Rating: B-
Dir: Zhenzhao Lin
Star: Jampa Tseten, Yu Si Chen, Hao Ran Zhang, Hai Jun Zhu
With the series now having reached four episodes, it begins to feel like a “proper” franchise. Youku even had a special premiere event for the film on their YouTube channel last week. So the review is coming to you, relatively hot off the tubes of the Internet. But it also indicates the growing interest in these movies. The film reached more than a hundred thousand views in less than 48 hours – I have to say, deservedly so. These are among the better quality productions in the genre. It’s only after you’ve seen the bad (and trust me, I’ve seen my fair share of them), that you can perhaps truly appreciate the ones where the effort is put in.
What I think makes this stand out, is the way the various monstrous creations are integrated into the environment. There are movies where it never looks like anything except the beasts are pasted on top of the frame. As a result, they never seem to be inhabiting the same space as the human characters. That isn’t the case here. It’s not just the quality of the CGI, although that is inevitably a significant element. The way the scene is shot and edited, also plays into how believable the end product becomes. Having directed the previous three entries, as well as Junkrat Train, Lin has clearly picked up quite a bit of relevant experience, and is parlaying this into a slick end product.
The plot does feel a bit familiar. You won’t be seeing this as an in-flight movie any time soon, with not one but two fiery plane crashes in the first few minutes. The second is the one of importance, dumping the usual grab-bag of individuals onto an uncharted island, inhabited by carnivorous plants, giant chameleons, a killer frog and – I trust I’m not spoiling this for anyone – a non-zero number of snakes of unusual size. If the story is nothing new, hero Hao Ren (Tseten) is. Because he basically has a death wish, having already tried to kill himself, due to a failed business before getting on the plane. He now has taken out insurance and wants to die in a way that will let his family use it to cover his debts.
The problem is, the island has other plans, and Hao Ren’s death-wish plays more like remarkable bravery to those around him. He ends up leading the dwindling band of survivors across the island, to where the cockpit and radio transceiver landed, after the plane broke up. Yet it’s still intact enough that we get to see a jet engine used as an impromptu snake blender. Otherwise, though, there is not quite enough innovation to feel like a development from the third part. It remains slick and well-produced, setting the standard to which the knock-offs, and knock-offs of knock-offs, seek to reach. And generally, do not.
This review is part of our feature, When Chinese Animals Attack.