User Reviews

I was actually pretty fired up for this movie when I saw the trailers on SciFi Channel. When they hint some merciless super-predator stalking people on another pseudo-Earth planet, I'm thinking some alien-Velociraptor hybrid. I get 30 minutes into the movie, and I see...you guessed it, alien grizzly bears! The first one is dead so I'm like, no, that can't be the creature, the creature must have stalked the grizzly bear and killed it, boy this creature must really be a bad-a**. Alas, more killer bears pop up. Horrible. This movie could have skipped the long-distance teleportation BS and just as easily have taken place on a camping trip. We all know bears can kill if you startle or antagonize them, but you'd think they'd at least give them some prehistoric features to make them look slightly different. But no. They look like every bear I've ever seen. And I can say that with certainty because you see the same god-awful scene throughout the movie of a Killer Bear opening his mouth as wide as he can and growling. Why not just have Winnie the Pooh go on a murderous rampage? I have no choice but to give this movie the lowest possible rating, because I feel so gypped by the premise and ultimate final product. The only reason you should watch this movie is if you're in an angry, potentially violent mood and you're wisely trying to channel your energy to something more productive. Just don't go overboard and smash your TV.

I think I'll go one step more than the reviewer that rated this a 2 and give this piece of rotten tripe a well-deserved "1", only because zero isn't available.

I can give Sci-Fi credit for making consistently terrible films. Everyone has heard of a B-movie, but is there something lower than a Z-grade? The acting is 120th rate, the CGI, well all I can say is my five year-old daughter on an Etch-A-Sketch could've done better (and made a better script as well). Where did they dig up the actors? I guess Casper VanDien and Lou Diamond Phillips weren't available whey they spent a weekend or so shooting this.

***WARNING*** THERE MAY BE A SPOILER IF YOU'RE STILL READING...

So, what's the premise? Watch the crappy trailer and you'll get the whole story. It's basically a generic predator versus prey plot line supposedly set in the future (amazingly, cheap canvas tents from the Army-Navy Surplus are the "in" thing) and the "futuristic" shotguns and PDA's. The sets are at best unimaginative, with some blinking lights and utilizing leftover pieces from a Packard Bell closeout sale. Anyway, people get butchered but, you're laughing so hard you hardly notice. The "aliens" attacking the lackluster, talentless cast are bears (Kodiak, Grizzly, who cares?) because I guess to save a buck, the new planet, 20,000 light years from earth, is almost its exact duplicate, except with less of a budget and more maiming and screaming.

Well, enough said... Skip this before (2) hours of your life are wasted in a fruitless endeavor.

I watched this bomb on the Sci-Fi channel, and what we have here is yet another Sci-Fi produced movie made with a $20 budget. Sometime around 2040, a cast of no-talent actors goes to a distant planet. They're hope is to find a new home to save the human race since Earth is too polluted to support life. Instead of a spaceship, they are teleported there with a "super transporter" able to span the stars. When they get there, they find a beautiful forest world that looks like Alaska, or Alberta (since everything is filmed in Canada nowadays) and claim it a paradise ready for the human race to colonize. Suddenly, members of the team start dropping off like flies! Something grabs them and tears them to pieces one by one. This unseen threat soon makes itself shown, and no it's not some CGI alien beast but none other than Grizzly Bears! Mutated Grizzly Bears! Supposedly, they are smart Grizzly Bears and not "mindless killing machines" as Stephen Colbert would say. Anyway, as the number of humans drops to an all time low they suspect one of them has double-crossed the rest. He discovered a well of green slime in a cave that cures all disease and even regenerates lost limbs! The traitor then tries to make it back to Earth to get rich off this stuff, and leave his buddies behind on the "Savage Planet" to become bear food. That in a nutshell is the premise behind this god awful waste of film.

The first night it played, I remember, I wasn't really paying attention to it. All I really remember is looking by on the TV screen to see some 2D bear cheaply pasted on a 3D landscape, with some humans acting stupid. The bear seemed to be walking, but never got any closer. Boom, it switches to a view of the bear from the front, which reminded me of the Colbert Report. After I criticized my parents for watching something a four year old with a .gif and paint could do, I did the impossible: I watched it. The plot didn't make a whole lot of sense... Basically, some people are sent off to find a new planet for the humans to inhabit (and ruin.) Like any Sci-Fi movie, there are plenty of Red shirt characters. For those of you who don't know, a red shirt is a character who is made to die. This was created (or popularized, I'm not sure) by Star Trek. Basically, characters in a red uniform would be beamed down to a hostile planet to bed killed. And, much like Sci-Fi, there is a seemingly endless number of these idiots.

The acting is unimpressive, first off. There are a few okay acting performances, but it's pretty horrible to begin with. With all the... well, problems in the script, there wasn't much they could do to keep the project afloat. The characters are one dimensional and stereotypical. Not only that, their concepts are as flimsy as their logic and actions. Example, in one scene (the one I described above) this old guy aims a gun, but doesn't fire, despite being egged on by his fellows. I think it was because he didn't want to shoot the girl, but I'm not sure. And besides, the bear was moving a pixel and hour, it's not much of a moving target. Come to think of it, it's kind of like the plot: a thin premise to have bears eat people.

The bears are comical in their own right. The 'actors' never actually share the screen with them. Oh, I take that back. There is one part where a cheap looking paw appears from the bottom of the screen, like a first person shooter and swipes at some guy, which causes guts and blood to be pasted over him, in another disgracefully cheap manner. The bears also all look the same, and act the same. From the front, it's the same. I would estimate there's about 5-10 bear clips used and reused for all the bear encounters, including one funny death picture of the bear laying on it's back, paws up. Oh, and these bears are super smart. All of this for some stupid goo that regenerates limbs. Once again, this looks ridiculous. This movie is so laughably bad, that any lover of poor quality 'films' will enjoy it. Thus, I give it an 8/10, with some major brownie points for cut'n'paste graphics that can only be described as 'MS Paint' quality. However, for the majority of movie watchers, this film is crap, and rightly deserves a 2/10.

It also has a sad ending, which insulted me. You know what made it sad?

******SPOILER******

The characters survive to procreate.

Okay, let's all admit that the Saturday night movies on Sci-Fi are pretty bad. But sometimes bad is good, and this is one of those times. We start off with explorers on a strange planet, see an arm hacked off, see it grow back, see a bear.

Back to earth-it's unlivable, all of the current doom forecasts realized. You can't breathe without an air mask, riots in third world countries, and the whole earth apparently under the thumb of the major corporations. The largest of these funds a second expedition to this strange planet to gather oxygen. There's lots of science talk, a basic introduction to the characters, only two actors whom I recognized, and we're off.

After arriving on the planet, and one unfortunate mishap, they are off only to be picked off one by one by genetically mutated bears ?? who, sometimes can be shot and killed, and sometimes not. At one point they appeared to be on a treadmill, always coming toward them, but never getting any closer.

There is the usual good idea to stay together as the people getting picked off are generally alone. So the hero tells everyone the in order to survive "we have to stick together"-then he promptly tell one of them to go off and gather firewood. Well, we know who's next, don't we.

The only truly poignant scene is the one where pretty female doctor and manly soldier are starting to fall in love. She falls down a hill, suffers internal damage and is laying unconscious, blood fairly flowing from her lips. At this point he smiles down at her and says "you still owe me a dinner".

I say keep'em coming Sci Fi channel. And thanks for a good time.

Whoever is responsible for this tripe should be stranded on the "savage planet" for the rest of eternity with only a portable DVD player and a copy of this movie and forced to watch it with one of those explosive necklaces from "Running Man" strapped around their necks and programmed to explode if they ever stop watching the film. Although, if I had had one of the necklaces on I might have just let it detonate, just to put me out of my misery.

What the f*** is SciFi Channel thinking? Why do they keep making these crappy films. This movie wasn't even "funny bad." It was just bad, unintelligent, unnecessarily violent (and I loves me some gratuitous violence, if the rest of the movie is well made). The soundtrack was terrible, the script was laughable, the cinematographer must have been legally blind. And fer feck's sake...supersmart, genetically superior CAVEBEARS!?!?!? That's your super predator that you have threatening our intrepid band of explorers on this planet 20,000 light years from Earth?!?! SciFi has gone beyond insulting our intelligence...they are raping it and asking us to pay for the privilege.

I enjoyed the acting, and the very pretty ladies...:) But the plot, and the actors "supposedly" being prior military are very, very disappointing. I just don't see how you can take years of military training, experience, and common sense and throw it all away on a woman you just met, and it happens to 2 of the "Elite" fighting men. It also shows bears running around, and for some reason, we just cant see them, or, gosh, freeze up, twist an ankle, or fall down and get eaten. Please...people wander off by themselves, cannot seem to handle the "weapons"....(which by the way are a 20th century combat shotgun, a rifle with a scope, a six shooter pistol, and a sub machine gun pistol) And darn it if the "New laser rifle", malfunctions as they get to the planet...darn..( a sci-fi cheap way of keeping costs down, they must still be sending most of the money to SG-1..hmmm..) I would skip this one. Just my opinion.

Watched it against my better judgment (ads for it looked stupid).

Plot overview: earth is dying, big, bad corp finds a way to travel to another planet. In some way this is supposed to save people, I don't know, there was some gibberish about a super-plant that makes oxygen, but I think the writers got confused here because the statements were vague and contradictory. A small team is teleported to the planet, and then stranded there, hilarity ensues (heh, I wish).

I'll admit, the first 20 minutes or so seemed a little above average for a "SciFi Original", but it very quickly deteriorated.

The special effects for some of the deaths were badly integrated (no real effort to match lighting...come on people), and physically unrealistic. The acting was okay at times, but the actions of a lot of the characters were illogical to say the least. The logic-free technobabble was actually worse than any Star Trek, amazingly.

*spoilers*

Also: giant bears? Whose idea was that? And then O Noez! Earthquakes!! The planet is going to implode!!! Meh.

Clichés: character classes, evil CEO...hell, the whole movie.

And what's up with the death of the doctor? "Don't shoot, you'll hit her"? Sorry, but I'd rather get shot than eaten alive by a bear. And then nobody goes after her anyway. What? I thought they liked her? With friends like those...

But hey, it has a happy ending! Yaie!...

3/10, maybe more if watched with friends while drunk.

This film gives new meaning to z-grade budget -- we'll call it minus zero. By far the worst movie on every conceivable level I have ever seen (that's saying a lot). There is not one shred of entertainment in this film. Why? Let's begin, this two set movie (the lab and cave) was mostly filmed-on-location in the woods with no cinematography. The story line is at the bottom of the toxic waste heap. In a nutshell: Future Earth is filled with pollution and an Evil corporate giant creates a stargate-like teleportal to a planet supposedly recreated with Earth atmosphere. But this is all a lie. There is another reason the resident bad guy wants this unstable planet and it so truly stupid that I can't mention it here for fear it will kill off brain cells. But here's the most brain-defying element of the film: Killer bears with advanced mind power who mindlessly roam the woods stalking and killing our scientific characters without rhyme or reason. In fact the killer bear shots are without doubt left over footage from a National Geographic Bear special -- I'm almost sure of that -- as you never see a bear with a character. Lastly, they don't even look dangerous, in fact, they look like they are merely performing circus stunts. All the special effects are darn-near cartoonish in quality. And now the question we all want to know, Why in the name of God was Sean Patrick Flanery in this dreck of a film. You could see him cringe at the stupid lines he had to say, he tries his best but he receives no support from his supporting cast of acting rejects, no support from the director (may he never work again) or the writers, well, rumor has it the script was written by 12 monkeys locked in a room with a typewriter. In short, not even so bad it's funny bad -- just plain bad.

*SPOILERS! I EVEN GIVE AWAY THE ENDING! SPOILERS!*

In the future, the Earth is polluted and a small team of explorers are teleported to the planet "Oxygen" in hopes that it may someday be our new home. While there, one guy's hand gets chopped off and he just happens to fall into some green fluid which causes his hand to immediately grow back.

Skip ahead a few months; Another team is being readied to go to this planet. We spend about half an hour getting to know these characters. It quickly becomes obvious that this is one of those movies where the "bad" characters are at least somewhat sympathetic, while the "good" characters aren't likable at all. Our lead female is whiny, politically correct, and a snob. Eventually they teleport to this planet, and are attacked by bears. The Sci-Fi Channel advertised this movie as if there was going to be some terrifying alien predator on this planet - we get bears. Our lead male "good" character immediately decides to abandon the mission and run home. Lucky these guys weren't on the Mayflower or Columbus wouldn't have made it out of the harbor. So, the "good" guy threatens to kill the only person who knows how to run the teleportation device because he suspects that he's lying about something, and the "bad" guy takes off and leaves them. Brilliant move "good" guy. They go marching through the woods towards the other teleportation pod, getting attacked by bears every few minutes. They load down one guy with a backpack as big as a Volkswagen, then threaten to leave him to be eaten if he falls behind. He falls behind and gets eaten. Then our "good" guy gets knocked unconscious and they pick him up and carry him to safety. Just a little bit of a double standard there, ya think? Anyhow, they get to the teleporter but the company president wants to stay and get a sample of the green goop that can make severed hands grow back. Eventually this guy goes to a cave and he runs into a wall, which causes his head to fly off. Let me repeat that: He runs face first into a stone wall and his head pops off. It's almost as good as the scene where they hide behind a rock and then notice that it's not a rock - it's a bear! Uh...yeah. Okay.

So in the end, even though our two "good" characters wanted to quit the mission at the first sign of trouble, and criticized and maligned everyone who wanted to continue, they're perfectly happy to take all the credit for the discovery of the green goop, along with all the profits of course. It's truly heartwarming.

First there was Yogi bear - then Paddington bear - followed by the Care Bears. Make no mistake - this is superb family entertainment

I thought Aliens was great - but wait till you see this - if it was released in the cinema it would take millions.

James Cameron may think he is onto a winner with 'Avatar' but if this is released first it will snatch all his box office

Editing - special effects are all top notch - with the tension non stop - but would mean nothing without a great script.Luckily the film delivers on this point.

'Where's Sarah?' 'I think she's been eaten by a bear' 'Too bad - she was kinda pretty - looks like I'm sleeping alone in the tent tonight'

Without giving too much away - the film concerns a quest to find a magical restorative potion that can cure cancer and grow back whole limbs. Sometimes it was so exciting that I was biting my finger nails.

Quite frankly the encounters with the monsters in Aliens look drab and unexciting compared to the packs of rampaging Care Bears - growling and showing their teeth.

So what if a few people get their heads ripped off ? Kids of all ages will love it!

SC-fI Channel a magnum of champagne is on its way. Congratulations on producing a blockbuster which must of cost at least $1000. Thank you - I love you all xxxx

Next up Care bears from outerpsace vs Yogi. You're gonna have to be smarter than the average bear to beat this lot my friend.

Like others who have commented on this demented attempt at entertainment, I too was lured into watching by the promising advertisements Sci Fi put out before airing. Like the others, as well, I was sorely disappointed by everything in it. Flannery was the only saving grace, except for the hot blonde, and the director should absolutely be shot without trial and/or left on the planet as suggested by another patriot of good Sci Fi.

I too thought (what WAS I thinking!) that the "super predator" would be some "Alien/Predator" hybrid that would defy all imagining and show us another concept of extraterrestrial life. BUT A FRIGGING GRIZZLY!!! Come on Sci Fi, I have seen you do better (sometimes) and I know you guys have more than $250 US dollars in your pockets (for the bear rental) to get better computer programmers to come up with SOMETHING better than those stupid CGI's that were embarrassingly childish. Hell, my 12-year-old niece can do better than you did. You need to fire everyone who worked on that farce from the director to the best boy. No one deserves to watch that trash. The ONLY reason I watched the whole boring thing was that I had already invested 30 minutes of my time and figured I'd see how it ended. Predictably.

Your new series "Eureka".... Now THAT's what I'm talking about, humor, entertainment, and something different. If you can find the people to make THAT one up for a season, you can find someone who can make a two hour movie that is at least somewhat entertaining.

n.b. that while the "spoilers" box is checked, I promise not to tell you how it ends, but I will summarize the plot in some detail.

This movie had a premise like that of the show Earth 2 (which was somewhat cheesy, but had some definite highpoints), but did not live up to even that show's promise.

This film, and I use that term loosely, because if it was not made for TV it wouldn't even make the "straight to video" list, starts out with the "Earth is trashed" plot device, the ecosystem dying in some kind of standard issue post-apocalyptic haze of poisoned atmosphere and oceans.

Enter the mega corporation run by a standard-issue genre stereotype evil greedy autocrat. A teleportation device makes it possible to travel to a partially terraformed planet 20,000 light years away.

A small cast of caricatures is gathered to go down through the looking glass to this new planet, that shows promise of being a refuge for the richest elite of Earth to escape the product of their handiwork.

So far not so bad. (spoilers commence) Very shortly after the explorers arrive on the new planet, imaginatively named "Oxygen2" the suction begins in earnest. The interplanetary travelers are put upon by genetically mutated cave bears from Earth's prehistory (the explanation for their presence is thin and nonsensical) that commence to shred the explorers one by one.

The special effects are so cheesy as to be laughable, resembling a no-budget student film. The acting is little better. Over all it lacks what would otherwise be a saving grace for the cult film circuit, some "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" type kitch. Do yourself a favor and skip this unless you are really, really bored.

I treated SAVAGE PLANET as a comedy and thought that it was a hoot. It's a story about a bunch of characters exploring an alien planet and getting killed in various grisly ways by the wildlife there. This being a TV movie made by the Sci Fi Channel, it's full of the usual stock characters, wooden acting, and laughable CGI effects, the latter taking the form of gore effects so cheesy, so unrealistic, that they have to be seen to be believed. Of course, you can't take this seriously at all, but as an unintentional comedy it works a treat.