Raptor Island (2004)

Best movie of this year hands down!

A Masterpiece!

The acting in this movie is really good.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

What do we have here? The title is pretty attractive… but only if you are dumb, or just eccentric, movie fan… the incredibly bad movie that makes your head hurt like hell.Now, a group of navy seals are following a dangerous terrorist named Azir and the hostage girl that needs rescue. But… this would be just another shallow action/rescue film without dinosaurs… Did I say dinosaurs? Yep, I did. The island, somewhere, somewhere… in the south China Sea… we don't know is it unknown, uncharted, or whatever… a perfect place for action… oh let's add some dinosaur, wait wait… with the bad CGI… and there you have it, a shallow, dumb film with dumb story, bad characters, lousy camera… so, the dinosaurs came out from underground, mating and hatching… and nobody, I mean nobody checked it out… and all other things as well… Lorenzo Lamas is Hacket, a leader of navy seal team. I expected from him a good old martial arts scenes, but no, he did the role because he can act? Well, he is not a very good actor, but if you are taking a low budget martial arts star, better put in some fights in the film, because with this performance, we got just a dumb soldier who commands other soldiers. Steven Bauer? Well, no surprises here, this guy's career has been washed up since 80s, he appeared in too much low budget films, or in too many tiny roles in some better known films… nah… he is washed up… other actors did a silly performances, especially Hristo Shopov (Quinn) . What the hell is wrong with this guy? That was one of the worst performances I have ever seen. He talks in these husky, badass tones that makes you want to laugh until you s**t yourself… We also have Peter Jason here… well, no worries there, he already also did a bunch of low budget films, and he is a good actor, but, this film is one of the lowest in his career.Skip this film, and get yourself some other abomination. Not to mention a sequel called Planet Raptor (2007), which is even worse… hell even Carnosaur trilogy is better than this… Don't waste your time with this.

"Raptor Island" is probably the biggest guilty pleasure I have. It may shock people to know that I gave a negative review to 2007's Best Picture winner "No Country for Old Men", which I described as being dry and uninteresting, and that I am giving an enthusiastic review for "Raptor Island." I don't believe anybody should have to apologize for liking or disliking a movie, but this one makes me question that. I acknowledge, it's not a good movie. As a matter of fact, production-quality-wise, it's a horrible movie. Confession: I still liked the movie. Despite all rational reason and all the shamefully dumb moments, I liked this movie.In "Raptor Island," a team of Navy SEALs led by Lorenzo Lamas rescues an undercover agent (Haley DuMond) from a group of terrorists led by a man named Azir (played by Steven Bauer whom you may vaguely remember as Al Pacino's buddy Manny in "Scarface"). The pursuit leaves them marooned on an island in the South China Sea, which they soon discover is inhabited by, what else, dinosaurs.In terms of its production value, "Raptor Island" is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. Yet, surprisingly enough, despite all rational reasoning, I enjoyed the movie on its own level for what it was. No, I am not a particular fan of its genre and category. I despised other examples such as "Python", "Komodo vs. Cobra", "Boa vs. Python", and most recently "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus." But "Raptor Island" has a sort of silly entertainment value to it and if you can suspend your disbelief (to a great degree) you might be able to enjoy it as I did.What I appreciate in this movie was the acting and the dialogue. Both, given the grade of this movie, were passable. I've seen Lorenzo Lamas be wooden in other movies, but here he did quite a fine job as the Navy SEAL captain. And Hayley DuMond was actually fairly good as the agent whom he rescues. And what I really liked was the chemistry between these two, who inevitably turn into a tag team. Their dialogue does not devolve into the typical mucky dialogue that indicates a possible romance. That never comes around, thank goodness.And what about the special effects? How about the dinosaurs? I've seen better, and a lot worse. The special effects are not special, but they are a lot more convincing than some of the CGI effects I've seen in other movies of this grade such as "Python" or "100 Million BC." There is actually some detail and texture in these CG dinosaurs. But some effects are awful, such as the cheesy lava effects and this scene of the raptors' nest, which looks like it came out of a cheap video game. Bottom line, although they are not worth writing home about, they're decent.Of course, "Raptor Island" is deserving of its notorious reputation for its outlandishly dumb moments and harebrained portrayal of the Navy SEALs. Navy SEALs model their tactics on stealth and sharpshooting, but these guys just charge blindly into a shootout and they could not hit a target if their life depended on it. There's a scene where a SEAL is surprised by raptors who stand no more than ten feet away and he's firing back at them and missing every time. In addition, this island is supposed to be in the South China Sea, but instead of tropical palm trees and fronds, we see maples and elms in a shooting location that is obviously anything but an island.In case you haven't realized it, I have been comparing "Raptor Island" consistently with the other cheap Sci-Fi flicks that I've seen. That might be part of the reason why I actually enjoyed it because I've been searching for a flick that was passable, which this is. But I also liked it because, well, it was harmless, innocent fun. I knew it was going to be cheesy from its opening scene where a plastic model airplane falls from the sky and I enjoyed it for what it was. So, I have no choice but to admit that I liked it on its own level and give it a marginal recommendation.

This movie was horrible. I couldn't stand it. The computer graphics looked like they belonged in a cheap video game and the fight scenes were the worst i had ever seen. The people couldn't shoot worth crap and when they did manage to get some hits on the raptors, the corny blood spat out and there wasn't even an entrance or exit wound. In the scene where Azeer was killed by the three raptors they ate his entire body, bones, organs and all, in about 2.73 seconds. I think that's a record. Also whenever the people would start shooting the raptors the raptors just stood there like nothing was happening until they decided to run away. The acting was bad but the plot was okay. I rate movies half on how much I enjoyed them and how well they were made. I give this a 2/10 and that is the worst i give. Go watch a better dinosaur movie like Jurassic Park or something instead of wasting your time watching this.

When I saw this back in 2004, the night it came out, the commercials looked promising, and I had been waiting for this movie for two weeks.when I saw it, wow, Navy SEALs spraying their weapons, never actually trying to aim, the the raptors would like just stand there, getting shot over and over again.Besides raptors, a t-rex somehow also comes out. In this movie, raptors can eat you in just two bites, destroying your body completely.Despite all this, I actually liked it, and the main villain was actually likable. The SEALs, however, somebody forgot to teach them everything a SEAL is supposed to know.