Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Rage of the Yeti and SyFy's New Crop of Films: A Movie Review

*Spoiler Alert.

Director: David Hewitt.

Writers: Brooks Peck, and Craig Engler.

Cast: David Chokachi, Matthew and Yancy Butler.

SyFy’s The Rage of the Yeti comes close to being abominable if the viewer is expecting more than a tale about monsters on the loose. They can lay waste to skiers and mountain climbers traversing the Himalayas. If this film was a science fiction product, they could easily cause problems for the Rebel Forces on the planet Hoth. At least, to have a bigger budget to create some truly devastating moments and terrible looking monstrosities will be an improvement.

Instead, these creatures are hardly frightening and most of the time, they are lost in the white background while stalking their prey. No one can blame these Yetis for protecting their habitat; but when has there been a film that made a statement about who eats whom, and where humanity stands in the food chain in this frozen wasteland?

Not many. A good horrific tale can be made with The Thing and 30 Days of Night, where the isolation is brought to the forefront to explore. But with Rage of the Yeti, this film is more action-adventure and about the thrill of the hunt, compared to anything else. Jace (Matthew Kevin Anderson) and Jonas (David Chokachi) are two adventure seekers. They are employed by Mills (David Hewitt, "Stargate: Atlantis"), a filthy rich philanthropist interested in an old book located out in the frozen wasteland and in capturing one of these beasts alive. The previous team is stuck up there. They are trapped in a compound with what they believe are “polar bears” encircling them. It’s up to the new pair to save the day as nearly everyone else, predictably, gets picked off.

To be nitpicky about SyFy’s films does get redundant. Instead, a few good points will be mentioned: the Yeti’s origin is explored well enough to satisfy the requirements of this movie. If a full discourse were to be explored, Hewitt would have had more than a dead zone to deal with. Nearly every culture has a giant beast in its folklore. It can range from Big Foot to the Sasquatch, but they are all a subspecies of the same monstrous genome.

At least, some ethnic origins of the Yeti are revealed, like in what they are called by the Chinese. The name “Yuren” makes for some bad jokes, and that can cause this film to lose more than a fair a bit of steam. Part of the reason may be because Hewitt is testing what he can get away with. As an actor, he injects his McKay persona from "Stargate Atlantis" into the role. He’s rather high strung and uppity—technically he is the comic relief.

This movie is very much tongue-in-cheek about the subject of Yeti hunting and survival in the Arctic wasteland. Had the setting been changed to Antarctica, the possibility of survival would have been worse. By the end, the only message this film delivers is in how man is truly the alpha male. With enough smart-ass innovative ideas, even man can defeat the Abominable Snowman on his own turf.

Had this movie been about the new Thing, man would stand no chance.

Overall: 5 out of 10.

Rage of the Yeti at SyFy:

Rage of the Yeti Trailer at SyFy

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