Larva

Finding out that a film is a 'Sci-Fi Original' is usually enough to put me off and indeed that is the reason I haven't seen many of them; but to my surprise, Larva is actually a well made and entertaining film that delivers the thrills along with an interesting storyline. The plot focuses on a small town somewhere in America in which the farmers are getting a good deal from a meat company as they're getting free food for their cattle. The free food also increases their productivity; but there's a side effect because it contains a parasite that eats the cattle from the inside out. This is discovered when a new vet comes to town; but it's not long before the parasite has gotten out of the control and has become a problem for the whole town. Naturally the story has holes and the acting is not the best you'll ever see; but Tim Cox's film gets over this by focusing on the storyline. Obviously it's not completely original and has been seen in many films before, but nevertheless it works well in this one. The special effects are decent when the parasite is in its first stage; although it does have to be said that the quality takes a bit of a downturn once the parasites start to grow a bit larger. However, it's not a big problem really; you've got to expect cheap effects from a film like this and it delivers the goods in other areas. Overall, this is certainly fun entertainment and I would recommend giving it a look.

Having watched 1000+ movies, this one is just another one in the genre. It's has no exciting extra's at all. The story and plot are well known. Only a little different on the outside. Watching this movie is just as filling in the same mathematical formula, with other values for it's variables. Nothing new. The effect's are really bad done. Especially the 'monsters'. They just look like an old coat that is in someway washed but never ironed. The color is also not realistic. It's yellowed. Done with a meaning ? I don't know, it's just irritating to watch. I hate things like this to give a special setting to a movie. Do it with good acting, good special effects and a good story. Not with Yelowing the whole movie, I rather watch them in realistic coloring. All by all, if you're young and new to the movie-watching scene, it maybe worth a view. But if you're older and have seen a lot of movies, you really fall asleep by looking this one.

Okay this is my first review. Till now I have never had the need to write one but this movie was too much for me.

The only reason I watched it to the end is because I put on it 5% of my brain. The other 95% was focused on working on my laptop.

I would like to say I have no problem with bad movies, usually I even enjoy them. The problem is when a really bad movie takes himself death seriously. Then you got a crime.

The main flaw of Larva is a really bad, absurd, lame, boring script *PLUS* the director shot it thinking he was going to make Alien. You get colored shots (T2 - blue, Matrix - green, Larva - Yellow), good non-cgi special effects, and acceptable acting. But instead of working for the movie it all goes against it.

About the script... where to begin? Well the intro scene is so stupid one has to choose between instantly forgetting it or immediately stopping the player. The whole movie is plagued with the most stupid lines I have ever heard. Just a quick example: typical running_away_from_the_monster scene. One can expect to see someone getting back to get his asthma thing, to warn someone, whatever. But never, never, never, "to get my candy". "TO GET MY CANDY" !?!

To finish with the review... to say that the script doesn't deliver what was promised would be a bad joke. Take this concept, multiply it by one trillion and you get Larba's ending.

2/10

I'll be honest in saying that I wasn't expecting much, and although it was better than expected I didn't get much either. The opening scene is actually quite good having a nice atmosphere to it, the make-up is generally impressive and there are two actors who do try hard and on the most part succeed, Vincent Ventesca is a charismatic lead and William Forsythe plays his role with crusty demeanor that suits him and his character well. However, the monster effects seem cool on paper but look silly on screen, consequently I found it difficult to be menaced by them. The haphazard editing also doesn't help, nor the generic and sometimes sluggish-sounding music. The action and gore is actually not badly paced or done, just that they are derivative of other films that have done certain scenes better, such as Alien with the exploding stomach idea. But the real problems with Larva(or MorphMan) are the clichéd characters(plus none of them are really that likable or well-developed, just how many times are we going to have the "dumb" sheriff idea?), formulaic and very predictable story(the ending you can actually see coming well before it happens because again I have seen endings like that before), the terrible, cheesy script such as someone going back for candy when they are running for their lives and the lack of any real suspense or thrills. I have definitely seen much worse acting, but acting-wise here only Ventesca and Forsythe really stood out. So all in all, lame but at the end of the day not too bad. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Is this a horror film or sci-fi? Or maybe it is a not-so-subtle dig at the evil corporations that are forever riding roughshod over us little people in their relentless search for profit. Let's face it, nobody ever lost any friends for railing at big business, heck, even businessmen have bought into this narrative to some extent.

Here we see a new vet arriving in a small town that is on the cusp of a farming revolution, only thing is the company that is backing it has somehow created a mutant parasite that infects not only the new feed but the cattle, and then morphs into a giant bat, or something of that nature. Naturally our idealistic newcomer and his allies are engaged in a desperate rush to quarantine and destroy this pest before it takes over the state and the world, while the agents of the wicked corporation are intent only on hushing the whole thing up lest news leaks out and everybody turns vegetarian. And of course, the wicked capitalists have also succeeded in corrupting the local law enforcement.

As fairy tales go this one is fairly anodyne, that's if you don't read between the lines.