Thanks for checking out our review of Piranha 3D
Genre: Comedy
Directed by: Alexandre Aja
Staring: Steven R. McQueen, Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O’Connell, Jessica Szohr, Kelly Brook, Ving Rhames, Adam Scott, Christopher Lloyd, Richard Dreyfuss
Released: August 20, 2010
THE GENERAL IDEA
Every year the population of sleepy Lake Victoria explodes from 5,000 to 50,000 for Spring Break; a riot of sun and drunken fun. But this year, there’s something more to worry about than hangovers and complaints from local old timers; A new type of terror is about to be cut loose on Lake Victoria. After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area’s new razor-toothed residents.
THE GOOD
While this film is STRIVING to be a bad movie, I have to say it does that well. They knew they were making a B movie, and they dont take themselves too seriously. They cant. And it works. When silly things happen and people dont listen to basic logic (uh… you will die. Ok, lets get out of the water.) then its all forgivable.
And there were two notable actors that I wanted to say did a great job with their parts. Steve R McQueen forgot that this was a B-Movie and really gives it his best. Good for him. On the other hand, Christopher Lloyd was channelling Doc Brown so vividly it gave me chills. He didn’t even try to hide it, and that was fine by me considering the similarity of the characters (crackpot looney scientist type) Everyone else does a good job bringing the laughs, this is a funny movie without tripping over to not-funny spoofing.
There is a ton of gore. And frankly when you sign up to go see a movie about flesh eating piranha who on a good day loves to eat flesh, you can at least expect that. This happens to be a movie about some particularily hungry and violent type of flesh eating flesh eaters.
The pacing is good, the jokes are funny and there is gore and eyecandy.
THE BAD
The effects. The real stars of this movie shouldn’t have been random gratuitous boob shots (but thanks for that) and the list of stars forgotten, or underqualified even for B-movies. The real stars are the Piranha. They could of at least made them look good. The CG is painful when it comes to the scenes of actually seeing the fishies themselves. Wolverine Claws bad.
I almost put this in the Good category but its a nerve with me. 3D is not a gimmick unless you make it one. This film isn’t trying to be serious, so while I want to forgive the 3D gimmick, the intentional “throw something at the screen” routine gets old. Even when its a severed penis. That was vivid.
OVERALL
This falls on a delicate line of “so bad its good” that I just struggle to give it a rating. Its not serious, and they play it not serious. People who say its crap are taking it too seriously when it can’t be. But if intentionally bad pisses you off, this is a bad movie. Its a tough call.
Its a post conversion 3D, which I will add is done well. If I didn’t tell you it was in post, you might not know. This alone gives me a shred of hope that Post might become a valid option if handled right. Forever more, bad post3d will get mocked with the ultimate insult “if Piranha 3D can make it look good, what’s your excuse”
I give Piranha 3D a 5.5 out of 10 for doing so much right in a bad way.
