The Hive (2008)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely Fantastic

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Following an epidemic in Brazil, a team of specialists investigating the voracious ant colonies discover the creatures are from outer space intending to colonize the planet and launch an attack against the insects to stop their plans.There was some decent stuff to this one when it tried to. One of the best parts here is pretty much the whole first half as there is some really great action scenes which is really fun and enjoyable. It's a fun story to see this kind of struggle going on all pretty much the first half of the film, and it's really fun and entertaining the way it plays out that the beginning has a lot to enjoy about it. This becomes quite fun as the two different sides are engaged in war, which allows for some really fun moments of the military getting the upper hand with the plasma rifles when it wipes out a huge swarm in an intense blue-light, and a later scene when they use it to blast a humongous swarm straight off a fallen victim is a visually-impressive sequence. The very first encounter on the outskirts of the town with the tactics to keep them at bay looks really great, and seeing the retaliation from the ants being really nice as well, including the film's top kill watching one of the peasants get swarmed by the creatures and completely stripped down to bones seconds later. Others, such as the battle in the factory leading to the trap is impressive as there's a fair amount of tension brought up from the gradual realization of the trap, and there's also the scene where they form an offense and attack leading to some really great battles. As well, there's the tense, action-packed finale in the cave, which has a gigantic ant-made-of-ants interacting with them and features a lot of nice action to get the colony under control which gives this some great work and ends it on a high-note. These are all that really work for this one as there wasn't a whole lot really wrong. This is all pretty much in the middle of the film because the film throws in the really lame and quite unnecessary plot-twist by making the ants aliens. This is completely lame and idiotic, as the scenes which showcase this, from the ants in the colony and the repeated attempts at trying to understand them, manages to undo the rather enjoyable war-story-like- battle with the ants. Also, this one has a much lower body count than it should as this one manages to have not even a half a dozen deaths, an incredibly paltry number for a creature feature, and none of the ones in here are even gory. The last flaw here is the really weak CGI, which is typical of these kinds of films that rarely looks anything at all that realistic, and really is quite easy to determine when and where it's used, though it isn't as detrimental as expected. These are the film's few problems as there's a lot more to like here.Rated R: Violence and Language.

The Hive starts as terror sweeps a small Thai island called Ban Tao, millions of killer flesh-eating Ant's are on the march devouring innocent locals & damaging property wherever they go. Some Thai geezer who own's or runs the island or something calls in Thorax Industries lead by company founder Leonard (Kal Weber), together with his crew Leonard uses high-tech laser pulse gun weaponry to rid Ban Tao of it's killer Ant problem but Leonard has never come up against Ant's like these before. These Ant's are smart, they form war like strategies, set traps & even try to communicate with us human beings. Puzzled & unsure of this behaviour Leonard calls in foremost Ant behaviour expert Claire (Elizabeth Healy) & together they make an amazing discovery about the origins of the Ant's intelligence...Directed by Peter Manus I have to say that I am not quite sure what the hell I watched here, The Hive is one of the most totally bizarre & frankly laugh-out-loud ridiculous & unintentionally hilarious Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' piece's of crap I have ever seen. If you think the average film that plays on there is inept & silly then you ain't seen nothing yet, or at least until you have seen The Hive anyway. I can't believe someone wrote this, there's all sorts in here randomly thrown together with little regard for the audience who actually have to watch it. There's flesh-eating Ant's who join together to make a computer which coloured 'impulses' travel down, there's the Ant's being able to 'see' as one, there's a bunch of insect exterminator's who look like a cross between the space mission in Armageddon (1998) with their orange spacesuits & the Ghost Busters (1984) with heir backpack styled laser beam weapons which kill & vapourise Ant's but leaves the surrounding terrain, property & other living creatures totally unharmed & if the ridiculouslessness of that wasn't bad enough there's a terrible sci-fi angle in which it turns out that an alien has been controlling the Ant's all along. Why was it controlling the Ant's? Why no other creatures? What did it want? Just a section of the island? Why? If it was controlling the Ant's anyway why did the Ant's form that 'computer'? Add to that a pointless sub-plot about a guy who gets an Ant stuck in his ear for no apparent reason (he hated Ant's before having one lodged in his ear, hated them while it was there & still hated them when it left so what was the point of that?) & in my opinion nothing in The Hive works, the plot is a mess of ideas & outlandish themes which I couldn't take seriously for a second & spent most of the time picking holes in the script & production values between various bouts of laughter.Right, I don't know much about Ant's & maybe someone will correct me but don't Bees & Wasp's live in hives while Ant's live in Colonies? Well, that's what it says on Wikipedia anyway & I have never heard of an Ant hive before. The pace of the film is quite good, it never slows down but but the end the silliness really got to me & by the time the Ant's took the little girl hostage I was completely out of the story & continued watching for curiosity sake alone. As with most Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Features' the CGI effects are mainly terrible, some are alright like the giant Ant at the end but they never pass those heady heights, most are just plain awful & it's as simple as that. There's not much in the way of gore, there's a few skeletons, a puffed up bleeding face & a corpse inside a spacesuit which you can't see properly.Apparently filmed in Krabi in Thailand this looks surprisingly bland, as I was watching The Hive I thought it could have been shot just about anywhere. The production values are fairly low with poor special effects & terribly dubbed local actor's (the 'we don't negotiate with Ant's' line is hilarious). The US actor's don't do a much better job either & are instantly forgettable.The Hive is yet more 'Creature Feature' crap from the Sci-Fi Channel or whatever production company they brought it off, a terrible story, awful CGI effects & an Ant in someones ear means I am grateful i caught this on cable telly & didn't spend any money on it. One to avoid.

"The Hive" is a TV-movie, made for the sci-fi channel, so the product qualities are not great to begin with, since the budget is limited. That really shows off in the cheap and bad CGI-effects, they won't even fool a blind dog. The story is on the other hand not boring, with little dialogue and enough action. It even starts off promising, but it takes a lot of stupid turns along the way. "We Won"t Negotiate With Ants !", I think that quote says it all. Like in the classic "Starship Troopers" they made their critters "smart", but it doesn't work here and is rather laughable. The totally unknown cast is not bad (not great either), and I watched it 'til the end. So 3 out of 10, could be worse, but do not expect anything really good.

The Thorax team is tasked with exterminating ants that somehow managed to take over an island, but these are no ordinary any, oh no, there's are super-ants with a master plan. Yes, this movie is utterly ridiculous, but it's also extremely watchable and has a very high camp factor. The Sci-fi channel doesn't have the best of track records when it comes to their 'Sci-fi Originals', but thankfully this one stands head and shoulders among the best of those. Turn off your brain, just go with it, and enjoy the film with your choice of alcoholic beverage. The only grip I have is that the ending was a bit of a let-down.My Grade: B