"Planet Raptor" is a pretty enjoyable and entertaining creature feature.
**SPOILERS**
Receiving an SOS, Marines Captain Mace Carter, (Steven Bauer) Sgt. Jacqueline Moore, (Musetta Vander) Sgt. Pappy Mathis, (Peter Jason) Sgt. Krieger, (Florian Ghimpu) and Volkov, (Christopher Troxler) assisted by scientists Dr. Anna Rogers, (Vanessa Angel) and Dr. Tygon, (Ted Raimi) to investigate the signal on a strange planet, only to find it a deserted wasteland. When they are attacked by a group of ravenous lizards, they try to hold them off while seeking shelter in the area, finding a series of buildings that resemble Earth. Realizing that the creatures are actually Raptors and are trying to get them into their own traps, they try to find a way to get away from the creatures. Getting help from the last remnants of the Alien society still alive after the Raptor attacks, they believe they have a method for getting rid of the creatures and off the planet alive.
The Good News: This was a fairly by-the-numbers Sci-Fi Channel Creature Feature. That means that their isn't too much new stuff here, as it's a fast-paced, action-packed film with a fun sense about it, which is what's on display here. The action here is much better than expected, starting off in the film much earlier than normal and feels rather nice about it. By allowing for the first ten minutes to feature an attack, it starts the film off rolling rather nicely by injecting a top-notch sequence right off-the-bat, namely the attack on the separate members of the rescue squad in the old-time village. Following this is the big attack on the squad's base, which is essentially a shootout amongst the streets with the creatures and their surroundings. This is a lot of fun, with the creature's battle tactics of popping out of everywhere allowing for plenty of excitement, and the squad's all-guns-blazing approach being rather fun as well. Other scenes, such as the first castle attack or the scenes in the underground nest being rather well-done as well. The castle one features some fun battle tactics from the creatures in an attempt to get the upper hand, with the Gothic undertones of the building allowing for an interesting battleground. The cave chases are rather good with the rocky cliffs being useful, casting shadows and allowing for the pop-out as well as the off-screen sounds of them off in the distance, making for a greater and atmospheric encounter than normal. The second castle battle is just as good, with more creatures, better tactics, and the introduction of the laser guns into battle allowing for some really good moments. Also, not surprisingly, the film's at it's best when it shows the raptors as prosthetics rather than CGI. To be able to see a realistic head or claw on-screen gives the film far more realism than it normally does, and those scenes, brief as they are, do give the film a positive air to it. The last plus here is the film's blood and gore. Despite not knocking a whole lot off, the fact remains that there's some really great deaths when they occur. There's a couple that have their heads ripped off, one is savagely bitten in the waist to the point of falling in half, another is grabbed and bitten around the shoulder and another couple are shown to be dismembered and torn up, which isn't including the wounds inflicted on the creatures. Though not too realistic-looking, it still adds to the violence level. These here are the film's pluses.
The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot really wrong with this one. The biggest issue with the film is the simply atrocious and utterly abysmal CGI here for the creature. Once they go on display, the creatures never once look anything close to realistic, mainly due to several issues. The skin color being changed is one, while the use of stock footage is another rather big angle that really makes it hard to take the look of these creatures seriously. Besides them looking incredibly phony, there's also times where they're out-of-scale to the environment. The big scene of this is the attack on the soldier's headquarters, which is just loaded with fake-looking moments. Besides the fact that they're completely out-of-scale through they're overall appearance, the biggest gaffe, through the stock footage, is that there's a shot where, despite being shown as human-sized before, a quick glimpse shows them as being big enough to hold a human in it's mouth and still continue on about another thirty feet in length, despite no other mention of such a creature's size before or after. There's just no way around the fact that it's CGI so terrible as to be so obvious in how fake it was. The only other flaw here is the low body-count for this kind of film. There really should've been more here, as there's way too many survivors and could've used a few more deaths, even to bump up the gore a little more as well. Overall, these here are the film's flaws.
The Final Verdict: Not a whole lot really wrong here beyond the usual for one of these films, so take that as a ringing endorsement or not. Really worthwhile for those that enjoy these Sci-Fi Channel Creature Features or just the lovers of badly-made movies in general, though those who prefer quality cinema should look elsewhere.
Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language
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