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Primeval (2007)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (8th July 2007). |
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The Film
 Crocodiles and other reptiles have often fascinated horror filmmakers. The idea of a “killer crocodile” is not that far away from the truth, since some species can attack, kill and eat people. One of the most famous is named “Gustave” and it lives in Burundi, Africa. It´s apparently 6 meters (20 feet) long, weighting 907 kg (2,000 pounds). It usually won´t be long before this type of reptile turns into “half truth-half legend”, becoming almost a mythical creature, stalking his prey. Rumours already tell us that Gustave has killed over 300 people and some locals probably believe that it´s more than just an animal. So, joining up to the list of films like “Alligator (1980)”, “Lake Placid (1999)”, “Crocodile (2000)” and the upcoming “Rogue (2007)” comes “Primeval (2007)” by director Michael Katleman, loosely inspired by the legend of the “man-eating” Gustave. Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell - e.g. “Prison Break (2005-)”) is a TV-journalist, who gets an assignment from his boss; he has to go to Burundi, capture Gustave and make a story. Manfrey is not very keen to do this since, even when the country has a ceasefire, it´s still partly a war zone. To make things even worse, he´ll be accompanied by young “pet reporter” Aviva Masters (Brooke Langton), an eager but inexperienced journalist. His trusted cameraman Steven Johnson Orlando Jones will also join the group, along with herpetologist Mathew Collins (Gideon Emery). In Burundi, they´ll also meet their guide, the hunter Jacob Krieg (Jürgen Prochnow - e.g. “Das Boot (1981)”, “Dune (1984)”, and “The Da Vinci Code (2006)”), along with the young native Jojo (Gabriel Malema), who speaks little English and has a dream to move to the US. Their first plan is to trap Gustave in a big steel cage near the water line. The hunt begins. It´s just that with Gustave, the hunter easily becomes a prey. “Primeval” is a mediocre film, which provides a very thin storyline, superficial characters and extremely cheesy dialogue. You could basically replace any actor from the film with another without even noticing it, since the characters are so shallow and forgettable. Purcell seems like he is running straight from “Prison Break” to this movie, Langton is there for a few selected “bra shots”, Jones is that “funny side-kick” and you won´t even notice Emery. Prochnow at least tries and is known for being a very capable actor, but in the end his character is just another stereotyped “old and bitter hunter”, with personal reasons. During the film the story evolves from Gustave to “Little Gustave”, who´s the feared leader of Hutu militia and like Gustave the crocodile - a mystery to most of the people. The bloody history in the area is actually one of the main reasons for “creating” the man-eating crocodile in the first place; hundreds of bodies were dumped to its river. Eventually our TV-crew is not facing only Gustave, but also the bloodthirsty Hutu rebels. So if the screenplay and actors are rather weak, what else is there? In “Primeval”, the visual action and pure violence is helping the film to not sink into the pile that says “crap”. The African landscapes (actually in South Africa) offer an eye candy and even when Gustave is mostly created via CGI (a mixture of different species), its attacks are often rather sudden and effective. The film is also surprisingly bloody; the limps and heads will be crushed in the jaws of Gustave and Hutu soldiers are quite ruthless as well. Good amount of “R-rated” (often over-the-top) action is filling the screen, which in this film is only a good thing. The Special make-up effects are handled by Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger by the “K.N.B. EFX Group” - a company that is one of the best in the business. “Primeval” is purely made for the “horror & popcorn”-people and for the others it doesn´t offer much. If you hate mindless horror and blood, it´s probably best to avoid this film.
Video
The film is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen (1080p 24fps) and is using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The exterior shots and the African landscapes have strong and saturated colors, with warm (reddish and yellowish) tones and they look very nice indeed. There´s only some minor grain. The interior shots and the darker scenes doesn´t fare that well and some of them look slightly soft to my eyes. The film looks lively and often great, but still not in the same level with the best of them. Perhaps the look was just too “processed” after all and the consistency (at least with sharpness) was lacking. Good effort, though. The film is using “BD-25”-disc and there are 16 chapters. The film runs 94:12 minutes. Note that the disc is confirmed to be "Region A". Review equipment: Sony Bravia KDL-40W2000 LCD (1080p) + Playstation 3, via HDMI cable.
Audio
The film includes English PCM 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit - in 6.9 Mbps) and English Dolby Digital 5.1 (in 640 Kbps) tracks, along with Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (in 640 Kbps). Spanish dub is not listed in the back cover. Optional English HoH, French and Spanish subtitles are included. Since my receiver doesn´t support HDMI yet and Playstation 3 lacks “Analog Out”, I chose the Dolby Digital 5.1-option. You can get the PCM-track out from the disc via “Optical” or “Coaxial” also, but in that case it´s limited to uncompressed PCM 2.0. Based on a few samples, the PCM 2.0 actually sounds quite equal to Dolby Digital 5.1-track (or at least is not very far behind), if you choose “Pro Logic” from your receiver and get the 2.0 surround. The 5.1-track is a solid and clear surround experience and the scenes with crocodile-rampage or the action with the soldiers are quite aggressive. You´ll have plenty of shooting, water splashing, crushing, roaring, smashing and screaming for your speakers and it all sounds good. Top notch audio mix.
Extras
Blu-ray-release includes all the extras from the standard DVD and they´re all presented in standard definition 480p (except “bonus trailers”). Back cover lists the extras being 1080i/1080p. Audio commentary, featurette and deleted scenes all have optional English HoH subtitles. -Audio commentary by director Michael Katleman and visual effects supervisor Paul Linden is the main extra. The men were involved in the project from the start, since they storyboarded the film together and both have plenty to say. Their attitude is pretty laid back and you could hear that they don´t pretend to be watching a “classic”. They often joke about the difficulties during the production (the lack of money, difficult weather and even coldness, location issues, problems with the extras) and sometimes almost admit that this-and-that scene could´ve been better. They talk about the actors (Gabriel Malema playing “Jojo” was never acted before and Orlando Jones ad-lipped constantly), plenty about the locations and props used on the set (the scene at the airport was actually a train station), share some anecdotes (the dog in the film was “adopted” by one of the film crew, at one time Katleman lost all his important papers and Linden was hit by a truck) and talk about the many script and edit changes (film evolved during the production). Some cut or shortened scenes include (along with “deleted scenes”-section) “Krieg´s wife”-scene (featured a woman with no legs and scarred face - she had survived the attack of Gustave), “Orlando Jones rap”-scene (Jones doing a rap-version during the scene in the camp fire where they sing), the more graphic “execution scenes” (first the family - and then the aftermath of the scene following the nasty car “accident”) which they had to tone down (why not release the “Unrated”-version on DVD like the others?), the dead scene of one unnamed character in the end (croc is chasing and capturing him, flipping him around and killing him - and finally dragging him to the water), the drive through the town near the end of the movie and pretty much all the “croc-vision” shots had to go (they didn´t work). They also talk about the animatronic-croc that was brought up in the scene where they stalk Gustave in the night, but after seeing it in the water the idea was abandoned. Similar problems occurred with the real crocodiles; They didn´t move enough, mostly just staring and waiting for their right moment. After the commentary I have a bit more respect for the film, since it seems that the production was a constant battle against the tight schedule, difficult locations and fine tuning the screenplay. And they had plenty of “budget discussions”. It´s not that they complain all the time or anything like that (mostly joking), but there were clearly several “tough days” as they put it. -"Croc-umentary: Bringing Gustave to Life" -featurette runs 9:38 minutes. It starts off by a few comments from the cast, but quickly moves to cover the CGI-effects, mainly how the crocodile-attacks were created. You´ll see some pre-visualizations, behind the scenes material and generally how certain effects shots were built. Oddly, names of the participants are not listed. -3 deleted scenes have no production sound, only the audio commentary by director Michael Katleman and visual effects supervisor Paul Linden. Scenes run 5:40 minutes with “Play All”. Note, that the third scene includes some SPOILERS: *"Pigman" (1:56 min): This is the extension to the scene, where the militia attacks to the boat. One of the soldiers falls from the tree and gets eaten by our Gustave in this deleted scene (not very graphic scene, though). *"Shower" (0:51 sec): Aviva (Brooke Langton) in shower. No nudity though, so hold your horses. *"Harry's Death" (2:52 min): Another scene extension, this time to the death scene of Harry. In this one Harry briefly returns after the first attack by Gustave, missing an arm. His end comes in the jaws of Gustave. You´ll also see some originally planned “Gustave-vision” shots. Since this is a temporary version, not all effects are finalized. -Some bonus trailers are included (14:37 minutes, in 1080p). They run before the “Main menu”, but can be skipped; “Deja Vu (2006)”, “Apocalypto (2006)”, “Invincible (2006)”, “The Guardian (2006)”, “The Prestige (2006)”, and "Buena Vista Blu-ray promo". While not a proper extra, the disc also includes the “Movie Showcase” chapter search for 3 scenes (you can choose “Play all”). This is the instant access to selected scenes which “showcase the ultimate in HD picture and sound”. This disc is packaged in a standard Blu-ray case.
Overall
Those who are hoping for the “ultimate” killer crocodile-movie will have to keep on hoping. “Primeval” offer some graphic violence and solid action, but that´s pretty much all there is to it. Blu-ray-release is pretty good, offering also some extras, but I wouldn´t say that it´s demo material after all. For more info, please visit the homepage of Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Blu-ray).
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