CURSE OF THE KRAKEN (2020)
Tagline: Humanity is the disease, this is the cure.
(Thriller, Action, Kill It With Fire) [PG]
In this one nuclear waste apparently mutates sea life to the point where we get the occasional flying two-headed shark and of course a Kraken capable of turning people into low-budget creatures from the black lagoon. During a wedding on the beach husband or the bride is killed and she dedicates her life to studying and killing the Kraken. Years after the wedding we are taken aboard a sea vessel where the bride now works as the ship's doctor. The crew is celebrating the captain’s birthday and retirement when the vessel is attacked by the Kraken. Can the crew survive not only the Kraken but a band of pirates? Because why not have pirates also?
So when we start looking at Xinghan Bainian Pictures keep in mind that this is a studio that only did one film. It’s this one. The design work for this thing is actually pretty fantastic. This is one of the better-looking Kraken designs I’ve seen even if the CGI is very “THE ASYLUM”. It should be noted that this is also Wu Shile’s only film as a director. I thought the direction overall was fine, but that isn’t to say there isn’t just a ton of ridiculousness in this flick. That part I didn’t mind. If I can get a person flying 50 feet in the air after getting smacked by a giant CGI tentacle I am usually like “Sign me up now”.
The opening sequence is actually the best thing in this movie and sadly after that, it’s pretty much downhill. The middle 50 minutes is largely just pretty boring stuff with not a lot going on. There is a backstory about the captain not choosing his son to captain the ship after he retires. There is a message about leadership and stepping up, but it all feels pretty flat. Ultimately if you care about these characters this ends up being a bit of a downer. We also get a message about pollution which seems to be a theme in films distributed by IGN coming out of China.
I liked the score for this film and thought the cinematography was good, but the dubbing in the English version is pretty bad. I did think the acting was sufficient but I am not familiar with any of the actors or actresses in this thing.
Where this thing really didn’t quite hit me was the whole pirate story. Basically, our heroes are taken to an island and most of the movie happens there. I think just the interaction with the characters on the boat would have been fine and it could have made this a pretty cool “at sea” flick. Instead, we are given a huge chunk of dialog and running around involving the creature from the black lagoon rip-off, rather than the Kraken.
That’s it for this one guys and gals. I really don’t have much else to say. This one was far better than KILLER BEE INVASION (which I didn't bother reviewing). CURSE OF THE KRAKEN gets a 3 out of 7, but you really do need to be in the mood for some total nonsense and early 2000s video game-ish graphics.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF XINGHAN BAINIAN PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
Comments
Post a Comment