it's like living at a station in Antarctica, but strangely, it's more tell than show. What I mean by that is instead of interviewing people and them giving obvious answers (they're going to feel isolated and they'll get to know each other pretty well pretty quick, who would have thought? totally shocking), which got boring pretty fast, it would have been more interesting to show what a typical day was like. Does the station only have one dining area? What's on the menu? Do they get vitamin supplements considering they've noticed how sickly pale they've become during the winter months? Is there an exercise facility? They get paid in cash? How do they cope with the perpetual daytime or nighttime? Or freezing temperatures? Negative 50 is no laughing matter. I won't ever know, because what's focused on are a bunch of clichéd information you probably already know or could easily look up on wikipedia.I also found it ironic how people kept saying the people that came there to work were "odd," and yet all of them seemed to complain of lack of sunlight, cold temperatures, and the monotony. Oh dear, they've all turned a ghastly shade of pasty white. Oh the horror! I thought the sunlight bouncing off the snow would intensify and give them a beachy sun glow. Actually, if they were really that odd, they wouldn't have complained like any other "normal" person, but what do I know? Okay, I promise to stop with the sarcasm now, because I have to give credit where credit is due and that's with the photography. Some of the time-lapse sequences are absolutely amazing. They border on repetitive near the end, but they alone are worth watching this documentary for. So, if you'd like a glimpse into the lives of Antarctica folks, you'd probably do better by researching the topic yourself or waiting for a better documentary to come along, but for now, this will have to do.

Semisonic Documentaries are definitely not for everyone. It takes a certain patience, curiosity and contemplation to watch the world living its ordinary life, just like it's the case with soap operas or reality shows that try to imitate the real life in vitro. And i consider myself lucky to be able to enjoy the documentaries, since it really is a unique genre that offers some unique experience to a viewer.Honestly, i didn't expect too much from this film. In my experience with nature documentaries, one has to be both really big and really professional to shoot a truly decent documentary, that is why i absolutely adore the BBC films with David Attenborough, moderately accept the Discovery and National Geographic products and am outright sceptical about everything else. And this movie had that amateur indie feeling that in 99 cases out of 100 means that the outcome is bound to be mediocre.To my big (and pleasant) surprise, this was that very "1 out of 100" exception. Yes, the movie is basically made by a single man, a time lapse photography enthusiast who spent several years working on a polar base in Antarctica. But the fact that we are being introduced to that vast and secluded icy world by someone who's not a stranger to it himself makes it a different experience entirely. Anthony "Antz" Powell doesn't simply look for some "fancy stuff" to film and later present to us. He actually lives through all these moments, and we are allowed to witness them, which makes this film a rather intimate experience.It may sound silly, but another great thing about this movie is that it's not just about Antarctica. Though it does share with us the amazing beauty of its pristine nature, it doesn't sell Antarctica as the main and only star. After all, this huge frozen world can be equally beautiful and depressing. Instead, we look at this continent and the life that managed to bind itself to it through the eyes of the fellow workers, people who spent months, or even years, there doing their job and whose impression of Antarctica and the way humans interact with it is the most honest and true.It's probably not very groundbreaking, but illustrating life in Antarctica with simple people's lives and experiences makes this movie really heartfelt. It is a documentaty, but you invest yourself emotionally into it, you care about the people shown in it, follow their stories, connect to their problems, feelings and dreams. This removes restraints between you and the objects shown in the movie, making you more than just an impassive spectator, almost like a friend to those people. You do not simply consume facts or imagery, as the so-so documentaries offer you to do, you actually live through them.Maybe i'm fooling myself, but 'Antarctica: A Year on Ice' gave me a bit of a feeling of actually spending a year there. And what it is if not a sign that the film did its job well?

Peter Lund There are several films that take place in Antarctica; however only a couple have focused on what it is like to actually live there. Like in Werner Herzog's documentary 'Encounters at the End of the World', the audience is introduced to several members of the support staff at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. However in Antarctica: A Year on Ice, we're not just seeing a snippet of time in their lives on a given day. We're seeing how they progress through an entire year – how they are affected by the 24 hours of summer sunlight, the unending darkness of a harsh winter, and the isolation. All of this is presented in the context of Nature, her ebbs and flows, power and beauty. Over the years Anthony Powell has perfected his ability to capture and condense images of Nature in a manner that allows the audience to appreciate her creations in a timely manner. Nature is just as much of a character in the film as the others; although one could argue a more visually stunning one. Where else in the world can you see auroras dancing over a backdrop of the Milky Way, a storm so powerful that you can barely close the door, or get the real poop on penguins?By the end of the film, Anthony Powell has led the audience through a year in Antarctica as experienced by the people who have been there and done that. It's much more than just a glimpse. It describes both an environment and a culture that very few are lucky enough and fortunate enough to experience first hand.