3/10
You're running out of credit, Mr. Yuzna!
24 May 2021
Brian Yuzna is one the few remaining, and still active, producers/directors who can pretty much afford themselves everything. After all, he's the man who made the world a much better place with immortal horror classics like "Re-Animator", "From Beyond", "Society" and "Return of the Living Dead III", and therefore we still owe him gratitude. Of course, it's been thirty years, and with duds like "Rottweiler" and "Beneath Still Waters", Yuzna's untouchable status started declining fast. The inept, derivative, and - quite frankly - boring "Amphibious" won't do his credit much good, neither.

Even in 2D, how I watched it, "Amphibious" clearly has good potential to be an undemanding and amusing creature-feature/giant monster flick. The opening sequences are also promising, with a young couple on holiday in Indonesia getting ripped to pieces by the tail of a humongous kind of sea-scorpion. Unfortunately, though, the plot then becomes unnecessarily convoluted and absurd. The monster is somehow spiritually linked to a child, and the marine biologist suffers from traumatic flashbacks. Who cares, we only want to see filthy Indonesian slaved traders getting devoured! Luckily, there's still a fair amount of gore the computerized special effects are reasonably decent. Yuzna is clever and experienced enough to only reveal small parts of the creature, and only show it in full during the finale.

Mildly interesting also, at least to some people, is that "Amphibious" is a co-production with unusual countries involved, like Indonesia and The Netherlands. Many of the crew members are Dutch or Belgian, and also lead actress Jenna Fassaert can't hide her ugly accent. I don't criticize her, though, since the entire cast terrible.
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