Primeval (2007) Movie Review, Trailer, and Poster

U.S. 2007
Director: Michael Katleman
Cast: Dominic Purcell, Orlando Jones, Brooke Langton, Jürgen Prochnow, Gideon Emery, Ernest Ndhlovu
Rating: R
Release Date: January 12th 2007
Running Time: 1 hour 33 minutes

The Movie Review

A theme is a crucial aspect in every movie. Having a theme clearly defined would make the audience absorb better what the filmmakers want to convey through their movie. Such case has been equally (if not to say more) important in horror genre movie, since it needs to establish the pace of the tense and terror.

Now let's imagine a horror film that its main theme is clearly (dirtily) obscured that you don't know anymore what is it about, well you do know but it simply makes you don't care anymore. Enter...Primeval. Another horror flick about nature gone wild featuring the Big Bad Crocodile.

Set in Burundi, it tells the tale of a true story about a


PRIMEVAL
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man-eating crocodile that has been feeding on hundreds of people for the past few years. The Croc is about to get international when Aviva Masters (Brooke Langton) a journalist is sent to Burundi along with the grumbling fellow reporter Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) and his cameraman Steven Johnson (Orlando Jones) to produce a story on that Croc. The Croc--named Gustave by the locals--is also need to be caged, to do so a croc expert Matt Collins is also present. Aside from that almost impossible task, things are worsen by the civil war led by a person who named himself Little Gustave.

Their expedition's gone awry and they are trapped between the real Crocodile and the henchmen of Little Gustave who pursuit the tape containing the murder they committed that undeliberately shot by Steven.

Speaking of the cast, Steven is the prototype african-american guy who provides nothing but witty lines to humour this movie, yes he's got some jokes that are chuckle-inducing, but some of the rest of the cast are the jokes themselves. As for Gustave, it doesn't have much screen time, it seems gustave is present just to fill the gaps between scenes, and when it does appear, it's just silly.

The impression that I had from watching this movie is how interesting an African country is, its landscape, its culture, and its untamed nature, but I only get a little impression of horror or terror. Sure it has some positive sides, it has some good chasing scenes, and it teaches you a lot about crocs. "National Geographic : the GustaveS of Burundi" would make a more interesting and "honest" title for the movie. If you ever got bored watching National Geographic, this movie would be a better choice.

Primeval sets its bar way too high by exploring many facets that it should have been more appropiate to be released as a TV-series. They cram to many aspects of horror that it doesn't scare the audience anymore. I could say Primeval is "Soo Horror it's Funny".

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com