So it seems an enormous croc has been terrorizing the banks of a South African river for quite some time, eating random villagers at will. These deaths aren't nearly as shocking as the mass genocide taking place in the same area due to an ongoing civil war. Sadly, one begets the other. Dumping scads of bodies into the river caused the crocodiles to lust for human flesh. Unfortunately, one kept eating and growing until he was 25 feet long and incredibly effective in his human-hunting craft.
Tim (Dominic Purcell, Prison Break), Steven (Orlando Jones, Evolution), and Aviva (Brooke Langton, The Net TV series) are pegged by their station to travel to Africa to go snag this huge story - not the mass genocide. No, who cares about that. People want to see a news story on a man-eating croc! So off they go.
Although they are aware of the possible dangers of setting foot in the middle of a civil war and chasing down a huge croc, they are soon joined by Gideon, a Steve Irvin look-alike who is dead-set on taking the croc alive, and Jacob, who wants nothing more than to destroy Gustave, as the locals have named him. So off the crew goes to find the story of a lifetime. Unfortunately, war rages all around them and they often get caught in the crossfire.
I found the first half of this movie to be incredibly slow. It's not as if I was bloodthirsty, waiting for the next villager to be eaten, but there was just a slow progression and story build-up. Once things do finally kick into gear, however, they do not let up. The acting is solid and believable with Orlando Jones absolutely stealing the show. He provides the comedic relief for the movie and while it doesn't happen often, when it does his lines are priceless.
Gustave is obviously done in CG and for the most part, it is very convincing. There are a number of hairy moments in the movie and some are downright frightening. The fact that this movie is based on a true story is even more scary.
Special Features include some deleted scenes, a commentary by the director and visual effects lead and the Croc-umentary explaining how they breathed life into a CG croc. All are worth watching, although as the director explained, the deleted scenes were done so with good reason.
Don't rent Primeval expecting a blood-soaked, cheesy horror flick. Instead, if you like movies with a good bit of action and a political twist, this is a good choice for you.
