Hydra (2009)

Sorry, this movie sucks

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Another reviewer described this as being superior for a Sci-Fi Channel TV production. He was wrong. This is very much par for the course for the channel, a cheesy CGI-filled slice of monster mayhem in which various assembled non-actors are bumped off one by one on a remote island by the titular creature.The ridiculous set-up of the narrative is particularly amusing here. There's a remote island in the Mediterranean where a group of archaeologists just happen to be conducting an expedition when they fall foul of the titular beastie. At the same time, and most bizarrely, there's a MOST DANGEROUS GAME-style hunt going on too, where some big game hunters are tracking down convicted criminals and get cash prizes if they manage to murder them.Inevitably the stories all combine but in the most ordinary way imaginable. HYDRA is for the most part a repetitive production in which almost the entire cast is bumped off before the survivors finally figure out a way to combat the monster. The acting is poor and the CGI effects typically awful for a Sci Fi Channel production. There's little more to say really other than you know what you're going to get with this one.

Do you want me to start with the good news or the bad news? Well, the good news is that Hydra is not the worst SyFy's done, and it's not quite bad enough to be down there as one of their worst. The scenery is atmospheric, and the photography and editing are better than the choppy standard I have come to expect. Also the hydra itself actually looks good, not amazing, but compared to the cheap-looking and stilted-moving effects before and since this movie it is a considerable improvement. The bad news is that Hydra is still not a good movie, I have seen worse by all means but it was still lame. The main problem here was the story, a good idea on paper and is better paced than most SyFy movies but on film it was predictable and could have been developed much more than it was. The characters are the same, they are not as annoying as other SyFy efforts but still clichéd and you don't learn much about them. The hydra was not bad in look, but like the rest of the characters, you don't really feel threatened partly because the killings and gore lacked tension and had a you've-seen-it-all-before vibe and also that Hydra makes little to no attempt to expand on the hydra's origins and the like. The script is cheesy and doesn't feel like it's flowing naturally, and while they admittedly don't have much to work with the actors do nothing in their body language or their delivery to elevate the characters and script. For want of a better word, it all felt bland. All in all, a lame movie but I've seen worse. 3/10 Bethany Cox

What is it with the Skiffy Channel and giant snake like things? The plot- We open with an expedition to a Greek Island where the male participants are all gruesomely eaten by the cheap CGI Hyrda. The lone female participant survives to watch the ship that brought her there sink in an equally cheap CGI sequence.Okay, after the Opening Credits, we get to the meat of the story. Four rich guys have paid 10 million each to hunt down four convicted felons. Except three of them are actually NICE felons. One is an ex-Green Beret who organizes them into fighting back. Except a little problem. The Hydra is on the Island, too.The encounter the surviving scientist girl, who looks pretty good considering she hasn't had a bath or change of clothes in two months. She tells them she'll help them escape if they find the Sword of Hercules (and any good student of Greek Mythology knows it's Heracles, but never mind.) We get lots of shots of the Hydra eating heavily armed goons.Another observation. Two female characters are killed in the course of the movie. Is there some Hollywood rule that women have to be killed less graphically then men? All the guys are literally torn to pieces with lots of blood and gore. (Okay, bad CGI blood and gore, but never mind.) The chicks are killed out of frame. Not that I want to see that kind of thing, really, but why the double standard? Okay, this is better than MOST Skiffy channel snakes eat lots of people movies, but that isn't saying much. It really doesn't take any chances, the people you expect to get killed are and the ones you expect to survive (the ones where the script has built sympathy for) do.Come on, Skiffy, come up with some original ideas!

It is all i can say. F...CGi, F... acting. It doesn't f....g matter. It has a cool monster, has swords in 21st century , a lame but beautiful screaming girl and lame comic tricks. If u watch this movie so just u can spam here how stupid and lame it is u are so not cool. I don't know what people expect. A f...g drama, love story? I didn't like the actors for hunters. They just were not cool.But i like the way things were moving. It wasn't one of those movies where u see the monster like twice in a whole movie. This hydra is a killing machine. No f....g around.In all its all u want from a B - horror.