Hydra - L'isola del mistero

This will never be Emmy-worthy, nor will this enjoy record-breaking DVD sales later when it is released, but this is superior for a Sci Fi Channel Original. Like Wyvern, the story and dialog is more involved, better detailed, and runs much more fluid than your typical Sci Fi Channel fare. The long shots and scenic vistas are new for Sci Fi Channel releases, and I have to say they add a great deal to the overall feel and effect of the work. But moreover, the CGI has been amped up a bit and looks like something in which you can suspend belief, for a change. That has been the greatest problem with Sci Fi Original movies, thus far...the horrible CG, trite dialog, and terrible acting ruin the possibility of enjoying a good suspension of belief, thereby negating its own work. Thus is not the case with Hydra. At least, not to the extent as is typically present.

It's not as bad as some say.

It rates a 5.5/10 on the Made 4 TV scale.

It rates a 4.2/10 on the Movie Scale from...

the Fiend :.

Four incredibly wealthy men with more money than common sense, and whom all had lost a loved one due to murder, charter a yacht to an abandoned island where they will hunt 4 alleged criminals. However the island that decide on is very much already occupied....by a Hydra. Yup, that must mean that it's SyFy Original picture time again.

This creature-of-the-week meets "Most Dangerous Game" may be a tad better than the typical SyyFy flick but it still wears out it's (admittedly forced) welcome with cardboard characters that you don't really care what happens to & a monster that seems cool enough at first but gets more and more boring with each subsequent attack. This is highly forgettable fluff that is only good for a rainy Saturday morning when you have nothing better to do but nurse a hangover.

My Grade: D

DVD Extras: Just trailers for "Direct Contact", "The Code", "Labor Pains"

HEY EVERYBODY ITS ME, (4) .......and today we review ......a big ol snake monster movie .....multi headed snake monster that is ......

SO standard FX from back when digital / CGI was terrible.... my kids have made better CGI FX drawing with crayons lol.....but i can appreciate the attempt, especially the "temple" scene with the green screen/digital over lay of old statues lol... i mean it ALMOST worked .... colour was pretty close ...... so you at least get a gold star for that one .... good job buddy ....

i did enjoy seeing some great actors in here though ... guys like that creeping captain guy whos has always been awesome ..... also the chubby dude from peewees great adventure and the leprechaun movies LOL ........so i mean ... the acting portion was decent at least ........had a solid cast of the average people to die ... like the jocky guy, the token black dude , who i might add survived a long time actually .... the bimbo chick .... the nerd science chick ...so this almost was a slasher film if you think about it , except it took place during the day , AND honestly if should have been night shots , that probably would have helped ALOT with the cgi parts .........

PLOTHOLE: if hercules already killed it with the sword that could kill it then why is it back again and they need the sword to kill it ?!??!!!!??!?!?... real talk though ...... obviously he didnt do a very good job the first time or he wouldnt be dead and the giant snake monster thing would be .......ALSO showing the entire body MIGHT have been a bad idea as well .... i mean we all KNOW what it should look like ...but that doesnt mean we should actually see it on screen because WOW it just ends up looking like a REALLY bad hand puppet .... like a glove with snake heads on the end ......

over all this is a pretty average kind of creature feature for the mid 2000's late 2000's when cgi ruled the film world and honestly it was/is a double edged sword ....hopfully NOT wielded by herk there lol... but its bad because it was cheap to mass produce SO many creature movies and it over saturated the market for the longest time ...cheap fast flicks ......but not quality ....... sadly .... this was semi entertaining because i love giant monster movies / creature features , a call back to my younger days staying up late nights watching the all night monster marathons .........

3/10.

(2009) Hydra HORROR

Straight-to-rental low budget cheapie because the special effects of the creature "Hydra" who can also rejuvenate itself like a worm looks super fake like a copy-and-paste image from a low grade computer, centers on some lazy wealthy tycoons attempting to find an abandoned island so they could hunt some citizens who have recent criminal records for the exception of a navy SEAL which viewers were not supposed to know until later. And at the beginning, young archeologists are trying to find some old artifacts of the hydra unbeknownst that the hydra is still alive who ends up eating the whole crew leaving only one survivor behind and no boat to go to because it sank when she was attempting to escape- how convenient, forcing her to wait for another ship. Bomb.

Do you want me to start with the good news or the bad news? Well, the good news is that Hydra is not the worst SyFy's done, and it's not quite bad enough to be down there as one of their worst. The scenery is atmospheric, and the photography and editing are better than the choppy standard I have come to expect. Also the hydra itself actually looks good, not amazing, but compared to the cheap-looking and stilted-moving effects before and since this movie it is a considerable improvement. The bad news is that Hydra is still not a good movie, I have seen worse by all means but it was still lame. The main problem here was the story, a good idea on paper and is better paced than most SyFy movies but on film it was predictable and could have been developed much more than it was. The characters are the same, they are not as annoying as other SyFy efforts but still clichéd and you don't learn much about them. The hydra was not bad in look, but like the rest of the characters, you don't really feel threatened partly because the killings and gore lacked tension and had a you've-seen-it-all-before vibe and also that Hydra makes little to no attempt to expand on the hydra's origins and the like. The script is cheesy and doesn't feel like it's flowing naturally, and while they admittedly don't have much to work with the actors do nothing in their body language or their delivery to elevate the characters and script. For want of a better word, it all felt bland. All in all, a lame movie but I've seen worse. 3/10 Bethany Cox