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Overall Rating : 4.5/10
Directed By : Leigh Scott
Steve Railsback (The Devel's Rejects, Ed Gein)
Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5)
Jeff Denton (The Beast Of Bray Road)
Sarah Lieving (The Beast of Bray Road)
Rhett Giles (Jolly Roger: Massacre at Cutter's Cove)
Supplied By : The Asylum
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Nov. 29, 2005
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| PLOT A commercial airliner crashes deep in the heart of the Amazon. Now, the survivors must face a mysterious and hostile world inhabited by giant scorpions, dragons, and a simian beast that stands ten stories tall. |
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| THE REVIEW The upcoming release from The Asylum for the month of December is a Sci-Fi adventure entitled KING OF THE LOST WORLD. What I got from this film is a rather mixed impression. The story begins when a small airline carrying a group of travelers crashes in a secluded Amazonian area. The area surrounds them with very exotic trees and plants but what they do not know is that there is something even more exotic and they will soon discover. As the passengers search for a radio to call for help they are caught in various predicaments which include scorpions, dragon like creatures, a treacherous tribe, that tries to sacrifice them.... but most important of all an enormous gorilla. I will first start off by saying that KING OF THE LOST WORLD is well written as well as directed. I could be wrong, but this film appears to be one of The Asylum's bigger budgeted films, much like it was with their adaptation of WAR OF THE WORLDS earlier this year. The scenery is great and it really seems to help you stay interested. Perhaps what gives this film it's most appeal is the acting, the acting is almost as good as the cast put together for WAR OF THE WORLDS. Rhett Giles gives yet another performance, that would lead you to believe that he is bound for bigger and better things in the future, I know each time I see him I am more and more impressed. It was also nice to see one of my personal favorites from THE BEAST OF BRAY ROAD, Sarah Lieving back in action in a more serious role. I think this young lady is very attractive, but more importantly she is talented. But most of all, the Asylum regular whom I am most impressed with here is Christina Rosenberg, I feel as if Christina came into her own in KING OF THE LOST WORLD, I have seen her in minor roles in both THE BEAST OF BRAY ROAD and FRANKENSTEIN REBORN.... but here she is given the chance to offer what I think is her strongest performance to date! We also have somewhat of a cameo by Steve Railsback, whom is credited as a star in this film, which is entirely not true. I think The Asylum did so to ensure purchases, and rightfully so, I would have bought it, Steve Railsback is GREATNESS. This film could've been one of the best Asylum has put out so far, great story, great acting. But what sort of sends this film into a tailspin much like the plane in its film, is the bad, bad visual effects. I think The Asylum did a fabulous job of creating great looking effects with the 1 million dollar or so budget they had for WAR OF THE WORLDS but here they fail pretty badly. We have all of this great backdrop scenery and all, but when they implant the various creatures into the film it looks entirely cheesy and unrealistic to me. The gorilla, the focal point of the film is probably the most unrealistic of all, when it snatches up a person in one particular scene, it appears that it didn't even make contact with it's victim. It looks as if they were trying to be as realistic as they could with the shooting schedule that was allowed, and that was it, it looks rushed leaving the final product not nearly as effective as they probably had wished. What we have with KING OF THE LOST WORLD is a film with a great story, above average character acting, but most of all unappealing effects. Other than this, it's pretty good in terms of performances, this is what rendered my rating. |
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| GORE
METER 2.5/10 Hardly any to speak of, the film is built of drama which suits it fine, in my opinion |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5/10 I think the original music chosen for this one really fits and adds sort of a mood, as you can imagine the tunes are kind of tribal and instrumental. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM As I have mentioned, i'm kind of mixed on this one. I loved the acting, but the visuals, are just something I find that I did not enjoy about it. I would still recommend this one for everything else though, especially the performances. This is available on Dec. 13, 2005 |
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