Ferocious Planet

Considering that it was a Scyfy movie, I have to say it wasn't as bad as most of the movies they produce.

The main problems are mostly budget related, but that's to be expected for a TV movie, and the actors didn't do as good of a job as they could have.

They were for the most part lacklustre performances, and Joe Flanigan was basically playing the same character he did in Stargate Atlantis, the only difference between Colonel Sam Synn, the character in this movie, and Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, the one from Stargate Atlantis, was that Sam Synn is a full bird colonel.

There was very little character information, you find out a few vague things about some of them, but not enough to understand their motivation.

Also, the ending felt like a cop-out. It seemed that they ran out of money or something and didn't have enough to film the final scene, or at least that was my impression. They had a million and one ways to end the movie that could have made it very interesting, and instead chose a very unsatisfactory way to do it.

On a positive note, the creature effects were more than satisfactory for a ScyFy movie, and they only looked bad in a few scenes.

All in all, this is not a movie I would watch again, not by a long shot, but if Ferocious Planet is any indication, then ScyFy is finally heading in the right direction.

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.

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.

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.

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!