I'm not even sure why I was drawn to "Wyvern." I stumbled across it online and something just made me want to watch it. I expected it to be a typical kind of low budget creature feature of no great importance or even quality - and it surprised me. It held my attention throughout, it featured better than passable performances and had a collection of interesting characters who I actually found myself caring about. And, although it has its moments of gore, it didn't depend on blood to make it work. It had a decent story behind it.
It's set in Alaska, and obviously is trying to capitalize on the fears about the consequences of global warming and especially the melting of the polar ice caps. On the outskirts of a small Alaskan town called Beaver Mills, a glacier is melting, and as it does it finally unleashes a terrifying creature that had been frozen within - a flying reptile with a definite taste for human blood that also seems to have a fair degree of intelligence as it hunts down its prey. Meanwhile as the residents of Beaver Mills start to encounter the creature (and as some start to disappear) the townsfolk are skeptical, dismissing the stories they're hearing as mere legend at best - or, even more likely, the result of people going a little bit stir crazy - because, you see, the story is set in the middle of the Alaskan summer when the sun is out and shining 24 hours a day, making sleep difficult and causing people to get a bit off balance. Although Jake and Claire (Nick Chinlund and. Erin Karpluk) are the primary heroic figures in this, I appreciated that while some of the characters were a bit quirky, none were there simply for comic relief. All the characters had a certain heroic feel to them as they banded together to fight this beast, and, in the end, Jake has to overcome some personal demons relating to the tragic death of his brother as the movie comes to its close.
After watching it I did a bit of research and discovered (a bit to my surprise) that the wyvern really is a figure out of Norse mythology, which made me appreciate this a little bit more. The creature was actually fairly well done and overall this movie was better than a lot of similar movies you might find. Very well done; very enjoyable. 6/10.
It's set in Alaska, and obviously is trying to capitalize on the fears about the consequences of global warming and especially the melting of the polar ice caps. On the outskirts of a small Alaskan town called Beaver Mills, a glacier is melting, and as it does it finally unleashes a terrifying creature that had been frozen within - a flying reptile with a definite taste for human blood that also seems to have a fair degree of intelligence as it hunts down its prey. Meanwhile as the residents of Beaver Mills start to encounter the creature (and as some start to disappear) the townsfolk are skeptical, dismissing the stories they're hearing as mere legend at best - or, even more likely, the result of people going a little bit stir crazy - because, you see, the story is set in the middle of the Alaskan summer when the sun is out and shining 24 hours a day, making sleep difficult and causing people to get a bit off balance. Although Jake and Claire (Nick Chinlund and. Erin Karpluk) are the primary heroic figures in this, I appreciated that while some of the characters were a bit quirky, none were there simply for comic relief. All the characters had a certain heroic feel to them as they banded together to fight this beast, and, in the end, Jake has to overcome some personal demons relating to the tragic death of his brother as the movie comes to its close.
After watching it I did a bit of research and discovered (a bit to my surprise) that the wyvern really is a figure out of Norse mythology, which made me appreciate this a little bit more. The creature was actually fairly well done and overall this movie was better than a lot of similar movies you might find. Very well done; very enjoyable. 6/10.