Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid

I have seen this movie just on the day of its premiere in my country. Hoped to see a film that would keep me on my seat for these 100 minutes but what I felt while watching was BOREDOM and after watching it A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT. A group with one deadly ambitious scientist goes to Borneo jungle to find a plant that would prolong life. They are, however, exposed to huge difficulties: O.K. The content seems to be interesting. But what the director made with it is just the opposite - HORRIBLE KITSCH! The movie is full of ridiculous moments. One of the group members is eaten by anaconda and they decide to continue their quest. Later, as more people die, most of them change their mind and want to go back. The deadly ambitious scientist, however, forces them to continue the search. He suddenly appears to be horribly cruel. I especially hated the scene when he forces those who survived to gather the plant and holds the gun in his hand. Perhaps, it would be better when they made him a terrorist. It would have been more logical. But a scientist who kills people from his expedition? What a silly thing! And the black guy who all the time screams of panic and fear. Sometimes his behavior was so silly that I thought I would leave the cinema. The utmost nonsense, however, was the end. "All is well that ends well" Less than half a group comes back from the expedition (the rest is eaten by anacondas) and keep smiling as if they have had a nice trip through a jungle. But the movie ends well. It leaves no sorrow in the viewers... What a kitsch! The only reason why I rate this movie 2 out of 10, not 1, is the location it was shot in. The beauties of Fiji Island kept me in the cinema till the end. If it hadn't been for this aspect, I would have left the cinema before the end. But the location is, perhaps, the most peripheral aspect in the whole movie...

My own personal favourite sub-genre of film is "Animals Eating People". I don't know if that is an actual sub-genre but that is what I call it. The best of it's kind being JAWS (of course) and others if it's ilk being Piranha, Alligator, Lake Placid, The Edge, and Anaconda. I enjoyed Anaconda but surprisingly, this film, which is a sequel in title only really, is a much better film. There are tighter suspense sequences, reasonable acting, and good visual effects. I tend to be fonder of anamatronic effects over CGI but these are pretty good. The original Anaconda had pretty good anamatronic snakes but just because of the nature of the animal, they looked a bit hokey. They might have been scary if you were scared of snakes but otherwise they looked like big Muppet snakes who cracked up into big smiles every time they attacked. The CGI here lends itself to visually ridiculous touches like big fangs on snakes that don't naturally have big teeth but if you can watch this movie at all, you will suspend your disbelief. Good fun, good thrills, no Oscars. Enjoy.

This film must get nominations for Worst Editing and Worst Screenplay at the Razzies. Atrocious dialogue, segments of the movie that have obviously been moved around (e.g., "We have to get back to the boat!" after the boat has been destroyed), and laughably ridiculous errors of geography (rivers which manage to run in loops?! Escher would be proud) I've heard that the budget was $25m+, but they obviously couldn't afford enough rain for a proper rainy season - there are even hacked-in scenes where daylight can be seen although the action should be happening in darkness. Not to mention CGI snakes less convincing than the one which took out Sunnydale High in Buffy Season Four. There is nothing redeeming about this film whatsoever. Not even the monkey, who does not interact with the human characters for the entire second half of the film yet is still shown screaming whenever anything scary happens. Oh, and anacondas are native to SOUTH America. So are the natives who appear in the completely irrelevant sequence to start the movie. Take a look at your globe to see just how far that is from Borneo, Indonesia.

I found this movie to be a fun see. After a couple of months I will probably see it again. It was suspenseful, entertaining, and pretty well done if you embrace your imagination and keep in mind that it's not supposed to be a factual documentary. ..It was great! Thick jungles, sweltering heat, nasty waters, lots of obstacles, likable characters with the requisite chosen few to dislike or be on the fence about. ..A pairing to be invested in and root for to get through it all if no one else did. It even had a few moments of comedic relief. The editors, writers, directors did a very good job of tying it all together. They made everything sound fairly logical which is a lot more than I can say for that other Anaconda film. ..There, very near the end was the weakest spot but all in all ....good entertainment.