Ferocious Planet

It's always funny if you see big names on a sleeve of an unknown movie. Here the name that I want to mention is John Rhys-Davies. He was in the Lord of The Rings trilogy and the Indiana Jones fame. But he's maybe for 10 minutes in this SyFy production. And you know what SyFy mean, mostly really bad flicks but I guess that they have learned their lesson. This rather looks good. I even enjoyed it. Of course it's low on the red stuff, some killings do occur but not really to mention. But the movie started off really well with an experiment going awry and transports a group of observers into a nightmarish dimension. From their on they are on the other side. Some dinosaur looking creatures are making the way of survival a hard target. There is of course a lot of CGI, especially the creature but that's normal for SyFy. Nevertheless, it almost the same, creature, running, creature appears, running away. But it's one that you could see with your kids on a rainy afternoon. Somehow you keep watching what is going to happens next.

What amazes me the most about this movie is that there are actually people thinking it is a good movie. Really? Ferocious Planet is a complete waste of your time, a waste of money that could have been spent in making something watchable. The story itself could have been good if you only had a good script writer. It could have been good if you had decent actors. But really, this acting was awful to watch. terrible actors! Not one good actor in the whole movie. Terrible lines, so cheesy that you wonder who would write something like that. He can't seriously not be making a living out of this. One thing is for sure, I won't ever forget about this movie, because the only things you remember are the real good movies and the dramatic failures like Ferocious Planet.

There are a few problems with this TV movie from the emasculated Syfy Channel. I throw up a little in my mouth when I have to write its new name. Overall it's watchable and a traditional Radiation Theatre film. Here are some fun things about Ferocious Planet which I like to call The Quasi-Ferocious Planet.

Most actors had American accents at the beginning but the Irish started coming out toward the end. CarrieFisher-idice!

So this is John Rhys-Davies' new career. Show up for the 100K. Film a scene or two and get killed? He's done that like nine times. I wish I had a job like that.

Apparently there is only one type of creature inhabiting this forest on this random parallel universe. No bugs,snakes or creepy things to give us some cool jump moments. Too bad. Oh well, there was this mushroom but it didn't really do anything.

"We're out of time" is said so often I was truly convinced they were out of time.

The writer(s) apparently loved Jaws, Jurassic Park and Alien as a kid (who didn't!) Too bad writer(s) couldn't find a more appropriate place to use the homage line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat".

The science of how they got to the F. Planet in the first place was unintelligible, like a madman writing on a wall. It was a view scope to other dimensions that suddenly became a transporter device because . . .

Using only one creature (who looked like a Swiss Army Knife) mixed with the unusually high body count resulted in fewer creative kills. Just a Dinosaur with razors everywhere on its body.

Must say the effects were better than an average SyFy crap on a stick. OOps threw up a little again.

In summation, too many missed story opportunities and it drags towards the end.

So I leave you this advice: Don't poke the alien.

"Ferocious Planet" wasn't all entirely bad, it had its moments, though few and far apart.

The story here is about some scientists having found a way to look into other dimensions, but then something goes wrong and a group of people are transported into another dimension, where they are fighting an unknown species of life. Sounds fairly alright, doesn't it? Yes. And the idea is actually good enough, but the movie suffered from a lack of ambition and the element to fully draw you in. And some of the decisions made by the characters in the movie makes you go "what? why would someone do that?" - it just doesn't always make sense.

As for the acting in "Ferocious Planet", well it wasn't too bad either. But frankly speaking, it was mostly mediocre performances. It was like they hadn't enough emotion and sparkling energy with them, and it resulted in that you felt distanced and didn't care about the characters in the movie. And you just got to love the role that John Rhys-Davies had in the movie, and the actual amount of time he was in the movie. But a good way to lure in people, by having a familiar name on the cast list.

For being a SyFy movie, then "Ferocious Planet" could have been worse than it turned out to actually be. The movie is adequate, and provides half-hearted entertainment throughout the entire length of the feature.

One this that really worked well for the movie, was the design of the creature in the other dimension. It looked really cool. It did look fake at times when it was moving, but most of the time it looked believable enough and good enough. So this worked well for the movie.

Having seen "Ferocious Planet" now, then I can say that SyFy have other movies available that are better than this one, and they also have a lot of movies available that are far worse.

Gosh! Why all the bad reviews? It's a made-for-TV movie that could easily be turned into a series. I know John Rhys-Davies makes a cameo appearance and is killed off 5 minutes into this movie about sliding into a parallel dimension and the cast's frantic attempts to return, but there's no reason he couldn't be brought back for a TV series with that same concept. Heck, we could call the show "Sliders." OK, sarcasm mode off.

The acting was fine. The CGI, while limited (budget I suppose) was OK. However, the script was pathetic. I couldn't even find a credit for who wrote this. Was it unscripted or was the writer too ashamed? We get to hear one of the characters ask "are you tapping that?" The only possible purpose of the line at that point in the story was to demonstrate that the writer knows 21st century locker-room lingo. Hm... maybe that's it: it was written by a high-schooler.

Aside from the cheap lines, why do hack writers have to create military personnel incapable of following orders, otherwise intelligent adults suddenly incapable of cooperating and yet other adults in a life threatening emergency suddenly deciding that THEN is the time to hatch a transparent money-making scheme or wander off alone to examine the flora and fauna? The "don't poke the alien" line is funny, but several people manhandle the alien. While there's a certain satisfaction that one of the idiot characters gets what he deserves as a result of alien poking, it made absolutely zero sense.

With some good writing this have been a watchable -- even though rehashed -- film. I know I could have personally made something better of the writing. As it was, for the lack of any appreciable budget for decent writers, this film is a total waste of time.