Extinction

Wanted to waste some time and I most certainly did!! Shame a lot of low budget films nowadays (and this seemed very much like one!), seem to want to film in a self-filmed view! This film is not worth wasting your time on I'm afraid! Sometimes you get a lower budget gem and its worth it, like tremors, but this isn't anything great! I'd rather watch Cloverfield and thats saying something! Have given it 2 stars because I'm sure I've seen worse, but shut it out of my memory, and it did waste a little time (although not the running length of the film because fast-forward was used!! Thought I'd give a real review rather than sugar-coat it!!

Having an obnoxious cameraman on found footage is the equivalent of seated next to a loud texting person in cinema. Extinction has a couple good moments and the setting is presentable, but almost half of the movie is spent on bickering. If it's for realism of human drama, it's doubtful that actual documentary people would argue as much and the banter is not exactly appealing. For the encounter with alleged monster, it has so little impact since the effect is far from compelling, so barely anything works in Extinction.

The film follows the journey of scientists and filmmakers to the depth of Amazon. They soon find out that the forest hides a very insidious secret. The use of found footage is mainly to create a sense of involvement for audience, yet the movie has a very confrontational cast. Nearly everyone would mumble in antagonizing manner almost in every scene, especially the cameraman James who is utterly annoying.

He would instigate people and react poorly when interacting with others. It's probably for humor purpose, but it gets tiring very fast. There are the rudimentary comments on the existence of creature which are plodding the already uninteresting endeavor. Some scenes involving actual fauna is a bit better to establish the authenticity, though these are few between all the squabbles.

As expected there would be unclear shots as the monster eventually reveals itself. It's not half bad since a couple of these instances are engaging. However, the effect for said monster is not convincing. The movie doesn't have the luxury of smooth mix of usual camcorder view and CG like Troll Hunter or Cloverfield. Not to mention the cast is unfriendly, it won't garner much sympathy.

In the end, Extinction doesn't offer an amusing journey, let alone the grandeur encounter the poster falsely advertises.

The Lost World idea of finding dinosaurs in a remote part of the planet is not new. Peru as a location had the potential, but it was never to be. The idea of driving along a dirt road and labeling it remote for the purpose of the film is ludicrous.

Had they spent a week in a canoe and then 2 weeks trekking to their destination using tribal Indians as guides I would have believed it. Wearing sleeveless tops in a malaria-infested rain forest at night, camping in tents and carrying a table and chair into the jungle just doesn't make sense. Their packs aren't big enough for a day trip let alone a multi-day hike. The nights are remarkably bug-free, I don't know any animal that would come around a camp with a lite fire in it. They find an albino python and don't know its albino? They can hear sounds of something big for 3 days every night but no tracks or scats are found and the scientists don't even seem interested. No discussion on what it could be? Was it a Tapir or Pecari, or Caiman? No picket at night to set up cameras and try and find out what it was. How did they navigate, as I didn't see a compass or GPS on anyone? How did the rain forest suddenly become wet sclerophyll?

In the end, I just watched to see how many things I could spot that were wrong. .

Oh, and the cameraman is an idiot. In all very disappointing.

This is a strangely watchable movie. It is found footage and follows the genre quite faithfully. But is has an element of tongue in cheek about it that brings a slight attraction.

The hero, strangely enough, is the cameraman who is brought in as a last minute substitute on a very BBC-like documentary project. Strange because he is a complete nob; inappropriate, crass and somewhat stupid, but at the same time with the innocence of an everyman. And because of that he is strangely likable - probably because we all unfortunately have a friend like him somewhere in our circle.

So when faced with a completely impossible situation in the jungle, he acts like most of us probably would - trying to shout quietly, leaving the camera light on in dangerous times, having a dangerously daft curiosity and other very believable stuff.

It's not going to beat out Jurassic World for quality CGI and in-your-face-believable-graphics, and the jungle looks suspiciously like friendly English woodlands, but I could empathise, and that for me was enough for a couple of hours.

Was expecting a little more - but the high-school dinosaur effects killed it. Sorry - never going to get a big thumbs-up from me. (Plus the "lost footage" camera thing has been very over used...) Turned it off after just over an hour. Luckily my wine was nice... The acting was okay. The sound effects were good. The tension of the "animals" coming into the movie wasn't too bad. The eventual arrival of "a dinosaur" was absolutely terrible. Hopefully the actors have other projects. My room mate didn't come downstairs to watch it, and thankfully so... If you thought this would be an awesome scary horror dinosaur flick then don't bother. Very disappointed. Why don't I have Fox Sports...?