Main cast: Nicolas Cage (Frank Walsh), Famke Janssen (Dr Ellen Taylor), Kevin Durand (Richard Loffler), Jeremy Nazario (Rafael), LaMonica Garrett (John Ringer), and Michael Imperioli (Paul Freed)
Director: Nicholas Powell
Well, Primal is exactly what it says on the box: it’s all about people being trapped on a ship with dangerous creatures as well as human beings on the loose.
On one side, we have poacher Frank Walsh, whose latest acquisition is a fabled man-eating albino jaguar that has been terrorizing some villagers in Brazil. He has the jaguar, along with his other catches including two rare venomous snakes, all boarded up on a ship back to America.
Also on the ship is a team of US Marshals escorting assassin Richard Loffler back in order for Loffler to be trialed for the murder of some US government big shot. Since Loffler has epilepsy, along with these guys are neurologist Dr Ellen Taylor.
Naturally, Loffler soon breaks free, releases Walsh’s dangerous animals, and then starts to hunt the rest of the crew. The US Marshals are predictably incompetent yet arrogant buffoons, so in the end, it’s up to the amoral, selfish Walsh to save the day.
Yes, this movie is in many ways politically incorrect enough to send PITA into a horrified stupor, but hey, who cares about those people. It isn’t anything groundbreaking, as folks that have seen enough “folks in a closed space, looking out for monsters on the loose and hoping not get killed” movies will spot the tropes here very easily.
Nicolas Cage is channeling full-blown Michael Moriarty here, from his characters’ tics, often exaggerated delivery of lines, and of course the manic facial expressions that are often hilariously inappropriate for a scene, and by this point, it has become a charming kind of fixture of Mr Cage’s movies. He’s certainly in his element here, playing the unkempt and unlikely hero that somehow get things done when he’s not the most capable fighter of the lot.
Kevin Durand is born to play roles like Loffler, and he’s not bucking typecast here, but sadly, he’s not in the movie enough to let Loffler make much of an impression. That character is a bad guy that just sort of shows up now and then when the rest of the idiots have to catch their breath in between fighting with one another or making stupid decisions.
The rest of the cast, include Famke Jenssen, don’t have much to do as for the most part they are just idiot body count fodder or, in the case of Ms Jenssen, characters stuck in a room unable to do much of anything for the most of the movie. This is Mr Cage’s movie to make or break, and for the most part, he’s pretty good in carrying it alone in his shoulders.
What lets this movie down considerably, however, is the lack of fun kill scenes. Most of the kills are standard eating-a-bullet ones, and the ones involving animals are discreetly shot with none of the actual gore shown. Because this movie is marketed to highlight dangerous animals on the loose, I suspect quite a number of folks that watch this movie for that may end up feeling disappointed and even cheated.
Anyway, this movie is what it wants to be, but the fact that it under-delivers on some of the things it promise viewers prevents it from being a real bite.
