The title hints it might be a new, somewhat original type of horror film but PRIMEVAL turns out to be that most invariably disappointing of B-movie specimens: the CGI animated killer crocodile flick. I can't help but think that CGI has effectively killed the monster movie stone dead; prior to the mid-1990s, filmmakers had to go out of their way to build life-size replicas for their creature features, and the films featuring such creations had a level of care and respect put into them. Now, anybody can make a B-movie with a CGI menace at its core and the floodgates are well and truly opened for often dire Z-grade efforts.
Things at least look interesting at the start: there's a foreign, African locale, and rumours of an age-old serial killer prowling the swamps. The plot soon veers into familiar territory: a news crew is sent out to cover the story and capture the crocodile alive, if at all possible. If you're looking for clichés, look no further than the cast: there's the rugged, square-jawed but one-dimensional hero type (Dominic Purcell, who made his name playing Dracula in BLADE: TRINITY), the pretty/sassy reporter (Brooke Langton), the stereotypical black comic relief guy (Orlando Jones, who delivers one of the most jaw-droppingly offensive lines of dialogue in film history) and the grizzled guide (Jurgen Prochnow, on autopilot).
The story soon devolves into repetitive chase sequences as the cast are variously stalked and dispatched by the killer crocodile. A lot of the action takes place at night, thereby disguising the paucity of the special effects budget, and there's only one scene in which the croc is halfway convincing. To add insult to injury, all but one of the African supporting cast seem to consist of thugs and villains to add to the so-called menace. There's absolutely NOTHING here that hasn't been seen before, and I'm astonished that this managed to get a cinema release when it's no better than the run-of-the-mill creature flicks that the Sci-Fi channel has been churning out for the last decade or so.
Things at least look interesting at the start: there's a foreign, African locale, and rumours of an age-old serial killer prowling the swamps. The plot soon veers into familiar territory: a news crew is sent out to cover the story and capture the crocodile alive, if at all possible. If you're looking for clichés, look no further than the cast: there's the rugged, square-jawed but one-dimensional hero type (Dominic Purcell, who made his name playing Dracula in BLADE: TRINITY), the pretty/sassy reporter (Brooke Langton), the stereotypical black comic relief guy (Orlando Jones, who delivers one of the most jaw-droppingly offensive lines of dialogue in film history) and the grizzled guide (Jurgen Prochnow, on autopilot).
The story soon devolves into repetitive chase sequences as the cast are variously stalked and dispatched by the killer crocodile. A lot of the action takes place at night, thereby disguising the paucity of the special effects budget, and there's only one scene in which the croc is halfway convincing. To add insult to injury, all but one of the African supporting cast seem to consist of thugs and villains to add to the so-called menace. There's absolutely NOTHING here that hasn't been seen before, and I'm astonished that this managed to get a cinema release when it's no better than the run-of-the-mill creature flicks that the Sci-Fi channel has been churning out for the last decade or so.