Jurassic Predator: Xtinction

"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.

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

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.

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."

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.