Customer Reviews

Primeval

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I rented primeval, I was expecting (and hoping) for a sci-fi channel type movie about a monster crocodile that would attack everyone. Well, it was partly like that. A group of journalists is sent to a civil war stricken South African country to report on the capture of this man eater.

The journalist meet a few local villagers and hook up with a crocodile expert. However, their lives are threatened by much more than just a crocodile when the cameraman accidentally films men from a local warlord's army executing a tribal holy man and his family.

The crocodile does play an important part in this movie; but I felt that it became more of a movie about the Burundi civil war; its war lords; and a general statement about ravaged Africa as a whole. Some people, I have read, did not like this movie. I think its worth a try, I certainly enjoyed it.

By the way, Gustave (the killer crocodile) is indeed real. He lives in Burundi and may be the largest freshwater crocodile in the world. I Googled "Gustave crocodile in Africa" and got a BBC News link from a 2002 article. Interesting.

"Primeval" tricked me. I knew nothing about the film other than a brief blurb I'd read that said it was about a serial killer and was based on a true story. Turns out the "serial killer" is, in fact, a large, hundred-year old crocodile named Gustave. Ho ho!

Eh.

The story is about a news team that has been sent to Africa in order to cover a story on (and perhaps capture) the elusive beast. The movie briefly explains why a blood-thirsty crocodile is news (and even why it would be left up to journalists, a cameraman, and two wild animal experts to catch a critter that's been eating unsuspecting humans for decades), but the explanation is weak, at best.

Even weaker is the awkward melding of the croc plot with another story thread involving an African civil war that is propogated and prolonged by a blood-thirsty warlord named -- that's right -- Gustave. Is this a powerful political metaphor? Probably. Is it done well? Of course it isn't.

Populated by stock characters of the worst kind (although Orlando Jones manages to do some good things with his smart-aleck cameraman role), "Primeval" succumbs to ludicrousness (the characters, after a recent croc attack, decide that a rickety shack built IN the river is their best safe haven), pointlessness (the dull bonfire "bonding" scene where a tribal drum session is followed by the Westerners singing "Amazing Grace" off-key), and confusion (most of the croc attacks take place at night and are dizzyingly hard to follow). Tack on a hokey (albeit unfortunately true) message about American apathy toward African brutality, and you're left with a jury-rigged mess of a movie, a schizophrenic cinematic experience that tries to be viscerally scintillating as well as politically charged. If it had picked one or the other, it may have had at least a shred of consistency to give it pluck and cohesion. Instead, it's a mawkish blend of macabre and moralistic.

And it's not about a serial killer.

I sincerely applaud this movie for making a social statement. The US needs to know about the tragedies in Africa - Darfur, Congo, Rwanda, etc.

That being said, outside the geo-historical backdrop, it's a fairly typical thriller. Great scenery, acting is pretty good. If you like thrillers such as Anaconda, this is actually a notch or two better. But don't expect Oscar material.

-Take the cinematography from "Ghost in the Darkness"- Africa landscapes
-Throw in the boat from "Anaconda"
-The guy from 7up & Mad TV for comic relief- with a few good laughs
-A few elements from "Lake Placid"
-Some villians from "Black Hawk Down" (two plot lines going here)
-Have the Crocodile attack either like "Jurassic park 3" or a serial killer.

You basically have a Saturday night rental that you can leave on as you half pay attention and guess which common movie plot line they will do.

It is what it is; not good, but not really bad either. The cinamatographer will difenantly get more work.

Big CGI special effects movie starring a fast 30-foot crocodile. The movie puts the characters in danger early and keeps them there throughout, creating an effective sense of tension. Unfortunately, the result also feels unrealistic, and is way too serious; scenes establishing the problems Africa exist uneasily in what is essentially a dumb creature (B) film. Finally, this movie has enough moments to succeed on a certain level, though it could have been a lot better.

When I was in kindergarten, we always used to sing this crocodile song (I forgot the name of) and according to the lyrics, her jaws were never closed because she always gossiped about the rest of the animal kingdom. Well now, the croc in "Primeval" answers to the name Gustave and his jaws are never closed neither, but for a completely different reason. Since the beginning of time, he reigns over the swamps & rivers in the poorest regions of Burundi and he supposedly devoured over 300 people already. Gustave normally just feeds on locals, so nobody in the Western world cares whether he lives or dies, but he now made the terrible mistake of eating a female white reporter and his quiet and peaceful days of over for good. A prominent American newspaper sends out an expedition, complete with reporters, local guides and a professional crocodile hunter, to capture Gustave alive.

When "Primeval" came out a couple of months ago, it already earned itself to be noted one of the worst films and receives one harshly negative review after the other. Quite undeservedly if you ask me, because it really isn't such a terrible movie and even benefices from a handful of good aspects, like a solid cast and engaging CGI-monster effects. The scriptwriters simply made one incomprehensible and unforgivable mistake! Why on earth did John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris had the ambition to use the premise of a low-brained monster feature to alert us about the disastrous political situation in Southern Africa? There's a 25-foot-long crocodile running amok and yet this movie mainly criticizes how the Western world shamelessly turned its back on the poverty & civil war issues in Burundi. If they wanted to make a harrowing and insightful follow-up to "Hotel Rwanda" that's perfect by me, but please don't pretend it's a non-stop gory and exciting creature-feature! It's like the characters in the film say themselves: nobody cares about politics as long as there's a croc involved! Mixing big-animal-horror with political drama topics, as well as the supposedly heart-breaking sub plot revolving on an African adolescent who'd do everything (literally EVERYTHING!) to enter the USA, is probably Hollywood's worst spontaneous decision to date, and it's really no surprise the public hates this movie for it. If "Primeval" simply had focused on the bloody crocodile-hunting mission, everything would have been a-okay and it definitely would have ranked on the list of above average monster films. All the necessary ingredients and stereotype characters to make a delightfully cheesy and entertaining creature feature are present.

The crew exists of a reluctant reporter who considers his trip to Burundi as a punishment for ruining a previous assignment, a new and ambitious female reporter who desperately wants to prove herself, the 'token-black-guy' cameraman, the overly self-confident expert who thinks he's even better than Steve Irwin (RIP) and of course the introvert guide who has a personal score to settle with Gustave. Director Michael Katleman patiently waits a good 45 minutes before properly showing the crocodile - and hence effectively builds up tension - and it has to be said the animal looks very impressive. Gustave is big, but not over-the-top big, and he looks genuinely menacing when speeding through the swamps and destroying cages of solid steel. But then, completely out of the blue, the cameraman accidentally witnesses a political execution in the middle of nowhere and suddenly the Americans have to flee from local crime-networks instead of from Gustave. The sudden change in tone & message is impossible to cope with and the rest of the film is giant disaster. Not even the fairly spectacular finale can undo the damage. The cast is pretty decent, with Dominic Purcell ("Prison Break"), Brooke Langton ("The Replacements"), Orlando Jones ("Evolution") and a typical supportive role for B-movie veteran Jürgen Prochnow. I say see it if you ran out of rental ideas.

The promo ads for this film tried to suggest that this feature is about a serial killer, but no, it is about a monstrous fresh water crocodile, a giant one that is the scourge of Burundi, who preys upon the villagers along the Rizizi river. The natives have dubbed him GUSTAVE.
GUSTAVE is for real. He is a 23 ft. long, believed to weigh over a ton and believed to have devoured 300 people. The film can say that " it was inspired by true events" because the Giant Croc is still believed to have been sighted very recently. There is a National Geographic documentary about Gustave. Wounds made by bullets/arrows/machetes make Gustave easily identified.

In the movie, Tim Manfrey(Dominic Purcell, Prison Break) accompanied by a news reporter named Aviva( hottie Brooke Langton, The Replacements), Steven(Orlando Jones) and conservationist Matthew(Gideon Emery) is sent to Burundi to try to capture and make a documentary about the capture of the legendary croc.
Burundi is in the midst of a civil war when the team arrives, with much of the nation cowering in fear of a warlord nicknamed Little Gustave. "He got his name from the crocodile. It's hard to say whose blood is colder," says a town official.

The team aided by a local tracker, begins the hunt for Gustave while hoping not to run into the rebel militias. They encounter both the human Gustave and the reptilian version. That's where the film gets to reflect: Who is more murderous, The man or the Crocodile?

The director M. Katleman stated that JAWS inspired him while making this film, and it shows. It never gets close to that level of suspense, but PRIMEVAL is definitely a lot better than all the JAWS sequels/knock-offs. There are some immersive, tense moments notwithstanding. The characters are flat and the script is wooden(except for Orlando Jones' quips). The CGI EFX is very well done, especially the water effects. I didn't see any artifacts at all. Realism really went to the back burner here, specifically with the chase scene in the field. Crocodiles are ambush predators, not rampaging agile berserkers. I'm not sure really how a 23 ft. croc would move, but I'm pretty sure the law of "short bursts of speed" applies to Gustave as with any other crocs. They are also cold-blooded reptiles, so in the movie, Gustave should be seen basking in the sun more often and not hidden.

PICTURE: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40 ratio. The transfer is very decent. Colors are very vivid and the edges are a bit grainy but extremely sharp. Some night scenes could have used more detail(in the Black level area) but it does add a moody look. Overall, very nice.
Sound: 5.1 Dolby digital is very good. Quite solid with a lot of deep bass.
EXTRAS:
Commentary by the director and the visual effects supervisor. (I think he did GHOST RIDER's effects also).
"Crocumentary: Bringing Gustave to Life" (9:38) is quite informative with regard to creating the computer-generated Gustave. I was very amazed in the tricks of the trade.
Three Deleted scenes(5+ minutes) I didn't care much for the commentaries that went along with them.

Overall, GUSTAVE is a very watchable movie. It is a lot better than all the creature features in the SCI-FI channel/JAWS wannabes/sequels and is quite entertaining. Watch it with an open mind, don't expect much, just sit on your favorite chair and grab your popcorn. Enjoy it for what it is, a good evening diversion from a hard day's work. 3 stars!

Here's a quote from J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye": "If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me." The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, hates movies because he considers them to be phony. While I take great pleasure in film watching, and while I deeply respect the art of filmmaking, movies like "Primeval" prove that in some cases, Caulfield is exactly right; this has to be one of the phoniest films I've ever seen, distorting real life into a story that can only amount to a low grade Creature Feature. The tagline says, "Inspired by the true story of the most prolific serial killer in history." I assume that someone who understood the drawing power of such statements conjured this up. It makes one think of a dark psychological thriller profiling the crimes of a demented murderer. "Primeval" is not a psychological thriller--the "serial killer" is nothing more than a voracious crocodile.

What makes this movie even worse is that it mixes Creature Feature material with some serious subject matter, specifically the brutality of African civil war. Amazing: the writers actually thought that such different genres would work together in the same movie. I became greatly confused halfway through the film; is this or is this not the tense horror film the ads have been making it out to be? I give it credit for including some genuinely scary moments, but I can't help but wonder if the filmmakers knew what they wanted this to be. On the one hand, the good guys are faced with a monstrous reptile. On the other, they're thrust into the violence and chaos of a warring African nation. Someone must not have been paying attention when writing the script; two different stories were being told, neither of which belonged together.

The plot concerns a group of newscasters sent to Burundi. Their mission is to capture footage of a crocodile the natives have dubbed Gustave, a name of Old Swedish origin meaning Staff of the Goths. Why an American news company would be interested in a reptile located halfway around the world is anyone's guess. Why they would actually want their reporters to cover this story is also anyone's guess; aside from the possibility of being eaten alive, there's also the danger of getting unintentionally involved in Burundi's civil war. Apparently, this doesn't matter: prominent forensic scientist Dr. Cathy Andrews (Erika Wessels) has been killed by Gustave, and the TV exec, Roger Sharpe (Patrick Lyster), wants a ragtag team to stop the hungry croc before it's too late.

Here enter reporters Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) and Aviva Masters (Brooke Langton), who initially don't get along due to different perceptions of what classifies as a good story. They're joined by needlessly comical cameraman Steven Johnson (Orlando Jones) and Steve Irwin-wannabe Mathew Collins (Gideon Emery). Upon arriving in Burundi, they meet with Harry (Dumisani Mbebe), an African contact who uses a Western name for reasons I can't explain. He can supposedly ensure the safety of the news crew as they travel down the Azizi River. Of course, this isn't the case; as soon as it's dark, a group of soldiers on the banks of the river begin shooting at the boat. The protective team on the boat shoots back, laughing the entire time. I found that incredibly inappropriate, especially in a film that advertised by showing piles of various human bones.

They eventually arrive at a remote village and meet Jacob Krieg (Jurgen Pronchnow), an elusive poacher-stereotype who clearly has a vendetta against Gustave. I won't say why, but I will say that his reasoning is anything but original. I will also say that it generates friction between him and Collins, who has dedicated his life to rescuing crocodiles. Collins believes that Gustave can be captured and moved to a safer area; killing the animal is far too drastic. His plan involves shooting Gustave with a tracking device and luring him into a gigantic steel cage with bait. Krieg can help in this arena; he has a thermos full of animal blood and urine, which supposedly have enough pheromones to lure any crocodile within a five-mile radius.

As would be expected, the film yields many encounters with Gustave. He's a beast of massive proportions, pretty much to the point of seeming completely unrealistic (not helped by the fact that the character is completely computer generated). As would also be expected, he attacks mostly at night, making it harder for the audience to get a real idea of what he looks like. This cinematic method usually works; it could have worked for "Primeval" had the story not been so confused. The lack of creativity was also quite bothersome; I was not at all impressed by the attack scenes, all of which rehash some the best Creature Features moments in film history.

And then there's the subplot involving the opposing military factor. Our intrepid croc hunters have to be wary of a dictator who's so ruthless, he's been given the nickname Little Gustave. But why should we care about this when we have graphic shots of blood and guts to keep us entertained? Unfortunately, that's the problem with this movie; African civil war is something we should definitely care about. I find it offensive that they used such serious subject matter so haphazardly; it's tacked on to what is essentially a horror movie, one that isn't of the highest quality. There's really no reason to go and see this movie, even if you're a fan of the Creature Feature genre. If the media wants to portray crocodiles as intelligent animals, then they should have them devour every reel of "Primeval." Believe me when I say that watching them eat will be much more satisfying than watching the film.

I like giant crocodile movies and I'm guessing you do too if you're thinking about seeing this movie. DON"T!!! Take it from a crocodile fan!

The plot: Embarrassingly `Primeval' makes a mockery of a real life giant croc Gustave saying it is "based on real events" and stars a real croc character. (I'll explain the real events later)

Token character attempt to capture Gustave, the famous African croc. When I say token they are truly that. The attractive love interests, the good scientist with an Australian accent, the evil German hunter (Jurgen Prochow) and loud mouthed black friend (Orlando Jones). Jones' character is truly insulting; he even wears a FUBU shirt and can't shut up. Why does Jones always get stuck playing these characters? For that matter why are these characters ever included in movies?

Predictably the documentary goes horribly wrong. They are attacked by evil guerrillas and everyone is eaten by Gustave.

Worst this about the movie aside from the meaningless story and characters is the photography. Somehow they thought they'd go arty and try to shoot it like `Saving Private Ryan' and `Blackhawk Down.' This works well for war film where combat is chaotic but the result here is it's virtually impossible to tell what's happening.

OK here's the real story behind Gustave, he is NOT "9 meters" (30 feet) long as stated in the film. He's between 16 to 20 feet long. There has not been a documented croc bigger than 20 feet in millions of years. Still that's a monster croc. 16 to 20 feet is plenty frightening. The film makers don't have to go berserk with the size issue.

Gustave wasn't known for eating people, since people knew enough to stay away from him. He was known for eating hippos! Again, that's plenty frightening.

The real expedition was not to save humans from Gustave but to save Gustave from humans as poachers wanted the famed croc. Of course Gustave never ate any of them as no one was dumb enough to get close to him.

The film also states that "When there's an abundant food supply crocodiles will eat until they sink, and vomit it all up so they can feed again." WRONG that's called "thrill killing" something crocs don't do!

The film ends with Gustave still alive and hunting humans. WRONG is real life Gustave simply vanished from his regular hunting spot without a trace soon after the documentary. Most scientists believe Gustave was the victim of poachers.

Monster of the week movies have become something of a Syfy staple. I've seen so many that I can write the script with my eyes closed: human with grudge tracks monster, monster shows human-like intelligence, cutting-edge technology is used to capture the beast, a person is dragged screaming off-camera, interference from petty humans prevents the beast from being caught, and sometimes if the director's feeling generous the human bad guy gets eaten by the monster. So it's surprising when a monster movie gets a mainstream release.

Perhaps that's why Primeval is so insecure about being a monster movie. Instead, its trailers try to place Primeval in the slasher genre, claiming that the killer has eaten over 300 victims and he "might not even be human." That's the only bit of truth to be found in the trailer. The killer isn't human at all -- he's Gustave, a 60-year-old, 20 foot long, 1-ton crocodile. The plot is taken from the 2004 documentary Capturing the Killer Croc, which features a naturalist who, along with a documentary team, took on the monster. Patrice Faye, a Burundi naturalist, sought to capture Gustave in revenge for his colleague who was supposedly eaten by the beast. Sometimes these movies write themselves.

Primeval has Jacob Krieg (Jurgen Prochnow) filling in for Faye and instead of a colleague it's his wife that was eaten by the croc. Just as in real life a film crew is assembled to capture the beast, and Gustave's name is in fact namef after Burundi's then president, the ruthless former army major Pierre Buyoya (a Tutsi). The camera crew, led by Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell), love interest Aviva Masters (Brooke Langton), and stereotypical comedic relief Steven Johnson (Orlando Jones), play up the fish-out-of-water element of their foolish venture to the hilt. It quickly grates.

But back to that plot. Of course our heroes have a peculiar tracking device that pings. The pinging gimmick debuted in Aliens and has been oft-repeated - here it brings shades of the ticking crocodile that swallowed Captain Hook's hand from Peter Pan. Eventually the two plots converge - Little Gustave and Big Gustave - into one unlikely denouement. Unfortunately Primeval takes its time to get there.

What's surprising about Primeval is how little of the monster is in the monster movie. This is as much a rant against American-imperialism, with its high-minded ideals that fell far short of stopping the Rwandan genocide, as it is about a killer crocodile. And that's the secret Primeval was trying to conceal all along with its deceptive trailers: the Primeval title is about the cruelty of man against man.