Alligator X

Alligator X is another 'hot syfy channel feature'. My expectations with such a title were extremely low but I had to try, It's still creature feature for God's sake! Well, it turned out to be typical syfy crap. The only somehow good actor is Lochlyn Munro who always tries his best. Here he plays small town sheriff and I have the mixed feelings about his creation. His acting is OK but the character is so typical and boring that you really don't care for him. Unfortunately the rest of the cast is just beyond bad. Lead girl is horrible, bad guy is even worse and his supporters on the same level of garbage. I found it strange since all of them have some acting record and should at least know how to act but no. Cgi creature is pretty good actually. Sure It's still cgi and no good cgi by any means but let's not expect 'Rogue' here, It's just a Syfy Channel and I have seen much worse cgi in their movies. Cinematography and music are OK at best, can't say I remember score much though. There is no gore, very little blood(some digital too) and the whole ending is just a joke. No suspense, no interesting characters, no special effects really. One of those movies you watch once in your life and forget about it 10 minutes after you watched it. I can't say I had a good time seeing it, nor it was worth the money but it could be worse, and I was expecting worse so I won't be bashing it more than I actually should. I'm pretty sure most of the people will find the movie horrible but for a one viewing, why the hell not?

Right, well with the notion that "Xtinction: Predator X" (aka "Alligator X") is in the creature feature genre, then chances are that you are in for something that you have already seen countless times before and that you are in for a movie with hilarious special effects.

And true enough, "Alligator X" is just that. It offers nothing new to the genre that hasn't already been seen in other movies.

The story presented here is a very bland and generic storyline, even in comparison to other story lines in this genre. A genetically modified creature is on the rampage in the wilderness and it is a up to a small group of people to stop it, of course.

"Alligator X" has some questionable special effects, like so many others in the genre. But that is actually one of the reason why we keep watching this genre, isn't it? To see how laughable and pathetic the creature turns out to be. And the CGI in "Alligator X" wasn't impressive, let's just say that. I was especially impressed with how a big creature was able to not cause ripples on the water as it moved about.

As for the acting, well it was as to be expected for a movie in this genre. So don't hold your breath for a thespian experience out of the ordinary. It was, however, sort of fun to watch Lochlyn Munro run around here and pretend to be an officer of the law fighting a monstrous alligator.

The characters in the movie were fairly generic, with the heroic protagonists and the stereotypical villain and goons. There wasn't much of characteristics or details added to these cardboard cut-outs, so you don't really care much about the people in the movie.

There are far better movies available in the genre, and once you have seen "Alligator X" then you are very unlikely to return to it for a second time around.

"Xtinction: Predator X", "Jurassic Predator", "Alligator X", ... This flick has 3 juicy-sounding titles (and possibly even more) but none of them can conceal the fact it's a typically lousy and low-budgeted piece of trash from the Syfy stable! That's okay, though, because you at least know what to expect: a preposterous & incoherent nonsense-story, terribly CGI-effects, and a tremendous body count!

Set in the Southern Louisianan swamps, in the horribly aftermath-years of hurricane Katrina, the brilliant but totally deranged scientist Dr. LeBlanc found some bones of a deadly marine dinosaur species - more specifically the Pliosaurus - and promptly managed to clone and resurrect it! How? Who knows. Why? Who cares! The thing does need to be fed, and the local Sheriff quickly finds himself investigating 5-6 missing person cases. Luckily, for him, his former crush (and ex-wife of Dr. LeBlanc) also returned home, because her father is one of the missing people.

The IMDb rating of 3.0/10 (at the time I'm submitting this review, at least) is exactly right. Low enough to warn people with good taste not to bother, and high enough to indicate to B-movie trash fanatics there's some fun to have with it.

Having read Science Fiction continuously since I was a child, I am drawn, like a moth to a flame, to anything that remotely resembles Science Fiction. Unfortunately, most Sci-Fi ain't it. And I love monsters. I don't mean zombies, or vampires, or werewolves, or mummies. I mean creepy alien life forms, mutations, and undiscovered animals. I've loved reading about dinosaurs since I was a child. Hence my attempt to watch this movie.

Most TV writers (or whoever is responsible for these screenplays) don't seem to understand that the average Science Fiction reader tends to be a bit more intelligent than average. And so when character Dr. Charles LeBlanc shows up early in the film to state that he no longer teaches because there is little "progressive" thought in academia because academia is all about "conservative" mediocrity, well… I'm outta there.

I don't consider myself either "conservative" or "progressive" but if that's the sort of dialogue the writers want me to believe, I don't appreciate the lame joke. Or is this supposed to be some sort of alternate universe? It reminds me of the movie "Smart People" where the main character may be the only "conservative" English/humanities/social sciences professor in existence. The idea that academia is full of professors who glorify "conservative" mediocrity, or even "conservative" ideas, is just too stupid to swallow.

When movie dialogue is that stupid, I go read a book so that drool does not drip down my chin.

I happened to see Xtinction(aka Alligator X) on the SyFy channel. This movie is not as bad as some of the other output that airs on that channel, but in all honesty, is that any consolation? Xtinction still manages to start out a mess and finish on exactly the same level.

For starters, the acting is very poor. Elena Lyons is actually decent, and the only real redeeming quality of the movie. The rest of the cast look completely disengaged, but it doesn't help that all the characters in Xtinction are very uninteresting and seem to have no life or purpose to them at all.

The cinematography is more than okay too, however the effects cheapen it. The effects are not the worst I've seen, but they are crude and horrifically bad in too many places, while the look of the film in terms of colour palette and lighting is drab. I accept there was a need of a hostile atmosphere, but the drab look made it rather depressing in alternative to foreboding and hostile.

The script is clichéd and cheesy, and the direction is derivative. What really kills Xtinction are the story and pace. Pace-wise, Xtinction is very dull, and the story and characters don't do much to engage us either. The story is very unfocused, with some of the film focusing on the dinosaur which was somewhat intriguing but lacking in tension, it was underdeveloped and the shock value was rather cheap. And the kidnapping focus that dominates the middle is just as derivative as the direction, with no genuine build ups to compensate. The ending is also a major let down in how predictable it is.

All in all, I've seen worse, but this film is a mess really. 2/10 Bethany Cox