I appreciate how this wastes no time whatsoever. Before any characters are introduced we see the wyvern's eye shifting behind a thin wall of ice, and shortly after a fisherman is attacked. SyFy films are nothing if not direct, and 'Wyvern' is as expectedly blunt as they come.
In the same vein, the characters are unsurprisingly one-dimensional. You have the drifter protagonist, traumatized by a recent past and somehow selected to be a leader for no apparent reason; the level-headed locals, including the love interest; and several eccentric locals, whose personalities are less than ordinary but no less flat. After all, most of them are just fodder for the beast.
The wyvern itself is reasonably believable. No one is going to mistake it for a real, trained animal, but compared to the monsters in other creature features, the visuals look pretty good against the background of the Alaskan wilds and the sleepy northern hamlet. Not to sound dismissive, but this basically goes for the cast as well. I assume that given roles with greater agency they would all demonstrate their capabilities, but in 'Wyvern' it's more a question of what they're given to work with. And it's not much.
Action sequences are as ham-handed as the dialogue, and characters consistently make questionable decisions. A monologue suggesting the origin of the wyvern in Norse mythology, and commentary about Earth's climate crisis, is the most carefully considered aspect of the feature. That, and saving money in the budget by having such a small cast - and making it believable by depicting the town of Beaver Mills as little more than a handful of buildings, and no larger than a few dozen permanent residents.
There are no great revelations on hand: Viewers should already have a very clear idea of what they're getting into. And from the beginning the movie is very honest about what it is, with no care for what anyone thinks. No one is going to call it an award-worthy masterpiece, yet as far as such straightforward creature features go, 'Wyvern' is probably about as well made as you're going to get.
In the same vein, the characters are unsurprisingly one-dimensional. You have the drifter protagonist, traumatized by a recent past and somehow selected to be a leader for no apparent reason; the level-headed locals, including the love interest; and several eccentric locals, whose personalities are less than ordinary but no less flat. After all, most of them are just fodder for the beast.
The wyvern itself is reasonably believable. No one is going to mistake it for a real, trained animal, but compared to the monsters in other creature features, the visuals look pretty good against the background of the Alaskan wilds and the sleepy northern hamlet. Not to sound dismissive, but this basically goes for the cast as well. I assume that given roles with greater agency they would all demonstrate their capabilities, but in 'Wyvern' it's more a question of what they're given to work with. And it's not much.
Action sequences are as ham-handed as the dialogue, and characters consistently make questionable decisions. A monologue suggesting the origin of the wyvern in Norse mythology, and commentary about Earth's climate crisis, is the most carefully considered aspect of the feature. That, and saving money in the budget by having such a small cast - and making it believable by depicting the town of Beaver Mills as little more than a handful of buildings, and no larger than a few dozen permanent residents.
There are no great revelations on hand: Viewers should already have a very clear idea of what they're getting into. And from the beginning the movie is very honest about what it is, with no care for what anyone thinks. No one is going to call it an award-worthy masterpiece, yet as far as such straightforward creature features go, 'Wyvern' is probably about as well made as you're going to get.