Supergator

There is just something alluring about these creature features, where you sit and watch gargantuan sized creature waddle about and killing people. However, most of these movies tend to be rather bad. And "Supergator" was one of those movies.

First of all there was absolutely no coherent history to the story that would make it plausible in any way. It was all just too random, and mostly appeared to be made up along the way according to what whimsical thought and idea director Brian Clyde had in that exact moment.

Secondly, a creature feature needs to have proper special effects and CGI effects. "Supergator" couldn't boast with that accomplishment. No Sir, not one bit. Everything here was just laughable and really poorly animated at best. The creature, supergator or whatever we should call it, looked like something taken out from the early days of the Amiga 500 computer. It was laughable, fake and so poorly animated that you didn't buy into it for a second.

The acting in the movie was sort of adequate enough, taking into consideration the nature of the movie, and also taking into consideration the severe limitations inflicted on the acting talents in terms of script, dialogue and lack of story.

Furthermore, the sounds of the nature in this movie, such as rushing water, a waterfall, etc. was just seriously too loud. It overshadowed everything else, and actually drowned out a lot of dialogue. But hey, given the dialogue level of the movie, I guess that was actually not such a bad thing after all.

I enjoy creature features, but found nothing, absolutely nothing enjoyable in "Supergator". So take heed, and stay well clear of this 2007 movie. It's feeble bite will not even leave a dent on your skin.

"Supergator" scores a mere two out of ten stars here, and even then I am feeling kind of generous.

In Hawaii, volcanologist Brad Johnson (as Scott Kinney) and young assistant Josh Kelly (as Ryan Houston) arrive to investigate a possible volcano eruption. Meanwhile, a prehistoric-looking alligator appears to be running amok, eating people. The titular "Supergator" attracts veteran alligator geneticist Kelly McGillis (as Kimberly "Kim" Taft). Acting (or not) as backup are reporter Bianca Lawson (as Carla Masters) and resident assistant Mary Alexander Stiefvater (as Alexandra Stevens)...

These "Syfy Channel" and video premiering monster movies are generally mediocre, but a few are above average and even more can be fun to watch. Not this time. "Supergator" is sloppy and substandard, even for its genre. It's possible the already low budget was cut during production as several of the early to mid-film special effects are almost non-existent; they consist of extreme, indistinguishable close-ups. In a pink bikini, Holly Weber is most arousing. We see more of the alligator, later.

** Supergator (7/14/07) Brian Clyde ~ Brad Johnson, Bianca Lawson, Kelly McGillis, Holly Weber

After taking some DNA from a fossil of a Phobosuchus and combining it with DNA from a modern alligator the newly recreated "supergator" manages to escape and sets up its home on one of the Hawaiian Islands. A hunter is hired to capture or kill it but in the meantime innocent civilians just happen to be in the same area and they become its next meal in the process. So much for the format which is pretty standard stuff for this particular sub-genre. Also quite standard were the performances of the main actors as well. Fortunately, there were a number of attractive young ladies featured with Mary Alexander Stiefvater (as "Alexandra Stevens") and Holly Weber (as "Lorissa") being the most prominent. However, what was rather substandard about this movie was the animation and special effects which weren't nearly as good as they should have been. That detail-more than anything else-really hampered the overall quality of the film. In any case, those who really enjoy this particular sort of picture might be interested in watching this film but everyone else should probably just avoid it as it certainly isn't one of the better movies of this type. Other than the young ladies mentioned earlier there really isn't much to see. Accordingly, I rate it as below average.

The same extreme close-up footage of what appears to be a pit bull gorging on a blood rare piece of meat is inserted again and again with each kill. Considering how many kills there are in this trash fest, you'll become so familiar with the gator's incisors, you might start giving each tooth a name.

Ridiculous and deranged. So much so, it begins to look like it's a parody, but I think the film actually took itself seriously. This is one of those flicks with so many outrageously stupid lines it could become a cult classic of the so-bad-it's-good kind. The acting is beyond atrocious. There's one Jessica Simpson look alike who is casually jogging around (looking like she's doing an episode of Bay Watch) through the forest after seeing two gruesome deaths. The skeptics she encounters recite lines like robots. There's three dimwitted twerps who flunked out of Animal House wandering around looking for an anti-drunkenness elixir. Then there's some whack lady (an unrecognizable Kelly McGillis) who wants to catch the thing. And some poor man's Capt. Ahab who also wants to croak it. Oh, and the vulcanologists who just stand around gossiping.

I love the rampage scene, where the gator chases everything that moves. Red CGI splotch paint balls replace characters frequently; that's about the level of the CGI effects. The "volcano" looks like one of those science project things kids do. Characters with "Next victim" written on their faces always seem to fall down while running so the thing can devour them. Terrified extras screaming and running: straight out of an old Godzilla type flick. By this time, you're either rooting for the monster, or rolling on the floor in hysterics.

Demented script, comically awful acting, brazenly sloppy special effects: this one is so amateurish, you have to see it to believe it.

I wasn't expecting much from Supergator, and at the end of the day it was neither better or worse than I was expecting, not quite good enough to be one of SyFy's more tolerable efforts and not quite bad enough to be among their worst. I did like the Jaws homages and a couple of the gruesome deaths were reasonably fun. However, Supergator does suffer from a number of assets that make even the worst of SyFy's output intolerably bad. It is cheap visually, with choppy editing and laughably fake effects. The script, especially the one-liners, is incredibly cheesy, sometimes amusingly but often after like the tenth cheesy line I got irritated, the story is so thin you wonder whether there is one at all and is predictable, ridiculous and has holes so big and so vast it was like trying to drive a truck along a road full of them and the characters are stereotypical of the usual SyFy creature movie clichés and superfluously developed. I've seen worse acting before, but it is still really atrocious, with everybody looking uncharismatic and stiff throughout. All in all, not the worst SyFy movie I've seen but still cheap and idiotic. 3/10 Bethany Cox