Wyvern

If you like this *type* of film, you can't help liking Wyvern. It's got all the required bits: mysterious, deadly creature; feisty heroine; brick-jawed hero; and an assortment of quirky characters to serve as monster-chow.

But where so many similar films miss the mark, Wyvern manages that perfect balance of characterization, storyline and gory thrills. It's all in the writing: the tightly-constrained situation feels real, even when it's clearly preposterous. And the people react in credible ways, the way *we* would probably react, under similarly unlikely circumstances. Several characters even manage to surprise us by rising far above the clichéd responses we're expecting.

True, this is clearly a low-budget effort, and the special effects are fairly tame by today's standards. But the CG creature is plenty real enough, especially the way it's shown in very believable small-town settings.

Wyvern isn't going to win over anyone looking for a light romantic comedy. But if your taste runs to gleefully gruesome survivalist adventure, you're in for a bone-chomping good time.

This flick is a clear six (6) as a general rating, and a 10 as far as movies made for the Sci Fi Channel go. It has a substantive cast including: a recognizable good guy (Nick Chinlund who often plays a detective); two really good old guys (Barry Corbin is an ace and the late Don Davis is well known as the general from the Stargate series); and two attractive young women (both Canadian I believe) including the very pretty Tinsel Korey who seems to be Native American. The CGI created monster is extremely well done. The plot has no spurious countdown timer to artificially bolster tension; no excessively stupid acts by the cast to increase it, letting the evil creature doing evil things create the necessary pulse pounding; heroic deeds by the protagonists; and a reasonably realistic terminal event. On the downside, I'm not sure that "the land of the midnight sun" is all that green and snow-free, and the solstice should come in the middle of the daylight period, not at the end as the script implies. However, this was really quite well done, and acceptably enjoyable as these things go.

My research shows, however, that the Wyvern is a wholly British beastie, and Corbin's character's description of it as Norse seems unnecessarily manufactured for the cinema.

"Wyvern" is in every sense of the word a TV movie. So is that necessarily a bad thing? Well, no. "Wyvern" actually proved to be adequate entertainment for what it was. Mind you, don't expect Shakespearian acting here, or top notch special effects galore. But the movie did prevail with what resources it had at its disposal.

The story is straight forward and rather simplistic, to be honest. It is about a small Alaskan community which is entering the last days with sunlight and to engage in their annual celebration of the solstice. However, an ancient and terrible creature has awoken from its frozen prison and seeks to the sky, to spread terror and havoc to the Alaskan citizens.

The effects in "Wyvern" were actually surprisingly good for a TV movie, because the wyvern itself did actually look quite nice and had some good details to it. Of course, it wasn't fully up to the standards of the Hollywood blockbusters. But still, it worked out quite well enough.

As for the acting in the movie, then the people did good jobs with their fairly limited script. That being said, don't get me wrong. While it might not have been the most famous or familiar of acting talents, then people were still doing good jobs in bringing the characters to life on the screen. I only recognized Barry Corbin, Don S. Davis and Elaine Miles in this movie.

I have actually seen "Wyvern" twice now, over a period of 7 years, so it does sustain multiple viewings, albeit with years in between.

However, "Wyvern" is hardly an outstanding movie, and as such, then I am rating the movie a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Fair dragon-on-the-loose adventure, set in modern-day Alaska. A mythological Norwegian beast turns out to be very real as it attacks a small wilderness town. The beast itself is nothing special, a typical CGI creation that looks like a cross between a dragon and a winged canine. But the plot moves along briskly enough (with a wink and a nod to JAWS in the form of a town festival taking place while the monster is on the loose), and this low-budget TV movie is graced by the presence of not one but two veteran character actors, Barry Corbin and Don Davis. Corbin has been in many movies and co-starred in the wonderful TV series, NORTHERN EXPOSURE. Davis is perhaps best known for his role in the original STARGATE TV series. They give this slight monster movie some measure of gravitas.

Right away you will notice some similarities between "Wyvern" and "Tremors". Of course the monsters differ greatly, flying serpent and sand worms. Some things that are the same would be, trapped and isolated town, resourcefulness of the locals to defeat the predator, and most importantly, both movies take the time to develop characters. The Wyvern is depicted well, and since there are no night scenes, you get to see it often. It's also nice to not have to see the stereotypes you get in a lot of Sci-fi channel movies. There are no pseudo scientists, no gratuitous love interests, no animals disappearing (except perhaps for a moose in a hot tub), just plain folks fighting a winged dragon. Good entertainment. - MERK