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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good concept, poorly executed.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Another reviewer described this as being superior for a Sci-Fi Channel TV production. He was wrong. This is very much par for the course for the channel, a cheesy CGI-filled slice of monster mayhem in which various assembled non-actors are bumped off one by one on a remote island by the titular creature.The ridiculous set-up of the narrative is particularly amusing here. There's a remote island in the Mediterranean where a group of archaeologists just happen to be conducting an expedition when they fall foul of the titular beastie. At the same time, and most bizarrely, there's a MOST DANGEROUS GAME-style hunt going on too, where some big game hunters are tracking down convicted criminals and get cash prizes if they manage to murder them.Inevitably the stories all combine but in the most ordinary way imaginable. HYDRA is for the most part a repetitive production in which almost the entire cast is bumped off before the survivors finally figure out a way to combat the monster. The acting is poor and the CGI effects typically awful for a Sci Fi Channel production. There's little more to say really other than you know what you're going to get with this one.

Do you want me to start with the good news or the bad news? Well, the good news is that Hydra is not the worst SyFy's done, and it's not quite bad enough to be down there as one of their worst. The scenery is atmospheric, and the photography and editing are better than the choppy standard I have come to expect. Also the hydra itself actually looks good, not amazing, but compared to the cheap-looking and stilted-moving effects before and since this movie it is a considerable improvement. The bad news is that Hydra is still not a good movie, I have seen worse by all means but it was still lame. The main problem here was the story, a good idea on paper and is better paced than most SyFy movies but on film it was predictable and could have been developed much more than it was. The characters are the same, they are not as annoying as other SyFy efforts but still clichéd and you don't learn much about them. The hydra was not bad in look, but like the rest of the characters, you don't really feel threatened partly because the killings and gore lacked tension and had a you've-seen-it-all-before vibe and also that Hydra makes little to no attempt to expand on the hydra's origins and the like. The script is cheesy and doesn't feel like it's flowing naturally, and while they admittedly don't have much to work with the actors do nothing in their body language or their delivery to elevate the characters and script. For want of a better word, it all felt bland. All in all, a lame movie but I've seen worse. 3/10 Bethany Cox

"Evil Elvis" director Andrew Prendergast and "Blind Injustice" scenarist Peter Sullivan have appropriated the venerable manhunt plot from "The Most Dangerous Game" and bolstered the danger by adding a Hydra, the chimerical, multi-headed snake from Greek mythology, to their contemporary horror epic. In "Hydra," three unfortunate men and one woman serve as the hunted on an uninhabited island while four wealthy safari hunters, who've anted up $10-million a piece, stalk them for the thrill of the kill. "I think whoever comes to this island is going to be in for real surprise," one of the four hunted observes with insight. This line of ominous dialogue exemplifies the effective use of dramatic irony. Essentially, dramatic irony means that the audience knows more about what is going to happen than the characters. Sadly, Sullivan's screenplay suffers from the loquacity of too much exposition about each character, the island and their respective predicaments. Most of the dialogue sounds amateurish. Not even seasoned performers can make much out of this gabble."Hydra" opens with four archeologists exploring an unknown island. A simmering volcano triggers tremors repeatedly and eventually these four encounter a gigantic reptile with three heads that assuages its appetite for human flesh. The beast dines on one of the four archeologists. The lone survivor, Dr. Valerie Cammon (Polly Shannon of "Snowboard Academy"), plunges into the jungle. The scene shifts to a tramp freighter named the Aegeas somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. Four egotistical big game hunters have paid Vincent Camden (Alex McArthur of the "Desperado" movies) $10-million dollars each to hunt convicted criminals. Each of the hunters has experienced heartbreak of some kind because a criminal deprived one of their loved ones of life. When the island that Camden has plied the seas for disappears, Aegeas captain, Mr. Sweet (Michael Shamus Wiles of "Fight Club") and his second-in-command, Mr. Winters (Dwayne Adway of "Soul Plane"), plot a course for another island.The uncharted island that they locate and schedule the hunt on is the home of the Hydra. Camden has kidnapped three convicted killers. Gwen Russo (Dawn Olivieri of "Heroes") killed her abusive husband with a shotgun. Ronnie Kaplan (Texas Battle of "Dragonball Evolution") tanked up on booze and killed a woman in an automobile collision. Bob Crick (James Wicek of "Steel Magnolias") raped three Auburn University students. Mr. Sweet added a fourth, Tim Nolan (George Stults of "Super Capers"), a former Special Forces soldier, who was under his control in Iraq. Camden believes that a higher justice will be served by killing these four for sport. What he doesn't know is that Mr. Sweet has a grudge against Nolan. They release the prisoners the night before the hunt commences on the island, and Nolan assures his companions that they have to work together if they hope to stay alive.Meantime, four of Mr. Sweet's hired help encounter the Hydra. Each time they blast away at it without realizing the trouble they have setting themselves for up. Additional heads replace the blasted heads, and the henchmen die. Nolan sets up several booby-traps and one of the four hunters, Williams (Paul Rae of "Coach Carter"), trips one and ends up with a stake through his thigh. When the four hunted wander up, he shoots the worse one—Bob Crick--and then the Hydra appears and finishes him off. Interestingly, Crick had tried earlier to rape Gwen, so he gets what he deserves. Clarence Elkins, Sean Trotta (Roark Critchlow of "Shark Swarm") argue after they discover Williams' shredded, blood splattered remains and Elkins decides to contact Camden. Trotta smashes the radio with his rifle butt and Elkins tries to get back to the ship.Meanwhile, the archaeologist who survived the first attack tells the hunted that the island showed up on a satellite mapping three months ago and they launched an expedition "in hopes that this might be the location of a fabled lost temple." She adds that they were hoping to find the Sword of Hercules. What they did find was the Hydra and the Hydra never stops hunting and it hunts humans better in the cold of night because it is attracted to body heat. Nolan repairs the damaged walkie and challenges Sweet to find them. This is when Nolan learns to his chagrin that each of them has been implanted with a chip so the hunters can track them with a GPS device. Valerie agrees to help them because she doesn't have a chip in her body. However, she demands that Nolan help her find the fabled Sword of Hercules. They can cut the heads off the Hydra and kill it permanently, but they have to use the sword. She warns Nolan that he will have to face a test of faith to accomplish something impossible so that he can get the sword. Nolan has to thrust his arm in a fiery hole to retrieve the sword. When the Hydra attacks them, Valerie shields Gwen and dies when the snake eats her. He slices off all the Hydra heads, except one. Predictably, the Hydra is back in the game. By now, Nolan and Gwen have made it back to the freighter. Nolan has to battle the snake again after it has eaten Camden and his sexy, show-off wife Dixie.The special effects are what you would expect from this Sci-Fi Channel entry. There is one questionable scene when the Hydra slithers aboard the ship and Camden and Dixie get away from it. The acting is rather lame, but when you consider the terrible lines that they were given, you have to make some allowances. Composer Gregory Tripi must have loved the soundtrack to the recent James Bond movie "Casino Royale" because he imitates it to the point that it sounds like copyright infringement.

HYDRA begins with four rich hunters that have paid a large sum of money to hunt people on an uncharted island, but unknown to everyone there is something on the island that has a taste for human flesh, a creature of myth know as the hydra.Although I reckon this is not part of SCI-FI's man eater series, if it is its certainly one of the best ones I've seen, the film is actually really good when I look at the last few SCI-FI channel originals I've seen, because you get YETI which was a quickly slammed together mess, there was VIPERS that was a complete rush job and you had GRIZZLY RAGE that was neither of the aforementioned but it was crap anyway.This film was the exception to other SCI-FI monster yawns, it had better CGI effects, it had a good story to it, even though there was minimal character development and no real back story as to where the HYDRA came from or how it ended up on the island, the dialog was actually pretty sharp and not as ridiculous as in other SCI-FI channel films.My only complaint I have is the score, despite that it sounds similar to the score of another SCI-FI original called KOMODO VS. COBRA, its very loud and sometimes it almost muffles the dialog, you can also hear the sound of really noisy trumpets that tend to make you cringe, just to give an idea of how loud the score is.Otherwise its a better than average SCI-FI original creature feature.