Primeval (2007) Review

WEEK 4: WHAT A CROC

Primeval (2007) Review

In 2007, moviegoers got a double dose of killer croc films that were quite different from each other, despite sharing similar premises, but neither managed to make much of a splash at the box office, and both were mostly disregarded by general audiences. I was always under the impression that Primeval, the first of said croc movies to be released, was a direct-to-DVD production, because I remember when it came out on DVD and there were posters everywhere at the video store, but I hadn’t heard of it until then. Back then I felt it was close to a high enough quality that it could have been in theaters, but now that I know it actually was, I no longer feel quite the same about it.

After an anthropologist is killed by Gustave, a 25-foot, man-eating Nile crocodile prowling the rivers of Burundi, a journalistic team joins a croc expert and some locals to hunt down Gustave and capture him alive. Of course, things don’t go smoothly. Burundi is in the middle of a civil war, and the team is as concerned about being shot up with AK-47’s as they are about being chewed on by the raging reptile. After their attempt to catch Gustave in a cage is botched, their escape to safety is further complicated when hostile soldiers pursue them, being led by the war lord referred to as “Little Gustave”. And the “big” Gustave (the croc) is also in pursuit, and he’s hungry. In other words, trouble for all people involved.

Primeval seemed much more impressive to me when I thought it was a direct-to-DVD feature. It has high-quality production value and visual effects, but most of the other elements feel very much like what one would find in a movie such as Python or Crocodile. However, I still think Primeval is above-average for a killer croc film. There’s a decent amount of tension built up in the first half, and the second half is full of action, but not just creature antics. Standout moments include a great fight scene in a swamp and a brutal execution captured on film by the cameraman.

Unlike the snake in Anaconda or crocodile in Lake Placid, Gustave is based on a real-life crocodile that is a known man-eater, and has killed many people (the movie’s marketing heavily pushed the fact that it was based on “the most prolific serial killer in history” and they do all they can to remind the viewer of the “true story” element). Like the shark in Jaws, the creature can be identified by a nickname (Spielberg nicknamed his shark Bruce) and having a distinguishable name actually makes Gustave stand out as a more memorable cinematic killer animal than just another generic crocodilian. The visual effects for Gustave look polished, but he does not behave like the real world version. I don’t know if there’s something in the water in Burundi or if he’s been eating cast members of The Expendables, but this thing acts like it is on steroids! Most crocodiles can’t run very fast for very long on land, but this thing can move like a locomotive. While not realistic, it makes for some great action.

This is not simply a tale of a giant crocodile; Primeval has a strong war element to it, and the way the civil war connects to Gustave is logical, albeit predictable. But here lies the biggest problem with Primeval: it suffers from an identity crisis. It’s trying to be an action-war movie, while also being a killer animal-horror movie, and it doesn’t do either one extremely well. It paints the people of Burundi (and Gustave) to be cold-blooded killers, and exaggerates them to the point of near-ridiculousness. But, it goes for a serious tone, and it’s quite realistic and grounded in the first act, until it turns into an action-filled creature feature. While I didn’t dislike either aspect, I wished it could have struck a more consistent tone and maintained a heavier focus on Gustave.

The characters are mostly unremarkable, and the studio didn’t go after big stars, which might have helped elevate the material to a greater level. Dominic Purcell (most famous for Prison Break) seems disinterested the entire movie, which is fine at the beginning, because his character doesn’t want to go to Africa, but even in the intense scenes, he seems no more than slightly miffed. There’s an old man with a grudge against Gustave, and he does most of the explaining (to the characters and audience) for the first half of the movie, which feels lazy and mostly unnecessary. The main hot girl is a bad actress—not much else to say about her—and the croc expert is extremely annoying, but what’s worse is he becomes more annoying as the movie progresses (thankfully he meets a brutal demise). There’s a shaman character that’s memorable and stands out, despite only being in a couple scenes, but the best actor is definitely Orlando Jones, who plays the cameraman and is the comedic relief. He’s great, but you just know he’s likely going to end up in the belly of the beast before the end.

The one scene that always bothered me the most occurs when they are trying to capture Gustave at night, and meanwhile, the main hot girl is back at the camp (in a deleted scene it’s shown she was showering, but with its absence, it’s not clear what she was doing), and one of the evil soldiers attacks her in a large tent and tries to rape her. He goes up to her with a knife, and then he makes a pained expression, spits blood, hot girl is suddenly sprayed with blood, then in the next shot, he’s in the jaws of Gustave whose whole head and body is in the tent, and he slams the solider around crazily, but somehow the girl gets out of the tent completely unharmed. It makes absolutely no sense, and this is by far the most notable moment of incoherence (though there are several other things, mostly character actions, that are quite illogical). Even though the physics of the croc kills make little sense much of the time, it also makes them more unique and jaw-dropping, which is a sizeable plus.

Primeval is uneven and somewhat formulaic, but not without satisfying attack scenes throughout, and the action ramps up well. It moves at a good pace and ends in a predictable fashion, but surprisingly, never got a sequel, despite Gustave left to continue lurking the rivers, just like in real-life.