Watch Ferocious Planet For Free

Pretty Good

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

(12%) A cheapo made for TV sci-fi time passer that is best watched either a little drunk, or with friends so to rip into it (or both), because this is so throwaway and low in content that entire scenes could be shortened or even cut out entirely and you'd still know exactly of what little is going on. The only nameable star is John Rhys-Davies, and he's on screen for about 10 minutes, leaving the TV actors and B-movie stars to carry this feeble monster movie by themselves. This was intended to be fluff from the start, with the script filled with corny lines, bad jokes, and stupid characters. While the computer effects are like those found in the video game "Quake", from 1996. This can be watched without really wanting to give up on it because it is quite well paced and enjoyable in a very shallow, goofy manner, but this isn't worth a look.

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.

Because if anything I had a rather lukewarm reception to Ferocious Planet. It is nowhere near SyFy's worst, but I've also seen better. The photography and editing is thankfully not as choppy as it can be with SyFy movies, the scenery is good and is suitably nightmarish, as is the concept and the acting is above average, though while it was a pleasure to see John Rhys Davies again he's only on screen for about 15 minutes which I think is wrong for an actor of his calibre. Where Ferocious Planet is let down is in the artificial design of the creatures(though the effects have been much worse before and since), the often cheesy writing(some bits are hilarious like "Don't poke the alien" though) and the formulaic and lacking-in-energy story with the accident in experiment idea rather lazy in how it's explored. As well as those we have the sort of characters that are vaguely developed and made to do stupid things, killings that are undermined by lack of tension, numerous and off-putting continuity errors with the most irritating being with the person who gets a metal rod stuck in his shoulder and the cop-out of an ending, which felt rushed and unsatisfactorily explained. All in all, not bad but not particularly good either. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This is a probably one of the worst films I've ever watched. For a long time I thought it was meant to be a parody (and I still believe in the option), but if so, also limping. Is this a low, low, low budget film...? Pace, plot, dramaturgy, allegedly special effects (the animated monsters are hilariously bad), acting, music, not to speak of content or idea — all of it is terrible. It is not even entertaining, despite its abundance of indeliberate humor. It only reminds me how much time there is generally spent in vain in the movie business, producing nothingness. The acting resembles an unsuccessful early cartoon, where anything like timing is nearly absent. As usual in American films, there are the compulsory ingredients of yelling-women-for-no-reason without having their coiffure disturbed, but here the illusion of resolve or courage or readiness to act or something along those protocols does not function — or become manifest. Conclusion: «Ferocious Planet» is a dreadful production. A disgrace for the screen — simply something for the dustbin. It is almost impossible to imagine that someone expects an audience to take something like this seriously in 2011. Or hold on: It might serve as an item for the film academies, splendidly exemplifying what to avoid. Hence, for the sake of pedagogy, not a complete waste after all.