Jurassic Predator: Xtinction (2010) User Reviews

A mess from start to finish

[TheLittleSongbird · 2/10 · 25 July 2011]

I happened to see Xtinction(aka Alligator X) on the SyFy channel. This movie is not as bad as some of the other output that airs on that channel, but in all honesty, is that any consolation? Xtinction still manages to start out a mess and finish on exactly the same level.

For starters, the acting is very poor. Elena Lyons is actually decent, and the only real redeeming quality of the movie. The rest of the cast look completely disengaged, but it doesn't help that all the characters in Xtinction are very uninteresting and seem to have no life or purpose to them at all.

The cinematography is more than okay too, however the effects cheapen it. The effects are not the worst I've seen, but they are crude and horrifically bad in too many places, while the look of the film in terms of colour palette and lighting is drab. I accept there was a need of a hostile atmosphere, but the drab look made it rather depressing in alternative to foreboding and hostile.

The script is clichéd and cheesy, and the direction is derivative. What really kills Xtinction are the story and pace. Pace-wise, Xtinction is very dull, and the story and characters don't do much to engage us either. The story is very unfocused, with some of the film focusing on the dinosaur which was somewhat intriguing but lacking in tension, it was underdeveloped and the shock value was rather cheap. And the kidnapping focus that dominates the middle is just as derivative as the direction, with no genuine build ups to compensate. The ending is also a major let down in how predictable it is.

All in all, I've seen worse, but this film is a mess really. 2/10 Bethany Cox

It's mean and green!

[Boba_Fett1138 · 3/10 · 11 February 2012]

Oh trust me, there is far more worse stuff to watch out there but having said that, this movie is quite horrible.

This is one of those incredibly cheap monster movies, that got put together in a matter of weeks and had no large budget behind it. Or at least, it truly does look that way. It isn't isn't ever very creative with any of its ideas and it's a pretty predictable movie, from beginning till end.

It still had some good ideas in it, it seemed but the filmmakers obviously had no idea how to handle them. You could tell it's just another paycheck for all them and their heart isn't really into it at all. They decided to play things safely, do it fast and do it is cheap as possible, so maybe the studios would give them another job afterward. These persons are not in the business because they love to make movies, they are simply in it because it pays the bills.

And really, with some more creativity behind it, this movie could had at least become a somewhat watchable one, even if it was featuring exactly the same story. Now instead it obviously isn't a very recommendable one, not even if you are really into the monster movie genre. There besides isn't really any good gore or tension present in this movie, which makes it such an incredibly bland one to watch.

I honestly quite liked some of the characters and actors in this movie, which is already a real big thing for a movie of this sort but obviously they can't make the movie any more interesting or exciting.

Thing that remains the absolute worst thing about this movie are its special effects. My goodness, when you make a monster movie you would think that the filmmakers would realize that having a good- and convincing looking monster is the absolute, most crucial thing but the monster looks absolutely horrendous in this, due to some incredibly bad and cheap looking special effects.

It seriously had some good potential in its story but this all goes to waste, courtesy of some not so very talented and interested film-makers.

3/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I had trouble with "suspension of disbelief" on something really weird...

[tailsofthewind · 1/10 · 22 April 2021]

It was the wardrobe department, of all things. Everyone's clothing was so clean, and in many cases, brand new and ironed.

Even the local police were sweaty in a small boat, but their uniforms were immaculate, had all of their insignia (not slacking for locals), no pit stains, or worn collars, and I believe I even saw military creases carefully ironed on the back of one of the shirts. I was in the Navy for almost five years and I went through a lot of dungarees, shirts, t-shirts, shoes, etc. Those two cops were getting ready for a Captain's inspection, not another day on the water.

Everyone looked like they just got new clothes for the shoot and were told to keep them clean. It was so weird that I had to stop watching the movie.

So bad it's bad ..I mean real bad.

[profundovic-537-325729 · 1/10 · 26 September 2020]

Ain't worth Gators poop and the actors stink to high heaven and add a non believeable creature to this whole mess. was hoping the creature eats these bad actors and spits them out . special awards go to the sheriff who falls asleep on a ladder not easy the brunette who has no feelings when a young deputy dies a real cold b 1 star is too much . I give it 5 Yawns .I seen better acting on Pawn stars.

Another terrible creature feature.

[poolandrews · 2/10 · 6 June 2011]

Xtinction is set in the Louisiana swamps where Laura Le Crois (Elena Lyons) has returned to after several years in search of her missing father Pappy (Philip Beard), meanwhile local Sheriff Tim Richards (Lochlyn Munro) has a growing list of missing persons on his hands. A young couple named Mandy (Lacey Minchew) & Matt (Gabe Begneaud) hire a boat from Laura to go on a sunset tour of the swamp, with no one else to pilot the boat Laura has to herself but while out in the swamp the boat is attacked by a huge underwater prehistoric reptile. On dry land Laura witnesses two local brother's feed her father pappy to the prehistoric monster who then turn their attentions to her, the brother's kidnap Laura, Mandy & Matt while the Sheriff now has to start dealing with various severed body parts washing up on dry land & after Laura's boat is found badly damaged he sets out to find her...

Also known as Xtinction: Predator X this was directed by Amir Valinia & although not a Sy-Fy Channel original creature feature it might well have been, in fact I'm pretty sure the Sy-Fy Channel will pick this up as it's just the sort of thing they make themselves. The cloned Dinosaur, the aquatic swamp setting, the policeman & his girlfriend character's, the evil scientist guy, the dumb clichés who are there just to be killed off & some really lame plot twists. While watching this yesterday it felt like I was sat there in front of the telly for hours, this really drags & the Dinosaur feels more like a second thought than anything else. The plot is stupid, are the writers of this thing convinced that anyone who watches this will believe that in order to genetically clone a Dinosaur all you need are some old bones, a few test tubes in a wooden shack in a Louisiana swamp & the combined knowledge of a college teacher & two inbred brother's one of whom can barely speak? Where did the sonar device come from? How did the teacher know it would work, what does the Dinosaur do when the sonar isn't on? Why create a Dinosaur in the first place? What did they intend to do with it? Why didn't they take any precautions to stop the Dinosaur eating them? Nothing quite makes sense, there's little or no reason behind anything that happens & character motivation is baffling. The majority of the film follows Laura as she gets kidnapped, has to escape & then fight for her life as she is pursued by a giant Dinosaur & a couple of local killers. The kidnapping angle dominates the middle third of the film & the Dinosaur really is all but forgotten about. There's a totally random twist near the end in which a friend suddenly betrays Laura & turns out to be working for the bad guy but then once his car crashes a few minutes later he sees the error of his ways & says he deserves to die & the car blows up. The Dinosaur angle is poorly thought out with no reason or logic behind it's creation or continued protection, the character's are poor & it's pretty dull. In fact, are you sure this wasn't made by the Sy-Fy Channel?

The CGI effects vary from average to terrible, the same shot of the Dinosaur swimming underwater is used several times & even the gore isn't that good. There's a severed hand, a severed arm, a couple of severed feet & a bit of blood but not much else. The one thing I will say about Xtinction is that the cinematography is quite nice, I expected lots of green trees & bright sunshine but the look of Xtinction is just the opposite with dead trees, very brown & Earthy settings & a Louisiana swamp that looks quite dead & hostile. Not that a subdued colour scheme makes Xtinction worth watching.

With a supposed budget of about $2,500,000 I can't believe that much was spent on it, it looks pretty cheap with minimal effects & action. Actually filmed in Louisiana. The one bright spark of Xtinction is leading lady Elena Lyons who does put in an energetic performance, everyone else seems bored.

Xtinction is your average stand Sy-Fy Channel quality creature feature, in other words it's routine unoriginal crap. Poor effects, predictable plot, a script that makes no sense & a slow pace just kill it dead in the water. Films like Xtinction are ten a penny & there are much, much better ones out there.

I cannot listen to dialogue that is either stupidly absurd or comically infantile.

[arctech-76592 · 1/10 · 31 July 2015]

Having read Science Fiction continuously since I was a child, I am drawn, like a moth to a flame, to anything that remotely resembles Science Fiction. Unfortunately, most Sci-Fi ain't it. And I love monsters. I don't mean zombies, or vampires, or werewolves, or mummies. I mean creepy alien life forms, mutations, and undiscovered animals. I've loved reading about dinosaurs since I was a child. Hence my attempt to watch this movie.

Most TV writers (or whoever is responsible for these screenplays) don't seem to understand that the average Science Fiction reader tends to be a bit more intelligent than average. And so when character Dr. Charles LeBlanc shows up early in the film to state that he no longer teaches because there is little "progressive" thought in academia because academia is all about "conservative" mediocrity, well… I'm outta there.

I don't consider myself either "conservative" or "progressive" but if that's the sort of dialogue the writers want me to believe, I don't appreciate the lame joke. Or is this supposed to be some sort of alternate universe? It reminds me of the movie "Smart People" where the main character may be the only "conservative" English/humanities/social sciences professor in existence. The idea that academia is full of professors who glorify "conservative" mediocrity, or even "conservative" ideas, is just too stupid to swallow.

When movie dialogue is that stupid, I go read a book so that drool does not drip down my chin.

Could have been worse, should have been better...

[Deliberate_Stranger · 28 October 2012]

Alligator X is another 'hot syfy channel feature'. My expectations with such a title were extremely low but I had to try, It's still creature feature for God's sake! Well, it turned out to be typical syfy crap. The only somehow good actor is Lochlyn Munro who always tries his best. Here he plays small town sheriff and I have the mixed feelings about his creation. His acting is OK but the character is so typical and boring that you really don't care for him. Unfortunately the rest of the cast is just beyond bad. Lead girl is horrible, bad guy is even worse and his supporters on the same level of garbage. I found it strange since all of them have some acting record and should at least know how to act but no. Cgi creature is pretty good actually. Sure It's still cgi and no good cgi by any means but let's not expect 'Rogue' here, It's just a Syfy Channel and I have seen much worse cgi in their movies. Cinematography and music are OK at best, can't say I remember score much though. There is no gore, very little blood(some digital too) and the whole ending is just a joke. No suspense, no interesting characters, no special effects really. One of those movies you watch once in your life and forget about it 10 minutes after you watched it. I can't say I had a good time seeing it, nor it was worth the money but it could be worse, and I was expecting worse so I won't be bashing it more than I actually should. I'm pretty sure most of the people will find the movie horrible but for a one viewing, why the hell not?

The Worst

[zombieferrets · 1/10 · 19 October 2020]

Literally the worst movie I've ever seen. Everything about it was awful. The acting was so horrific. I love creature features but this one is worth a miss.

As seen on UniMás, this film follows typically bad sci-fi/action factors

[keith_xyz · 2/10 · 10 November 2013]

Currently I'm watching "Mystery Science Theater 3000" on DVD to inform u that I can tolerate my fare Cher of crappy cinema. "Xtinction: Predator X" apparently is so bad there wasn't even any actor from a moderately rated TV show for me to recognize. The dialogue was so horrendous that I actually recognized words in Spanish after studying it for almost 5 years. Oh yes, I saw it on UniMás. "Xtinction" displayed typical tropes in bad movies I've seen on that channel such as the mad scientist w/ a sociopathic M.O., two damsels in distress getting pushed around by the arch-villain & his goons & many cleavage & brassiere shots to complement the misogyny. The sheriff is the hero perhaps based on the fact he's better looking then the hideous hick enemies. & oh yeah, the monster. If a monster movie is cheaply made, expect scarce shots of the ferocious alligator (which could be a mosasaurus, that I remember as a boy fascinated w/ dinosaurs), shots of the beast separate from the people; acting scared at off-screen monsters has gone on since bad black-and-white films, & minimal make-up, hence minimal gore & the crocodile w/ flippers swallowing it's victims whole. Of course one notable scene is when the (yep, I checked the box) beast explodes & a crewman hurls the red stuff from a bucket at an actress, followed by a deus ex machina. Is that 10 lines? Well, I'm glad to get it off my chest. 2 any fans of MST3K & RiffTrax, please view "Xtinction: Predator X" & record some good riffs in audio!

Redneck science gone wrong

[DemonaStormShadow · 3/10 · 2 August 2012]

Someone said to themselves lets clone a prehistoric marine reptile and make it look like a gator, because cloning Deinosuchus or Sarcosuchus would be too much work and/or complicated.

Pacing could have been better, same for the dialogue. The science is faulty, but isn't it always? Mad Scientist de jur creates the titular beastie and has two drug making swamp bums as his lackeys(you know I wouldn't trust something like this to two guys who diet consists of moonshine and meth), someone has to do the heavy lifting after all.

Overall your average very bad B monster movie that really is better as background noise or a way to kill time. If you're a fan of SyFy brand movies this is for you.

Very Good

[utbcarhud · 10/10 · 16 February 2023]

This movie was more than enough for me. It had good music, acting and a good cast. I can not tell you how excited i am for the next movie. But is it better than the dark knight? NO. But still a very good movie. The end was so fenomanol and i will always give this movie a 10/10. I recommend this to all people out there. All ages, for 1-100. No one should miss this out. And, propably the best aligator movie out there. So, that was my review, im very excited for the second one, and you should check it out. Love you all! See you next time in florida for the premiere on the second one. Thank you so much!

Disappointing immensely cheesy creature feature

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 7 February 2013]

Returning to her hometown to deal with her father's disappearance, a woman and her friends find he's part of a rampage of terror conducted by a monstrous prehistoric crocodile and try to find a way to end it's blood-soaked rampage.

This wasn't all that great of a creature but did have a few good points drowned in it's flaws. There's no use complaining about the lack of quality CGI here since that's to be expected with this, but the fact that it never really featured the title creature at all in this who tends to be so rarely shown in the film that there's almost a sense of it not being a real creature feature at all. By choosing to focus instead on the family drama and the different background characters first, the crocodile doesn't seem to be a big important factor in the plot and rarely seems to be a concern for them once it does show up, dramatically reducing it's effectiveness even before the lame effects used for it are brought into play. There's some good stuff in the rather frenetic finale that finally lets the creature loose and get a decent rampage on the populace resulting in some fine deaths and a bit of action, the ultimate manner of killing the beast is pretty creative and overall the second half has a nice vibe to it, but overall it's quite lacking.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language

Could have been better.

[shirley8457 · 2/10 · 29 January 2020]

It may have helped if the so-called residents of Louisiana had even just a bit of a southern accent. The acting is barely passable. I've seen some cheaply made sci-fi movies that at least had interesting characters. This one is just a bomb from the beginning.

Way too Bland for a Creature Feature

[Michael_Elliott · 20 July 2012]

Alligator X (2010)

** (out of 4)

Creature feature has a couple rednecks in a deep swamp creating a large gator that has been extinct for as far back as anyone can remember. Somehow this creature is now stalking the swamp eating anyone that gets in its path but thankfully there's some nice people willing to try and destroy it. ALLIGATOR X, which is also known as XTINCTION: PREDATOR X, is a pretty average movie from start to finish and I guess I would say that it's fairly well made but if you're advertising a creature feature it might be a good idea to actually spend some time with that creature. The biggest issue I had with this movie is that there simply wasn't enough time with the creature. The attacks rarely happened and when they did they were often filmed in a way where we don't see too much action. Again, I'm really not sure why they selected to try and tell more "story" than actually deliver on the goods that fans coming to these type of movies will expect. While on a technical level this film is much better than your typical film you'd see on SyFy, on the level of entertainment I'd say this isn't nearly as good simply because there's not enough action going on. The majority of the running time has our leading lady searching for her father and then constantly running around the swamp trying to get away from the two rednecks and her ex-husband who just happens to be the scientist trying to take this creature and make more of them. This silly melodrama about her father's property and the various other issues that come up really add nothing to the movie. The performances range from average to above average but none of them are going to knock you off your seats. In regards to violence and gore, the levels are pretty low as there simply aren't enough attacks to get excited about and when they do happen we don't get to see much. ALLIGATOR X is a real wasted opportunity and there's really no point in watching it unless you've got to see every film of its type.

And just when you thought the swamps of Louisiana were safe...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 30 December 2016]

Right, well with the notion that "Xtinction: Predator X" (aka "Alligator X") is in the creature feature genre, then chances are that you are in for something that you have already seen countless times before and that you are in for a movie with hilarious special effects.

And true enough, "Alligator X" is just that. It offers nothing new to the genre that hasn't already been seen in other movies.

The story presented here is a very bland and generic storyline, even in comparison to other story lines in this genre. A genetically modified creature is on the rampage in the wilderness and it is a up to a small group of people to stop it, of course.

"Alligator X" has some questionable special effects, like so many others in the genre. But that is actually one of the reason why we keep watching this genre, isn't it? To see how laughable and pathetic the creature turns out to be. And the CGI in "Alligator X" wasn't impressive, let's just say that. I was especially impressed with how a big creature was able to not cause ripples on the water as it moved about.

As for the acting, well it was as to be expected for a movie in this genre. So don't hold your breath for a thespian experience out of the ordinary. It was, however, sort of fun to watch Lochlyn Munro run around here and pretend to be an officer of the law fighting a monstrous alligator.

The characters in the movie were fairly generic, with the heroic protagonists and the stereotypical villain and goons. There wasn't much of characteristics or details added to these cardboard cut-outs, so you don't really care much about the people in the movie.

There are far better movies available in the genre, and once you have seen "Alligator X" then you are very unlikely to return to it for a second time around.

Animal X

[finnegan1959 · 8/10 · 9 September 2022]

This is a fairly low budget movie. Knowing that, you need to be a little lenient in your judgement of it. When watching a movie with a subject like this you also have to allow yourself to believe in the subject matter. It's real whether or not you think this could happen.

I enjoyed the movie. Only 1 actor was known to me but I enjoyed all the main characters performances.

The movie is suspenseful and has you jumping a few times. I cared about the 2 main characters. The sheriff and his ex girlfriend. I thought that the 3rd main character was also intriguing and well acted. In truth all but the most peripheral actors did at least a good enough job.

The scenery was excellent for the subject matter.

I enjoyed the movie and would probably watch it again when I've forgotten enough of it. Give it a try.

See Ya later, Alligator

[Lebowskidoo · 7/10 · 2 July 2020]

Bayou babe is attacked by a prehistoric alligator and kidnapped by possibly inbred yokels. The script is a slight notch above the usual swamp monster thriller, and there is at least one impressive kill scene. The CGI sticks out like a sore thumb, of course, but I have seen worse.

Saw it with the screen title, "Alligator X."

Twists quite unexpected for monster movie

[drystyx · 7/10 · 25 September 2021]

Valinia and the writing team for this giant alligator (or dinosaur, whichever you prefer) movie, wound up taking some risks and doing a lot of fresh things that made it different than most such monster moives.

Unfortunately, there is an overage of insane characters. That's the only real flaw to this movie.

There are a few twists and a few unexpected events.

We have some characters who are eliminated immediately, and we follow a small number of "honest" characters amid the lunatic ones.

Not a spoiler to say that there is a pair of lunatic brothers that are somewhat credible, and an outrageously insane scientist. He makes some insane remarks from the onset that signal just how out of touch with reality he is.

The other characters behave in a believable way.

One more thing. It seems every movie maker wants to outdo each other with giant, super powered monsters. This is no exception. But, that's to be expected. Still, it would be nice if the next monster movie would tone it down a bit.

Overall, the twists make this one of the better giant alligator-crocodile movies.