Xtinction: Predator X (2010)

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Returning to her hometown to deal with her father's disappearance, a woman and her friends find he's part of a rampage of terror conducted by a monstrous prehistoric crocodile and try to find a way to end it's blood-soaked rampage.This wasn't all that great of a creature but did have a few good points drowned in it's flaws. There's no use complaining about the lack of quality CGI here since that's to be expected with this, but the fact that it never really featured the title creature at all in this who tends to be so rarely shown in the film that there's almost a sense of it not being a real creature feature at all. By choosing to focus instead on the family drama and the different background characters first, the crocodile doesn't seem to be a big important factor in the plot and rarely seems to be a concern for them once it does show up, dramatically reducing it's effectiveness even before the lame effects used for it are brought into play. There's some good stuff in the rather frenetic finale that finally lets the creature loose and get a decent rampage on the populace resulting in some fine deaths and a bit of action, the ultimate manner of killing the beast is pretty creative and overall the second half has a nice vibe to it, but overall it's quite lacking.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language

Someone said to themselves lets clone a prehistoric marine reptile and make it look like a gator, because cloning Deinosuchus or Sarcosuchus would be too much work and/or complicated.Pacing could have been better, same for the dialogue. The science is faulty, but isn't it always? Mad Scientist de jur creates the titular beastie and has two drug making swamp bums as his lackeys(you know I wouldn't trust something like this to two guys who diet consists of moonshine and meth), someone has to do the heavy lifting after all.Overall your average very bad B monster movie that really is better as background noise or a way to kill time. If you're a fan of SyFy brand movies this is for you.

Alligator X (2010) ** (out of 4) Creature feature has a couple rednecks in a deep swamp creating a large gator that has been extinct for as far back as anyone can remember. Somehow this creature is now stalking the swamp eating anyone that gets in its path but thankfully there's some nice people willing to try and destroy it. ALLIGATOR X, which is also known as XTINCTION: PREDATOR X, is a pretty average movie from start to finish and I guess I would say that it's fairly well made but if you're advertising a creature feature it might be a good idea to actually spend some time with that creature. The biggest issue I had with this movie is that there simply wasn't enough time with the creature. The attacks rarely happened and when they did they were often filmed in a way where we don't see too much action. Again, I'm really not sure why they selected to try and tell more "story" than actually deliver on the goods that fans coming to these type of movies will expect. While on a technical level this film is much better than your typical film you'd see on SyFy, on the level of entertainment I'd say this isn't nearly as good simply because there's not enough action going on. The majority of the running time has our leading lady searching for her father and then constantly running around the swamp trying to get away from the two rednecks and her ex-husband who just happens to be the scientist trying to take this creature and make more of them. This silly melodrama about her father's property and the various other issues that come up really add nothing to the movie. The performances range from average to above average but none of them are going to knock you off your seats. In regards to violence and gore, the levels are pretty low as there simply aren't enough attacks to get excited about and when they do happen we don't get to see much. ALLIGATOR X is a real wasted opportunity and there's really no point in watching it unless you've got to see every film of its type.

Xtinction is set in the Louisiana swamps where Laura Le Crois (Elena Lyons) has returned to after several years in search of her missing father Pappy (Philip Beard), meanwhile local Sheriff Tim Richards (Lochlyn Munro) has a growing list of missing persons on his hands. A young couple named Mandy (Lacey Minchew) & Matt (Gabe Begneaud) hire a boat from Laura to go on a sunset tour of the swamp, with no one else to pilot the boat Laura has to herself but while out in the swamp the boat is attacked by a huge underwater prehistoric reptile. On dry land Laura witnesses two local brother's feed her father pappy to the prehistoric monster who then turn their attentions to her, the brother's kidnap Laura, Mandy & Matt while the Sheriff now has to start dealing with various severed body parts washing up on dry land & after Laura's boat is found badly damaged he sets out to find her...Also known as Xtinction: Predator X this was directed by Amir Valinia & although not a Sy-Fy Channel original creature feature it might well have been, in fact I'm pretty sure the Sy-Fy Channel will pick this up as it's just the sort of thing they make themselves. The cloned Dinosaur, the aquatic swamp setting, the policeman & his girlfriend character's, the evil scientist guy, the dumb clichés who are there just to be killed off & some really lame plot twists. While watching this yesterday it felt like I was sat there in front of the telly for hours, this really drags & the Dinosaur feels more like a second thought than anything else. The plot is stupid, are the writers of this thing convinced that anyone who watches this will believe that in order to genetically clone a Dinosaur all you need are some old bones, a few test tubes in a wooden shack in a Louisiana swamp & the combined knowledge of a college teacher & two inbred brother's one of whom can barely speak? Where did the sonar device come from? How did the teacher know it would work, what does the Dinosaur do when the sonar isn't on? Why create a Dinosaur in the first place? What did they intend to do with it? Why didn't they take any precautions to stop the Dinosaur eating them? Nothing quite makes sense, there's little or no reason behind anything that happens & character motivation is baffling. The majority of the film follows Laura as she gets kidnapped, has to escape & then fight for her life as she is pursued by a giant Dinosaur & a couple of local killers. The kidnapping angle dominates the middle third of the film & the Dinosaur really is all but forgotten about. There's a totally random twist near the end in which a friend suddenly betrays Laura & turns out to be working for the bad guy but then once his car crashes a few minutes later he sees the error of his ways & says he deserves to die & the car blows up. The Dinosaur angle is poorly thought out with no reason or logic behind it's creation or continued protection, the character's are poor & it's pretty dull. In fact, are you sure this wasn't made by the Sy-Fy Channel?The CGI effects vary from average to terrible, the same shot of the Dinosaur swimming underwater is used several times & even the gore isn't that good. There's a severed hand, a severed arm, a couple of severed feet & a bit of blood but not much else. The one thing I will say about Xtinction is that the cinematography is quite nice, I expected lots of green trees & bright sunshine but the look of Xtinction is just the opposite with dead trees, very brown & Earthy settings & a Louisiana swamp that looks quite dead & hostile. Not that a subdued colour scheme makes Xtinction worth watching.With a supposed budget of about $2,500,000 I can't believe that much was spent on it, it looks pretty cheap with minimal effects & action. Actually filmed in Louisiana. The one bright spark of Xtinction is leading lady Elena Lyons who does put in an energetic performance, everyone else seems bored.Xtinction is your average stand Sy-Fy Channel quality creature feature, in other words it's routine unoriginal crap. Poor effects, predictable plot, a script that makes no sense & a slow pace just kill it dead in the water. Films like Xtinction are ten a penny & there are much, much better ones out there.