Director: Marko Mäkilaakso
Year: 2018
Country: Finland/United Kingdom/Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Heading out to the desert, a guy and his brother trying to celebrate a racing championship with the friends stumble upon an abandoned military facility doing research on gigantic killer ants which get loose and terrorize the party forcing them to overcome their bravery and stop the colony from spreading.
Review:
Overall, this one was quite the exciting entry. One of the best elements present here is the old-school style tone and feel present throughout here. This one brings about a great sense of fun and charm which comes through not only in the general setup of the secret government getting loose but also from the idea of the experimental video played to inform them of what's happening which comes straight from that time period. with the type of action usually found in such a film also premiering rather frequently and there's a lot of good to be had with this old-school setup.
That action holds this one up for the most part. The opening attacks set this going on a nice note, while the series of encounters within the facility where they first find the ants has plenty to like. The ants taking out the party offers some great moments of the swarm looking to overcome the different party members there as well as the chases on those who are attempting to flee the scene that provides plenty of swarming over their bodies in addition to the action-packed carnage. Coupled with the stellar action underground in the finale as thy free the captive partygoers and stop the queen ant using all manner of high-energy action confrontations, these here are the film's best aspects overall.
There are a few issues to be had with this one. The biggest problem here is the fact that the tonal changes throughout here becomes quite distracting as the film constantly tries to switch between goofy old-school monster movie and creepy creature feature. As the ants are constantly mentioned to be a devastating threat due to the intelligence of the breed and their ravenous behavior from nearly every source they come across, the film's constantly manner of having the ants giggle, laugh and talk-trash to each other which is inherently goofy and disjointed tone with this one taking on these wildly varying tons so rapidly in a matter of a few minutes.
The other real issue here is the utterly moronic leads that border on the dangerously stupid. The idea of the two releasing the ants from the colony has to take place here, but just simply rushing into an obviously abandoned and dangerous military facility just because of the rush doing so gives them is utterly idiotic. The idea of overlooking so much obvious ploys against their safety they just blindly go into means that there's very little interest or care for the characters here as they continually display such unrealistic rationale and motivations for everything they do or spout off such statements that they end up sounding so stupid as to be questionable functioning adults. Otherwise, there isn't much else really wrong here.
Overview: ***/5
As there's a lot to like here but some rather big flaws also holding this one down, it's not as fun as it could've been but still has enough to make for a wholly enjoyable time. This is mainly recommended for fans of the cheesy old-school creature features or looking to have a fun, enjoyable outing while those without the patience to like that kind of genre should heed caution with this one.
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