Today’s quick review: Primal. Hunter Frank Walsh (Nicolas Cage) has just made the catch of a lifetime: a rare white jaguar, fresh from the rainforests of Brazil. Now all he has to do to cash in is transport it back to his buyers in Mexico. The only catch is that Frank is sharing a ship with Richard Loffler (Kevin Durand), a psychotic killer being taken back to the U.S. for trial. When Loffler gets loose, the whole ship becomes his hunting ground.
Primal is a survival thriller about an unscrupulous hunter and a deranged murderer trapped on a ship full of dangerous animals. Frank must form an uneasy alliance with a Navy doctor (Famke Janssen), a U.S. Marshal (LaMonica Garrett), and the members of the crew to catch Loffler before he can pick them off one by one. In spite of its perilous premise, Primal’s lackluster characters and dry presentation style make it a less than thrilling watch.
Primal goes through the motions of a certain style of thriller. It has the confined environment, the menacing villain, and the desperate survivors common to other survival movies. It even has a unique angle in Walsh’s hunting background and his menagerie of deadly animals who have gotten loose. But what the movie lacks is passion. Everything from the thrills to the visuals to the character interactions feels like a token effort.
This is most noticeable with Frank Walsh himself. Walsh is meant to be a selfish man who learns to care about others, but the key points of his character development get lost in the shuffle. Nicolas Cage turns in a halfhearted performance that captures Walsh’s abrasive side but not the charm needed to make him worth investing in. The same goes for his nemesis Loffler, who lacks the mystique to make for an effective threat.
Still, Primal hits most of the beats it needs to, and this will be enough for some viewers. Those with an affinity for budget action movies may get some value out of the movie’s setup or the cat-and-mouse game between Loffler and the survivors. But the execution quality leaves plenty to be desired, and Primal finds itself badly outclassed by thrillers that put their premises to better use. Most viewers will want to steer clear.
For a science fiction survival horror movie with better atmosphere, character development, and scares, try Alien. For a tongue-in-cheek action movie with a similar premise, try Snakes on a Plane. For a sci-fi action movie with similar flaws, check out Doom: Annihilation.
4.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.0 for a decent premise made mediocre by its execution.