The Movie: The Primevals
The Director: David Allen
The Cast: Juliet Mills, Leon Russom, Richard Joseph Paul, Walker Brandt
The Story: When a group of explorers go in search of a yeti, they find themselves taken captive by an ancient race of alien creatures.
The Rating: 8 / 10
The Review:
Okay, so you're familiar with Ray Harryhausen, right? If not, just know that he pioneered the use of stop motion animation in movies like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts. David Allen, who worked on this film for decades before his passing in 1999, was also immensely skilled in this art form along with other forms of cinematic special effects. You could say this movie is sort of an homage to the work that Harryhausen put in over his decades long career in cinema.
For Allen, It took over 30 years to get this passion project off the ground in the mid to late 90's, but it wasn't until 2018 when the fine folks at Full Moon Entertainment realized they still had the property literally sitting on shelves and decided to see it through to completion. Fast forward to now and the film is finally seeing the light of day and, while I don't think I can say it was worth the wait considering how long it took from start to finish, but I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the film's 90 minute run time.
Yes, it's super cheesy by today's standards and that's also part of its charm. The bad acting, the extremely outdated special effects, and the throwback story of monsters and aliens takes me back to the days of watching Land of the Lost and Flash Gordon and Clash of the Titans. I actually really enjoyed the simplicity of the story and the sense of wonder that was on display as the heroes of the story went deeper and deeper into danger and adventure. When the movie you're watching has a retired safari hunter named Rondo Montana, you know things are about to get real.
While I happily sat in the theater with my bag of popcorn and a large soda, this movie gave me such a feeling of joyful nostalgia that I kinda wished I had a big bowl of cereal to munch on while watching this magical story unfold. This would be the perfect movie to have playing on a Saturay afternoon while sitting on the carpet in the middle of the living room and emptying a box of Lucky Charms or Cocoa Puffs. Yes, the nostalgia factor is the number one thing this movie has going for it but you know what. Sometimes that's all you really need to have a great time watching a movie.
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