My film watch on 25 March 2022 was the fun monster-themed B-movie Terrordactyl (subsequently retitled Jurassic Wars).
Directed by Don Bitters III (who also wrote its screenplay) and Geoff Reisner, and released in 2016 by 4Digital Media, Terrordactyl is a great comedy creature feature in which a shower of meteors landing over Los Angeles turn out to be – wouldn't you just know it? – a mass landing of pterodactyl eggs, because it turns out that these flying reptiles didn't die out 65 million years ago at all.
Instead, when the asteroid hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, the pterosaurs escaped into Outer Space, where they've been circling around ever since, waiting for their chance to return and reclaim their world, and now they have. In other words, a crazy plot that is every bit as off the planet as the pterodactyls have been!
Happily, two bold gardener buddies Lars (Christopher Jennings, who is also one of this movie's several executive producers) and Jonas (Jason Tobias), plus gun-wise waitress Candice (Candice Nunes), assisted by booze-sozzled ex-marine Sampson (Jack E. Curenton) and (briefly!) Candice's sultry room-mate Valerie (Bianca Haas), are there to save the day – which is just as well, as otherwise LA seems to be entirely deserted!
Amusingly, Jonas actually remarks upon this truly bizarre anomaly, to which Candice replies that it's because everyone else are all in hiding. Far more likely, at least imho, is that most of the movie's budget was spent (albeit profitably) upon its very effective, imposing CGI pterodactyls, so that there was not enough left to hire secondary actors!
All of the characters that are present, however, are very likeable, especially long-suffering Lars, who has to put up with all manner of annoyances, including his beloved truck being destroyed by one of the pterodactyls landing upon it, and then being abducted by another one to serve as live food for when their youngsters hatch. Happily, lucky Lars is able to avoid this hideous fate (unlike another abductee, the decidedly luckless and soon to be definitely lifeless Johnny…), and thereby lives to fight another day, and a fair few additional pterodactyls.
Chief (in every sense) among the latter is the ginormous queen pterodactyl. Yes indeed, within the wacky world that is Terrordactyl it turns out that these flying reptiles are eusocial, with the (relatively) smaller males caring for the eggs laid by a single colossal female. All totally inane and insane, but very funny and exceedingly enjoyable throughout!
For what is basically a relatively low-entry creature feature, the CGI pterodactyls of Terrordactyl, created by Los Angeles-based 3rd Films, specializing in spectacular visual effects (click here to view some show reels), are unequivocally impressive (apparently, no puppet or animatronic, physical ones were used, despite what various reviews elsewhere have claimed). Indeed, they readily transform what might otherwise have been a humorous but bog-standard, undistinguished B-movie into a genuinely engrossing, compelling feature.
In short, I can definitely recommend Terrordactyl to anyone who enjoys monster movies and has enough willpower to suspend all disbelief regarding its zany, preposterous premise!
If you'd like to view an official Terrordactyl trailer and thus take wing upon a brief but truly hilarious flight of fancy (in every sense!), be sure to click here in order to watch one on YouTube.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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