primeval

THE FLICK: “You got your monster-movie in my human-rights film! “No, you got your human-rights film in my monster-movie!” I’m not sure if it’s worth arguing about, but Primeval definitely has itself an identity crisis. We don’t get many big budget creature features any more (the Sci-Fi Channel seems to scoop them up, cut their budgets down to a percentage, and cast Dean Cain in the lead), so there must have been some pressure to make the film about more than just a giant crocodile on the loose eating up Africans and a traveling trio of journalists. Primeval tries to turn it’s croc into a metaphor – something about “making our own monsters” – but loses momentum by shifting the focus away from the chomping and gulping to score points for humanity. Inspired by the true story of Gustave, a legendary predator that stalked African waterways and was responsible for untold deaths, Primeval sends its three fictional journalists (Dominic Purcell of Prison Break, Orlando Jones from the 7UP ads, and Brooke Langton from Melrose Place) into the belly of the beast to capture it for a TV news channel. Jurgen Prochnow turns up as a Captain Ahab figure determined to kill the croc, but instead they all wind up dodging bullets from African warlords in a power struggle for African supremacy. It’s an admirable attempt at a subplot and there’s even one moderately exciting foot vs. car chase. But Primeval already feels scattered from the start – written in that Hollywood shorthand that sets up the first act in 10-minutes then meanders towards the final twenty – so any time away from our central threat only weakens the film. Gustave himself is brought to life completely digitally in a most convincing fashion, moving with lightening speed, even racing poor Orlando Jones across an entire African savannah at one point. There are at least two jump scares that are guaranteed to work and the story has been trimmed of anything even approximating fat. Unfortunately that means characters, too. Which results in Gustave stalking and swallowing folks no one really cared for in the first place. When a dog on a raft inspires the most concern, you know your movie has some problems. Is it better than a Sci-Fi Original? Most definitely. But it’s nowhere near as much fun to make fun of. THE FEATURES: Another superb transfer on Blu-ray, full of deep oranges and spooky blues as the story shifts from day to night. Although the film never seems to take advantage of the locale as much as it should, what’s here looks tremendous. The Croc-umentary: Bringing Gustave to Life” emphasizes the FX used to create the central monster based on reference footage of real crocs (which the tech guys lovingly refer to as “Franken-Croc). The three Deleted Scenes include one feeding frenzy and a shower scene while an Audio Commentary featuring director Michael Kattleman and FX supervisor Paul Linden can answer any nagging questions.