Customer Reviews

Hydra (Unrated)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I originally heard of this movie in June 2008 and waited what seemed like forever to finally see it. It was not forever, but more like eleven months. Still, it had a lot of expectations to live up to and I also knew the majority of Sci-Fi Channel movies can be pretty disappointing.

So when it appeared on the UK listings, i watched it to decide if I should cancel my pre-order or not. Then i watched it again. Did i cancel my pre-order? No.

So why not? For one thing, the movie has slower, more deliberate pacing than a lot of its predecessors. The CGI is a bit better than the average Sci-Fi Channel movies too. It's not the peak of special effects quality in such movies, but, for example, in the opening scene the hydra bites a man's leg, and that shot looks more realistic than some of the biting shots in "Basilisk: the Serpent King" which actually had impressive CGI (for a low-budget movie).

In place of the usual Saturday morning cartoon human villain, we have... well, there's two human villains, neither of whom trust each other, and neither of whom have any leverage over the other leading to their scenes actually being interesting to watch. There's a couple of other minor villains (including the wife of one main villain), along with four hunters who do at least have more personality than the usual henchmen and are a bit more dangerous too.

They didn't completely do away with the redshirt henchmen found in your average Sci-Fi Channel movie, but if they had, the monster aspect of the movie wouldn't play a part until quite a while into the film.

The guy who plays Nolan does quite well; he's quite convincing as an ex-military type advising people on survival. I suspect the actor may have based his performance on that one ex=special forces guy who used to have a TV show dealing with such subjects.

There's some bad points of course; mostly what stands out is an extreem act of stupidity by one of the minor characters and, er... I guess without spoiling anything, all I can say is some aspects towards the end felt a bit rushed and contrived.

Another surprising aspect of competence was that not only did people (even "redshirt henchmen") have the sense to shoot a large carnivore in the head, but bullets actually work on this monster too! Granted, anyone familiar with the mythology could guess those two things together will only help this particular monster, but I can't really find fault with anything that means less incompetence in a Sci-Fi channel movie!

In Greek mythology, the Hydra is a multi-headed snakelike beast, with poisonous breath. Somehow this creature winds up on an island in the middle of nowhere, in Hydra (2009), an extremely silly train wreck of a monster flick, that is mostly entertaining for the wrong reasons.

Entrepreneur Vincent Camden (Alex McArthur) and his wife (Jana Williams), are the sponsors of a unique venture that involves four wealthy men, who have experienced personal tragedies. Seeking a twisted outlet for their frustrations, each man has committed to pay ten million dollars, to participate in a death hunt, involving four criminals kidnapped to serve as prey. Camden, his clients, and the imprisoned victims are aboard a large ship, when the captain (Michael Shamus Wiles) locates a suitable island to stage the event.

Tim Nolan (George Stults) and Gwen Russell (Dawn Olivieri) are among the prisoners deposited on the island. Four hunters arrive later, and the hunt begins. There is however an unexpected participant. The Hydra has already feasted on an archeological expedition, leaving Dr. Valerie Cammon (Polly Shannon) running for her life. With fresh meat on the island it isn't long before the Hydra begins to feast.

The creature is entirely a CGI creation, and though obviously fake, looks decent enough. It specializes in surrounding its victims, chomping down on heads, and ripping bodies apart. While such gore is a always a fun thing, it does become a little repetitive. Guns don't work too well, as true to myth, destroying a head causes two more to grow back. The only weapon that is effective, is an ancient sword discovered hidden in a cave. Believing the threat has been defeated, the survivors return to the ship, but there is time for one last feeding frenzy.

Hydra is just idiotic fun, with a totally dumb story, and lots of bad acting. Michael Shamus Wiles his overacting meter set on high. The mysterious volcanic island setting is preposterous, the dialog ridiculous, and the pretentious cardboard characters mostly unlikeable. If you have a thing for cheesy multi-headed beasts, the film is frequently on Sy Fy's schedule, it you want to preview it there.

It's a movie where the producer didn't know what type of film to make so he incorporated all of them. I liked it but I am one of the few people that enjoy strange movies. It's one of those movies you watch once for the experience but never put in again.

Warning: Spoilers in this review.

The premise of this movie was pretty good: four rich hunters paying through the nose to hunt human prey on a remote island in the middle of nowhere. Things go ary when one of the hunted turns out to be a former special forces soldier, and even more so when it turns out that there is a muti-headed monster on teh island eating everyone it encounters. It is the type of movie I'd like to see made by a big budgeted and competent crew.

Unfortunately, it was not. Even so, I was able to look beyond the poor special effects and the nearly as poor acting, as the story itself was interesting. Even the improbable, like the fact that the captain was not even a little bit curious why none of his crew would return to the ship after going ashore, was at least mildly dealt with, if unconvincingly.

What lost it for me, however, was the magic sword ending. Come on. They couldn't come up with anything better then the "Sword of Hercules" saving the day? Even Hercules himself did not use a magic sword with his mythological fight with the hydra. After he chopped off a head, he seared the wound with molten lead. They could have at least made the sword look as if it came from an ancient Greek civilization, instead of out of the middle ages.

Good, prompt service from Amazon yet again. And Hydra was great! I first saw this on the sci-fi channel after planning to watch it for months because of Jimmy Wlcek (who played Trent Malloy on a couple of seasons of WTR) and was pleasantly surprised to see George Stults (Kevin from 7th Heaven) in the movie as well. Yeah, the plot was rather standard and the special effects weren't any big deal, but that's part of the movie's charm. It's understated and simple, a real classic. Great movie. Go rent/buy, watch, and enjoy.

And yet another movie based on the often filmed short story by Richard Connell: The Most Dangerous Game. The "twist" this time is that the people being hunted somehow deserved it. I guess this would make the clients vigilante hunters. Naturally, the cast is padded with `bodies' rather than characters. It's all about the kill. There's also some vague archeological references tossed in because the plot desperately needed it to resolve the Hydra problem (you know how pesky Hydras can be).
For me the draw was the amusement I gained over the image of the SINISTER captain and the hat that was too big for his head. It's hard to take someone seriously when they don't know their hat size.

I enjoyed the movie, the characters were interesting so was the story, but the monster looked so very fake.

My daughter ( 8 years old) enjoyed this movie, me not. i think it could be better and the eating scenes by the monster more realistic , bad acting.just a kind of B movie !

What can I say? There's no excuse for movies THIS bad. It's like watching an episode of Hercules with Kevin Sorbo, only this REALLY SUUUUCKS.

No one was in character, the actors were horrific, the action lame, there's really no positives to list, just a bunch of negatives. I didn't even find it entertaining.

This is just a mental note to myself, if I ever get my hands on this movie again, I'll remember to trash it right away. The cover looks good though, I think that's where all the budget went.

DON'T waste your money buying this movie new. Get it used, cuz more than likely you'll be getting it new anyway cuz the person that bought it, is trying to get rid of it. This has got to be the dumbest movie I've EVER seen, and that's saying a lot as I've seen quite a few! Crappy and cheap CGI, wayward and consistant off queue acting, and just plain bad...

I will give the story it's props as it really did have a cool story line, but was just done ALL kinds of poorly. Please save yourself and just pretend this movie did't even come up on your list for movies to buy.

Now please excuse me while I put a bullet through my brain so that I can try to erase the fact that I ever watched it, much less bought it!