Hydra - L'isola del mistero

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

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"

Well, granted, I didn't have much of any expectations to this 2009 movie titled "Hydra", but still I sat down to watch it, as I haven't seen it before. And I do like creature features, although a great many number of them turns out to be horrible. Still, perhaps "Hydra" would be a hidden gem.

No. It definitely wasn't.

This movie was bad, from the script and storyline to the atrocious CGI effects that were abysmal and such an eyesore to behold. You have to look long and hard to find CGI effects that are this bad and actually make it through the editing room and into the final cut of the movie. I mean, the hydra looked like something taken straight out of a mid-1990s computer game. It was horrible to look at, and it dragged the enjoyment of the movie down badly. Nay, I will say that it sucked the enjoyment of the movie right out of it.

The acting in the movie was as to be expected from a movie such as this, and take into consideration that the actors and actresses had next to nothing to work with in terms of script and storyline, much less having proper characters to act upon.

All in all, "Hydra" is a movie to give a wide berth. Then again, who wouldn't give a hydra a wide berth?

I am rating "Hydra" a mere two out of ten stars. And it was so bad that I didn't even manage to endure the entire movie to the end. I just simply couldn't stand it, as it failed to entertain me on so many accounts.

(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.

Another reviewer described this as being superior for a Sci-Fi Channel TV production. He was wrong. This is very much par for the course for the channel, a cheesy CGI-filled slice of monster mayhem in which various assembled non-actors are bumped off one by one on a remote island by the titular creature.

The ridiculous set-up of the narrative is particularly amusing here. There's a remote island in the Mediterranean where a group of archaeologists just happen to be conducting an expedition when they fall foul of the titular beastie. At the same time, and most bizarrely, there's a MOST DANGEROUS GAME-style hunt going on too, where some big game hunters are tracking down convicted criminals and get cash prizes if they manage to murder them.

Inevitably the stories all combine but in the most ordinary way imaginable. HYDRA is for the most part a repetitive production in which almost the entire cast is bumped off before the survivors finally figure out a way to combat the monster. The acting is poor and the CGI effects typically awful for a Sci Fi Channel production. There's little more to say really other than you know what you're going to get with this one.