Lake Placid: L'héritage

South Africa stands in for the USA and a cast of mainly Canadian and European actors play American characters, in some cases not very convincingly. Pointless and very poor sequel in the Lake Placid franchise this entry can only be recommended as a time filler to viewers who can tolerate bad movies. Worst thing about this is the abysmal "special" effects. Whether it is the creature, a swarm of bats or explosions the CGI suck big time. Predictable too.

The crocodile's in this film look so unreal compared to the first lake placid film, the crocodile's in this film was able to climb Ladders, walk through spaces that were small and turn around in small spaces,. The actors one minute said amphibians then in the next line said reptiles. The basic story line of the film was ok but the acting and the visual effects of the crocodile's was awful.

6yrs after the creators lied to us and gave us Lake Placid: The Final Chapter we have yet another straight to television Lake Placid movie and it's unsurprisingly terrible.

Yet again people are on the run from an oversized crocodile in a movie with a wafer thin plot and a forgettable cast.

I mean seriously why? Why does this exist? Why do they keep pounding out these dreadful movies? I mean Legacy of all words to choose! Is this the Legacy that the franchise is going to get? Awful movies that you'll see repeated weekly on the Scyfy channel?

Skin this croc once and for all and let the franchise die, it hasn't been good since *Thinks* the very first film for crying out loud!

Poor movie just like the last bunch.

The Good:

Nothing comes to mind

The Bad:

Unshockingly poor cgi

Whole thing is just so very basic

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Horror movie 101 is don't go down the stairs

Joe Pantoliano must have owed someone a favour

If you're going to have a movie about a giant croc you should probably show it once in a while. The series took a big slam from the cgi over the time but honestly I still found them all fun and felt like it stayed in tune with the original plot up until now. I do like the series and so wanted to like legacy but it failed terribly. They had solid acting but obviously no budget for the cgi so I ask why make the movie at all. When they do show the croc it's blurred and unrealistic and you wait until near the end to finally see just how bad it is. The plot started out somewhat ok but went to crap quick. Why they went where they did (into a giant bunker) was I guess a diversion cause they had no budget to show the croc. Most of the kills scenes don't even show the croc and are inside in a dark bunker. I hope this isn't the legacy for real of this series. They need to go back to the roots with the local towns people and add in a couple of big city folks with the dark comedy and it would be a pleasure if we even got back past cgi budget. I gave it a 2 for the acting and only watched to the end because I'm a devoted fan. I Know the rating will drop to around 3 as it sits at about 4.4 due to cast and friends voting. Comon bring back Betty White and keep the action outside.

Found myself really liking the original 'Lake Placid'. Have found the follow-ups nowhere near as good and have not cared for most, the exception being the surprisingly above average 'Lake Placid: The Final Chapter'. Saw 'Lake Placid: Legacy' as means of seeing all the films, but with it being from SyFy part of me was apprehensive.

Have made no secret in the past of intensely disliking, and even outright hating a lot, a vast majority of SyFy's (near-universally maligned for good reason) output, though there is curiosity as to whether they are capable of making something good and compulsive about their output's badness. Admittedly, SyFy do have a small group of watchable films and the occasional (big emphasis on that word) above average one, unfortunately outweighed by the lacklustre at best and often dreadful films they churn out.

'Lake Placid: Legacy' is not one of their worst. That is not an endorsement, seeing as it is still very bad and often awful with pretty much all the same flaws that can be found in their other outings. As far as the 'Lake Placid' films go, it is the worst.

There is some semi-decent scenery and Tim Rozon tries his best, but that is pretty much it with the pros.

Scenery aside, 'Lake Placid: Legacy' looks cheap. As drab as the photography and how disorganised the editing was, it was the special effects that came off worst. Less than special is being far too complimentary, much of it is unspeakably atrocious. Can remember nothing about the music and the direction has no distinction or inspiration, it can't even be described as competent.

Rozon aside, the acting is the usual over-compensating and looking disengaged, and there is a real charisma problem frequently. Couldn't find myself interested or caring for any of the characters, characters that had no development to them (the few attempts were sketchy) and actually grate on the nerves.

Don't expect the antagonist to save it. It's criminally under-utilised and when seen it looks diabolical with inconsistent sizing, artificial design and stiff movement and has no personality let alone menace, not even unintentional goofiness. The attacks and atmosphere have no tension or suspense, instead being predictable, awkwardly and anaemically staged and above all ridiculous, the cheesiness and goofiness going too far. Not even gratuitous gore and screaming that is actually creepier than the effects and attacks can do much to make things a little better.

None of the story is engaging, wouldn't have minded the complete lack of originality if it wasn't so dull and colourless as a result of over-stretching a far too slight narrative and then having a lot of contrivance and incoherence. The dialogue never rises above risible, any attempts at tongue-in-cheek makes one face-palm, the silliness gets over the top and other parts take themselves too seriously.

Overall, very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox