Pterodactyl (2005) Review: Coolio vs. CGI Dinosaurs
“Evil is in the air.”Synopsis: A dormant volcano deep with the Turkish forest holds within it a deadly secret. Perfectly preserved, a nest of pterodactyl eggs are ready to hatch… | ![]() Buy now on Amazon |
Calamity Brains:
Pterodactyl is fairly mediocre as present-day creature features go, but it has a few fun highlights: entertainingly bad CGI, a hot redhead (Amy Sloan), and Coolio.
The premise of dinosaur eggs surviving somewhere and suddenly hatching is pretty standard, and so is most of Pterodactyl’s story. The characters that aren’t just caricatures (the slut, the jock, the nerd) are one-dimensional and have very little reason for doing anything. Still, the mixture of common story elements is enough to create something sort of novel, and I never quite got bored with the movie.
Aside from the presence of Amy Sloan, the main reason I was never bored is because the pterodactyl scenes are hilarious. The filmmakers were trying to go for something sort of realistic, sort of action-y, but weren’t particularly good at planning or effects. There’s usually very little contact between the CGI dinosaurs and the humans, and the humans generally aren’t good enough actors to sell the danger, so scenes of swooping pterodactyls “terrorizing” their running victims fall comedically flat. The filmmakers also had a tendency to reuse CGI sequences, which is not at all subtle and also pretty funny. Add in random explosions, and you’ve got a trifecta of B-horror goodness.
Pterodactyl isn’t going to win any awards, and as a Syfy movie there’s no nudity. But it’s not a terrible choice to put on in the background or when unwinding with a drink. Especially if you like redheads.
Calamity Brains’ Rating: C+
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