Jurassic Predator

Bayou babe is attacked by a prehistoric alligator and kidnapped by possibly inbred yokels. The script is a slight notch above the usual swamp monster thriller, and there is at least one impressive kill scene. The CGI sticks out like a sore thumb, of course, but I have seen worse.

Saw it with the screen title, "Alligator X."

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

Oh trust me, there is far more worse stuff to watch out there but having said that, this movie is quite horrible.

This is one of those incredibly cheap monster movies, that got put together in a matter of weeks and had no large budget behind it. Or at least, it truly does look that way. It isn't isn't ever very creative with any of its ideas and it's a pretty predictable movie, from beginning till end.

It still had some good ideas in it, it seemed but the filmmakers obviously had no idea how to handle them. You could tell it's just another paycheck for all them and their heart isn't really into it at all. They decided to play things safely, do it fast and do it is cheap as possible, so maybe the studios would give them another job afterward. These persons are not in the business because they love to make movies, they are simply in it because it pays the bills.

And really, with some more creativity behind it, this movie could had at least become a somewhat watchable one, even if it was featuring exactly the same story. Now instead it obviously isn't a very recommendable one, not even if you are really into the monster movie genre. There besides isn't really any good gore or tension present in this movie, which makes it such an incredibly bland one to watch.

I honestly quite liked some of the characters and actors in this movie, which is already a real big thing for a movie of this sort but obviously they can't make the movie any more interesting or exciting.

Thing that remains the absolute worst thing about this movie are its special effects. My goodness, when you make a monster movie you would think that the filmmakers would realize that having a good- and convincing looking monster is the absolute, most crucial thing but the monster looks absolutely horrendous in this, due to some incredibly bad and cheap looking special effects.

It seriously had some good potential in its story but this all goes to waste, courtesy of some not so very talented and interested film-makers.

3/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Returning to her hometown to deal with her father's disappearance, a woman and her friends find he's part of a rampage of terror conducted by a monstrous prehistoric crocodile and try to find a way to end it's blood-soaked rampage.

This wasn't all that great of a creature but did have a few good points drowned in it's flaws. There's no use complaining about the lack of quality CGI here since that's to be expected with this, but the fact that it never really featured the title creature at all in this who tends to be so rarely shown in the film that there's almost a sense of it not being a real creature feature at all. By choosing to focus instead on the family drama and the different background characters first, the crocodile doesn't seem to be a big important factor in the plot and rarely seems to be a concern for them once it does show up, dramatically reducing it's effectiveness even before the lame effects used for it are brought into play. There's some good stuff in the rather frenetic finale that finally lets the creature loose and get a decent rampage on the populace resulting in some fine deaths and a bit of action, the ultimate manner of killing the beast is pretty creative and overall the second half has a nice vibe to it, but overall it's quite lacking.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language

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.