Hydra (Unrated)

A lot better than expected
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...

dumb multi-headed fun . . .
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...

Could have been so much better.
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"...

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