REVIEW: Anaconda By Luke Buckmaster (bucky@alphalink.com.au)
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 2 and a half stars
For the Hollywood industry, a giant snake really isn't that big a deal. We've already been treated to rampaging dinosaurs, vicious lions, hungry sharks and even human devouring aliens - so a snake, or "anaconda", doesn't seem that appealing amongst the crowd of successful thriller vehicles. But people love to be scared; the fear industry is profitable as movie goers constantly flock to the cinema in the hope of being scared witless.
Anaconda does in many ways complete all that it sets out to do; it has an eerie and sinister approach and has the same sort of tension, and corniness, that Jaws and many others have been infamous for. However this alone is not even close to adequate for the dismal plot to got unnoticed, leaving a lot to be desired even in this type of film.
The Anaconda heroes and villains are all together trapped inside a Jaws-like boat, which leaves no room for decent character development, or more to point, it shows none. The entire film is not protective of its main characters nearly as much as it should be - many die but nobody really cares because we all came to see the snakes anyway, which are quite obviously the stars of the movie.
Aside from all of this, I must admit that I did enjoy watching most of Anaconda. Amongst all the disappointing acting and horrific animation of the water bound beasts, this film is surprisingly appealing due to the sheer innocence and almost kiddish style in which it's portrayed. Anaconda follows in the footsteps of just about every scary film created, bringing the true essence of fear and suspense to the silver screen the traditional and effective way. I guess the only difference is after walking away from Jaws you feared the water and creatures within it, but after seeing Anaconda I sneered at the thought of a 3 metre computer-generate piece of fluff ever existing. But that just makes it all the more fun.
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