Ferocious Planet

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.

A scientist endeavors to prove the existence of parallel dimensions by inventing a machine that provides a view through a portal to some of these alternate dimensions. During a demonstration of the device, something goes awry, and a bunch of people find themselves in the middle of what seems like an earthquake. But the reality of their situation is far worse. The machine has teleported them all to the dimension they were watching. From the title, you can guess the alternate universe is not where most people would want to spend their vacation.

One of SyFy's better efforts; the action is well handled, the creatures are designed and animated well, and the acting is above average. There's an ironic twist near the end, but too many clues make it pretty obvious long before the twist is revealed. The parking meter bits were actually clever, although the explanation for them was goofy.

The weakness is the formulaic approach: the characters are eliminated in the usual one-by-one manner of these type of movies, usually just as they say or do something stupid. It's usually obvious who's going to get it next, especially the clichéd knuckle-headed greedy guys in the group.

All in all, not bad for a TV movie and considering the weak theatrical releases out this summer, and the ticket prices that look like they were set by a big-oil executive, watching this for free is the better option.

I give it an 8 mainly for the good slips of humor that they give the audience here and there. Which is good, because if they tried to be totally serious, it would have felt corny.

My favorite: "Rule: Don't poke the alien." It was an interesting mix of characters thrown together by an experimental demonstration gone wrong (of course!) And a bunch of Washington Senatorial aides, scientists and a few marine guards are thrown into another dimension. Now how do they get back? What's nice about this flick is that the script doesn't really follow the tried and true tropes we come to expect from 'Scientist Experiments Gone Wrong' but sends the viewer towards different outcomes. . .with a bit of humor interspersed with the gore.

And the ending was. . .interestingly open to interpretation.

This is a good Saturday Night 'B' Flick. Not bad for SyFy.

Okay so you're probably a fan of Stargate Atlantis and you saw that Joe Flanigan was in this movie. And then you noticed that Joe was playing a colonel and that you might see some of that old John Sheppard magic.

Well don't bother! Because this movie sucks! If this movie was on the other side of the Earth Stargate then Jack O'neill would send a nuke to make sure it never got through! And you would thank him for doing so.

This movie has no redeeming qualities. it is a bad movie with bad acting and bad cgi. The main plot could have been developed given decent writers and some competent actors. But I guess that would have made too much common sense. I do not understand how these films get released?

This is a very bad movie so do not waste your time. I have given it three stars one for Joe and one each for the sound and camer guys who did their jobs. Remember curiosity killed the cat!