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Overall Rating : 4/10
Directed By : Tripp Reed
Robert Beltran (Star Trek: Voyager (TV)
Jeff Fahey (Corpses)
Chase Masterson (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV) )
Heather Donahue (The Blair Witch Project)
Supplied By : Image Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : November. 28, 2007
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| PLOT In war-torn Iraq, rugged Army soldiers learn that the battles they face every day have only been a warm-up to the unspeakable terror awaiting them. Dispatched to find a missing news crew, the squad finds itself facing an ancient, evil, a mythical clawed-and-winged beast known as the Manticore, now unleashed by villainous opponents to keep the land under their control. |
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| THE REVIEW In this Sci-Fi Channel Original, that was co-produced with UFO Films, MANTICORE tells the store of the mythological title creature, set in a modern setting. We find a group of American Soldiers. in the midst of a war on terrorism lead locally by Sgt. Baxter. The troops are later joined by a nosy go-getting reporter named Ashley Pierce and her cameraman, whom are just there to hopefully catch the next breakout story. When the news crew turn up missing, the troops are summoned to go to a nearby town in search for them. When they get there, they find that the town has been virtually wiped out - they aren't sure who or what is responsible for these killings, but all signs point to whatever it is, not being human - and they'd be right. It isn't long before the squad are faced head-on by a two hulking twin creatures with the body that of a lion, a face of a human, with sharp teeth, and the tail of a scorpion - resurrected by an evil Terrorist king to rid his land of the Americans and the ongoing war. I have seen a lot of these Sci-Fi Originals, and to be honest it is very rarely that I do find one that I truly enjoy - all though some are ok. Prior to seeing MANTICORE, I really didn't think it was the type of movie i'd enjoy, and after seeing all of the negative reviews that it has gotten, I was even more convinced. I said a while back in my review of the HILLS HAVE EYES 2 remake, that I didn't like the idea of incorporating guns in a Horror movie, because then in my opinion, it's an action movie. I still believe this, so I wasn't really excited about the idea that in this film, people would be shooting guns at things that are CGI animated. For Sci-Fi Channel material MANTICORE is another that is nothing more than just average, and certainly not anything we haven't seen on the channel before. If anything this one reminds me of another film that aired on Sci-Fi called CERBERUS, which was about a mythological three head dog - which I surprisingly found to be somewhat enjoyable. As for MANTICORE's plot, is it me, or are Horror films set within the war on terrorism getting a bit old and tired? Sure our nation was shaken by the Terrorist attacks, in fact they changed the world, but the fact that all of these films and books keep being created around the subject matter, seems a little exploitive now. Prior to seeing this, I had seen both Director Tripp Reed's direct-to-video sequels to 2004's remake of Walking Tall. For direct-to-video, I actually thought they really weren't all that bad, and really liked Reed's approach, and the look of the films. Here the look of MANTICORE could be comparable, the film has a gritty look that I found likable. The story is simple, yet decent, but there are other things that lower the film's grade. I thought that some of the characters were basically generically developed and and had very little identity. Aside from Sgt. Baxter(Robert Beltran), Cpl. Keats(Heather Donahue) and reporter Ashley Pierce(Chase Masterson), all the others didn't have much of a presence, nor a distinguishable personality in my opinion. Also the film has CGI created characters, that vary from looking good to bad in just about every other scene(but that's to be expected in a low budget film such as this) - killing people in very unoriginal ways, virtually mimicking the more successful films within it's genre. As with the characters, I found the acting to be mixed - some were passable while others were better than the rest. Robert Beltran as troop leader was decent, not really 100% believable as Sergeant, but very likable at least. I found the most likable performance to be Heather Donahue as Corporal Keats. Donahue, once starred in one of the most grossing indie films of all time in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. She has since went on to act in lesser roles in TV and film. In my opinion, I think she is a great actress, and is truly underrated, and has the talent that deserves to be seem more often than it is. In closing, to me, MANTICORE doesn't really stand out in the crowd of the many films of it's kind that already exist - essentially, all together, it seems like just another Sci-Fi Channel film. With that said, it does have it's decent moments. |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 We have various dead corpses ripped to shreds, some impalements, and blood splatter from kills that occur off screen. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3/10 The score was your typical Creature Feature/Sci-Fi score, nothing that really stood out in my opinion. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, MANTICORE was actually a little better than I thought it would be. But the film's subject and plot does get a bit tiresome after awhile, as it's like watching something we have already seen before, except with a new menacing creature inserted into the familiar plot. |
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