User Reviews

This film had us in fits from start to finish. I don't think it's deliberately funny more just a touch tongue in cheek but it's definitely worth watching for its comedic value. Not that it's without a serious moral message. I'll tell you this at the end.

A group of bigshots in a lab to observe an experiment are accidentally moved through time and space by a couple of Irish scientists to the eponymous Ferocious Planet.

The planet bears an uncanny resemblance to a wood anywhere on Earth (with a few cheap sfx such as violet smoke and flashing lights) although this doesn't stop one of the inadvertently intrepid travellers from taking cell phone photos of trees, mushrooms and other flora which look exactly the same as their Earthly equivalent, to document the experience, while continually failing to even attempt to take any photos of huge dinosaur-like creatures that give chase to our merry band and we assume give the planet its moniker as the place itself is no more ferocious than Central Park. As with the latter, it's the natives that are ferocious rather than the habitat.

There is quicksand though and two of the men get stuck in it. The woman says: 'Don't worry. I go to Pilates six days a week.' Who knew that this would give her enough strength to pull two heavy blokes out of quicksand? I'm having words with my yoga teacher as I still struggle to carry my suitcase.

A straight-talking type with a deep southern drawl (a least to begin with), identified as the Colonel, takes control, (the likable Joe Flanigan doing a passable impression of Christian Kane), and points out the obvious: 'We're not safe here.' Someone asks: 'Where do you suggest we go?' Colonel: 'Somewhere where our asses aren't sticking up in the middle of the air.'

Every now and then, it falls to a character to deliver some of the Colonel's backstory, which is entirely unnecessary but is there to prove that, although he's someone who's been wrongly discredited, he is really an all-round good guy. The dialogue is horribly 'on the nose', so: 'It wasn't your fault that hospital was destroyed.'

Here's an absolutely priceless comment from the female Irish scientist or voice of doom: 'According to my calculations, we only have six hours before the aligned conjunction of this dimension with ours suffers quantum collapse. … Once the dimensions fall out of alignment, we're stuck here forever.'

However, whenever the Colonel asks how long they have, which he does periodically, neither of the scientists is able to give him any idea, saying things like 'Two hours? Three hours?' or 'Not long now'. They're rather vague. I wouldn't trust scientists that can't even read a wristwatch myself.

Anyway, time is supposedly of the essence but the characters still take what can only be described as a desultory stroll through the woods as if they really were wandering in Central Park on an extra long lunch break. My sister comments 'I've seen people move faster than this in Morrisons'. If you've ever been in Morrisons, you'll know that its shoppers move at a snail's pace.

Possibly the most hilarious sequence is when the two scientists communicate by scribbling hieroglyphics on a pad, after each scribble, saying stuff like: 'Could it be?' (more frantic writing such as 223-4(x) + å17³²) then 'But' (a few quick pencil scratches) or 'What if' (more frenetic scrawling) then 'It's theoretically impossible!' and so on. This episode stands in for the need for any real scientific explanation of how they got in their current predicament and how they're going to get out of it. Neat.

Hapless expendable no. 1 pokes the alien they've captured, which seems to be dead. This results in his death. Scientist: What the hell happened? Hapless expendable no. 2: He poked it with a pen and some black stuff shot out and hit him in the face. Scientist (reprovingly): Don't poke the alien. (This has to be one of the best lines in a sci-fi movie ever and surely a creed we need to adopt for life but it's still not the moral of the tale.)

Meanwhile, the Irish accent has proved contagious and has spread from the scientists to the rest of the cast. Even the Colonel is speaking with a slight Irish brogue.

So, the moral of this tale would be 'Do not allow Irish people who can't tell the time to fiddle with the space-time continuum' especially one who boasts 'I'm one of the most intelligent people in the world.'

On paper this looks like a good time waster, dependable lead, monsters, some kind of 'Science' twist. Believe me all the elements are there. Joe Flanigan reprising his man of action role (something he does very well), John Rhys-Davies reprising his stock nasty-man character that he has been trotting out in B movies for years (Anaconda III and IV anyone), even some choice one-liners along for the ride, enjoyed the Jaws reference but really it needed a bigger scene to be effective. And that is precisely the problem with this, it doesn't quite deliver in all the essential areas. The cast do their best, but the script is very sadly lacking in tension or even a real sense of urgency, and you just know stupid people are going to do stupid things for all sorts of completely ridiculous and illogical reasons. The other problem with the script is that far too many ideas come from other, much better, movies. Seriously, if you are going to borrow from other films, particularly famous ones, try to give the ideas some kind of original twist. If you can stay the distance you find yourself noting down all the stuff you've seen before and where you have seen it. I bought this because I like creature features and I like Joe Flanigan, he has an insouciant style which comes off as effortless and invests the characters he plays with a certain devil-may-care charm. Unfortunately here, he really has nothing to work with so it's all very much painting by numbers. Really, if you have absolutely nothing better to do, you can have a little fun spotting all the bits they pinched from other films (and let me emphasise a LITTLE FUN), but otherwise adds nothing to the canon of creature features, sci-fi movies, or action and adventure.

I for 1 liked this movie. The graphics were just like any other SyFy movie you see, the story was 1 of the first I have seen. I have always wanted to see a movie with different dimensions. There has been time traveling like Back to the Future, and teleporting in almost any Futuristic SyFy movie, and there has been movies where they visit other planets. This movie is somewhat a combination of them all.

The thing I didn't like was how it reminded me of other movies at points.

***THIS PART OF THE REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***

In 1 part a guy steals one of the creatures eggs, hoping to bring back for research/money. This reminded me of a part in Jurassic Park 3.

Another part is how the creatures have Pneumonia for blood, which when touching the skin acts almost exactly like Acid (and one of the people even think it's acid!). This reminds me of the Alien creatures in the Alien movies.

There is 1 last thing that reminds me of a movie. I think the filmmakers watched the 2010 Predators movie a little to much. The jungle design looks a lot like the one in Predators, and other than the fact the creatures have multiple eyes, and (I think) only 2 back legs? They look a lot like the Predators Hunting Dogs, you know the ones that one of the guys drags back. There skin color is very close to the predator dogs, and there movement and personality? Is almost just like them. They move fast, and are smart. There size is 1 of the 3 things that I found different, being from as small as a house cat to bigger than a full grown elephant. Also, after the team moves out of the building to find water, they go on top of a hill and look out to see miles of forest/jungle. Very close to what the team in Predators do.

One part that made me laugh was when the guy gets that metal rod stuck through his "sholder". You can clearly see he is holding it under his armpit. This is what made me laugh most though, after the guy pulls it out, just watch the rest of the movie. At some rare points he turns around so you can see the back of his shirt, and 2 things I noticed. 1: There is no blood on the back of his shirt, I am no scientist or doctor but I know that if a metal rod makes 2 holes (a puncture going in and then coming out) it is going to bleed from both holes. And 2: There is no rip, tear, hole, whatever on the back of his shirt where the metal rod "supposably" came out. That is SyFy for you, they don't put a lot of effort into there movies, for the top reason being they are free to the public on there first release, unlike Avatar where James Cameron got the graphics down to the last drip of sweat.

Overall I liked this movie, it would have been better if they would of made up there own story better. There was 1 part that I really didn't like, the ending. After they get back to "there dimension" alls you hear and see are police lights, which would make sense but when they get back they return to a big metal room that doesn't look anything like the one they were in, + at 1 point in the movie after they go to the other dimension and go out of the building a girl says that the building used to be 3 floors underground, and wonders why it is up on the surface now. Explaining that it now makes me wonder when they return why they are on the surface? After that the girl opens the door and both people still alive just have a blank look on there face like they are surprised and/or confused. The girl finally says "You first" to the guy and bam, the movie is done. Thats just some stuff that I liked, didn't like, and didn't get. I would recommend watching this if you are a SyFy movie fan, as it is different that any of the others.

Acting : Joe Flanigan does his thing and is likable, John Rhys Davies adopts an hilarious accent.

Naughtiness : nothing.

Effects : bargain basement CGI with one practical creature that spurts ammonia as blood, the effect where the ammonia sprays on a guys face killing him is competently done. The scenes of the larger CGI creatures running about the forest are laughable.

Music : Cheap as can be expected .

Cinematography: Poor, too many static camera shots of bad acting.

Overall : Intrigued that this was filmed in Dublin. Not the worst Syfy effort, Flanigan is always likable but it gets tiresome watching a bunch of people running back and forth through the woods. Fave scene had to be the quicksand bit.

Wow. More like "Don't ..Watch... This Crap!" What a complete piece of trash. Where do I begin? What was so annoying than anything else was the so-called music score. It just ruined it for me with that crappy happy go-lucky theme to it. It was not suspenseful at all. It sounded like it barely belonged in a cartoon not a Sci-fi Thriller.

I barely gave it a 2 star rating only because I recognized John Rhyes-Davies (Sallah from Raiders of the Lost Ark & Prof. Arturo from Sliders) I could believe how much weight he had lost. He didn't even last 15mins in this turkey. I'm thinking he realized what a crap he was in and demanded to be killed off as soon as possible! ha ha The only other person I recognized was Joe Flanigan(Stargate:Atlantis 's John Sheppard). He was OK I guess considering the type of movie this was and the role he was playing. And as far as I'm concerned,everyone else I couldn't wait for the half dinosaur/alien to kill them all and have this fiasco of a film be done and over with.

The CGI was not that great either and this alien dimension is apparently populated by only one type of carnivorous animal?. Where are the other animals which would be required as prey?? Gimme a break! And apparently if you get hurt, you heal like magic in this dimension!? Like that annoying idiot that got hurt really bad with a whole pipe that went right thru his right chest/shoulder area and the soldier just pulls it out and 5 minutes later , he's walking and moving like nothing happen!? Like he just got a scratch! Come on! ScyFy, I want my 84mins back! Ha-ha

I couldn't make it up to an hour watching this awful piece of crap and I am a Godzilla fan. This was worse than the worst Godzilla movie I've ever seen (MechaGodzilla) and at least I got through more of Mecha than this.

A previous reviewer said it best when s/he stated that a lot of this movie seemed like it was stolen from other movies. I have to agree.

I must admit that I was really hopeful when the movie started out with death and mayhem. Killing off John Rhys-Davies right at the start was a shocker. But some actors will do anything for money.

I've sat through a lot of bad movies. Could not do it for this one because it wasn't just bad, it was awful.

A team of observers check out a groundbreaking scientific device with the ability to open windows into other parallel dimensions. However, said team find themselves in considerable peril after they are accidentally transported to a hostile alien world populated by vicious predatory beasts. Director Billy O'Brien, working from a compact script by Douglas G. Davis, relates the entertaining story at a snappy pace, delivers a few cool bits of mild gore, generates a reasonable amount of tension, and further spices things up with an amusing sense of inspired sarcastic humor. The competent acting by the solid cast keeps this movie humming: Joe Flanigan as scruffy, disgraced Colonel Sam Synn, John Rhys-Davies as the arrogant and overbearing Senator Jackson Crenshaw, Catherine Walker as the spunky, willful Dr. Karen Fast, Dagmar Doring as the frosty Dr. Jillian O'Hara, Robert Soohan as O'Hara's twitchy assistant Brian Murphy, and Yare Michael Jegbefume as the amiable Lt. Rivers. The CGI creatures look pretty hokey and convincing, but nonetheless still possess a certain tacky charm. Moreover, the plot is admittedly silly, yet fortunately gets handled with a sincerity and a dry self-deprecating wit that's both refreshing and appealing. Both Peter Robertson's sharp cinematography and Ray Harmon's spirited marital score are up to par. A fun little flick.

I think a lot of people went in to this thinking it was a stand alone movie and that ruined it for them. The same applies to when a films adverts make it look like an action movie but it's not but because you were expecting an action movie you were disappointed. If you are going to watch this I suggest you think of it more as a pilot for a TV series as that's what it feels like and ends like.

The CGI monsters are reasonably well done but have that nasty clean plastic look that a lot of cheap CGI has. It has borrowed from several other films such as the acid blood from Aliens (well ammonia for blood in this movie) and the aliens look a lot like the predator dogs as others have commented.

Personally I'd say it's a good Sunday afternoon movie if there is nothing else available.

My take on the building the doctor was heading for is that it is something that was dragged from their own dimension in to the alien dimension and therefore the doctor realises she has just trapped herself for nothing. As to what is outside the door when they return I wouldn't like to say. Possibly all the sirens are just there because of all the damage that must of been caused when they jumped dimensions or possibly when they went one way some other things came the other way meaning we have the aliens on the streets.

I feel almost too embarrassed to admit that I even watched this film. I suppose it's being a sucker for sci-fi that lead me into wasting 95 minutes of my life. Seeing John Rhys-Davies name in credits also lead me astray.I can only assume this actor agreed to appear before reading the script. His early demise must have come as welcome relief from such torment.I think the actors also realised quite early on in the proceedings that they were performing in a true turkey and started to ham it a little because it got humorous and I feel certain that was not the director's intention. What more can I say.The story? A device about as big as a medium sized suitcase,that does not require electricity because it runs on power generated by cold fusion is being tested in front of a number of dignitaries.It is claimed that when in operation the device can look in on parallel universes. What happens next is ..... but why should I spoil your enjoyment.