Primeval (DVD)

Primeval, you horror diehards may recall, was billed as a serial killer film when it was dumped in the January wasteland of bad movies. It was slammed accordingly, and quickly slinked out of theaters.

But Primeval is not a bad movie. It's not a serial killer movie, either. It's the partially fact-based story of Gustave, a big (size exaggerated for cinematic purposes, of course), bad crocodile who feasts on human flesh throughout the war-torn rivers and swamps of Eastern Africa.

The movie stars Gravedancers' Dominic Purcell as Tim, an intrepid American TV reporter whose been saddled with the tabloidesque task of tracking the critter down on-camera, and is furthermore forced to take on an "Animal Planet" type show host (Brooke Langton, playing Aviva) as his sidekick. Along for the trip are Tim's wisecracking cameraman Steven (Orlando Jones), and world-renown professional croc-hunter, khaki-clad Matthew (Gideon Emery). They fly to the Cradle of Mankind, hook up with their taciturn guide Jacob (Jurgen Prochnow), and off they go to their inevitable doom.

Set in Burundi a couple of years back when the civil war was in full swing, the show switchbacks between croc-kills and military violence from brutal warlords – one of whom has dubbed himself Little Gustave (his identity is supposed to be a mystery, though I figured it out right away… I won't post the actor's name here, though).

While the expansive locations are all real as grit, Gustave is a 100% figment of computer-generated imagery. The level of expertise is clearly better than something you'd see on a SciFi Channel original, but the phony monster negates the solemn subplots about war and human suffering. This makes for an uneven viewing experience. The film is seldom slow, but it's definitely lopsided from all the genre-juggling.

The acting is competent, and Purcell is a believable as a field journalist who's both strong and smart. Jones is quite likeable, but his character's constant comic-relief one-liners and zingers mostly fall flat and start to grate before too long. Langton's performance is fine, but she doesn't bring anything extra to the role. Emery and Prochnow's characters are pretty stock, but (you know they're gonna die) their death scenes are entertaining enough. (The best acting in the bunch comes from the person I can't name.)

The Primeval DVD has a decent amount of extras. Croc-umentary: Bringing Gustave to Life will probably be of the most interest to the casual viewer. It doesn't have a lot about the real Gustave who, it's rumored, still stalks the swamps, but it does have a few stories from the actors and filmmakers about him and some of the wildlife they encountered in South Africa. Mostly, it's about the CGI creation, and it's actually presented in a pretty interesting and candid manner.

There are also some deleted scenes, and a serious, thorough commentary from Director Michael Katleman and Visual Effects Supervisor Paul Lindon.

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