Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep (2006)

best movie i've ever seen.

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Fantastic

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I've never read JAWS by Peter Benchley but have of course seen the movie andJAWS is considered to be one of the few films that improves greatly onthe book . Much of this I'm told is to do with a large number of subplots being jettisoned in the adaptation , leaving only the main plot of a man eating shark and of the protagonists mission to kill it . One can't help thinking the producers of this movie should have done something similar The major problem is that much of the running time is taken up with a bunch of bad guys wanting to get their hands on a very expensive Greek opal . In many ways the story resembles another Benchley story THE DEEP which might not be a problem as such but when you've got a film called KRAKEN:TENTACLES OF THE DEEP then a prospective audience is expecting a giant squid to be the focus of the story rather than humans . The producers seem aware of this shoehorning a squid attack just to remind the audience there's a squid central to the plot when in fact it's the producers themselves who obviously need reminding As it's produced by Nu Image Films the production values are rather poor with the squid being a rather obvious CGI creation . Like nearly every film featuring a giant squid it makes a roaring sound ( Squids are mute ) and can grab people off the decks of ships ( Considered impossible by leading scientists ) and of course when someone gets devoured underwater there's a big bubble of blood rising to the surface . Not only that but biologists are all in their early twenties , have blonde hair and walk around in bikini tops thereby exposing their admirable mammary glands . One can't help thinking Nu Image Films and The Sci-Fi channel are in cahoots to get more guys to sign up to university science classes . I doubt however if anyone who worked on this film would be able to spell the word science

Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep is set in a stretch of Ocean called the Desolation Passage where marine archaeologist Nicole (Victoria Pratt) & her crew are searching for a couple of legendary Greek artifacts, a ceremonial Trojan war mask & a hugely valuable Opal. Unfortunately Nicole & her crew are hampered by a few unforeseen problems, first off is Maxwell Odemus (Jack Scalia) the son of a Greek mafia gangster who wants the two relics returned to Greece by any means necessary & there's also the small fact that a gigantic squid is guarding the precious bounty & basically kills anyone who goes near it. Can Nicole beat the odds, find the treasure & become famous or will she & her crew end up as squid food?Directed by Tibor Takacs this is yet another by-the-numbers Nu Image produced creature feature the likes of which I'm sick of. The script by Sean Keller & Brian D. Young has all the usual clichés & plot devices these creature features do, there's the beautiful female scientist, a rugged male hero type, there's the disposable character's who are included for no other reason other than to be killed & of course there's the assortment of bad guys who want something valuable that some mutated badly CGI animated creature of some sort is either guarding or is just generally in the way of. There really isn't anything original, fresh or new about Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep at all & quite frankly it's a bit of a chore to sit through, there are already loads of these bad killer creature feature type films out there & this doesn't do the sub genre's reputation any favours. I sat there thinking I'd already this dozens of times before & I'm right, scientists look for something, get attacked by monster, hero kills monster & saves girl at the end, that's all there is too it. The character's are bland & forgettable as is the dialogue, the giant squid isn't in it nearly enough & doesn't do anything particularly special when it does make an appearance. It's all very predictable & isn't even unintentionally funny, if you really like these creature features, someone out there has to or they wouldn't keep making them, then you'll probably enjoy Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep to some extent but for those of us who are really bored of this type of film I urge you to steer well clear of it.Director Takacs was once a decent genre filmmaker with titles like The Gate (1987) & I, Madman (1989) but he seems to have gone down the creature feature route with dreck like this, Rats (2003), Mansquito (2005), Ice Spiders (2007) & his latest epic MegaSnake (2007)! This made-for-TV film is quite well made, the giant squid CGI computer effects aren't as bad as I had expected although that's not to say they are good. The version I saw was titled Deadly Waters which is what it was shot under, apparently the Sci-Fi Channel's website held a competition for fans to come up with a better title & I guess Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep won which I suppose is why the word 'Kraken' is never used in the film itself. Forget about any gore, there's a severed leg, some blood & a cool decapitation by fishing line but nothing else that graphic or worth mentioning. I'm also sorry to inform you that there is no nudity at all.The supposed budget of about $2,100,000 doesn't sound too bad actually so it's a surprise that overall the film is rather flat, bland & forgettable. The acting isn't great from nobody worth mentioning.Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep is another creature feature that is virtually indistinguishable from any other, catch it on the Sci-Fi Channel for sure but don't go wasting your money on it.

I have to say that the script actually saves this creature feature. Aside from the lousy CGI, the character development and witty banter actually make me empathize with the characters. The draft writers should really be moving on to more emotionally engrossing projects. Maybe give them a run on Stargate or Battlestar Galactica? We all should understand how SciFi movies work. They really hamper the creative talent. I know from inside sources that Larva, written by an Emmy nominated scribe, had its budget slashed 3,000%. What the dilly yo SciFi? If we genre fans are willing to shell out $500 for the latest Superman bust (well worth it, teehee), then surely you can spend the big bucks on our flicks. At the very least, you can take a chance on some fine young writing talent.Just my two cents. Live long and proser,Jim

"Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep" is an all-right creature feature.**SPOILERS**Off the coast of, a diving crew, Nicole, (Victoria Pratt) Jenny, (Kristi Angus) and Michael, (Cory Montkeith) find a collection of sunken ships from throughout different time periods sunk in the area. Ray, (Charlie O'Connell) hears this and offers his help. After going on a dive, they are attacked by a giant squid, and barely make it back. Maxwell Odemus, (Jack Scalia) an old rival of Nicole's, arrives and offers a reluctant Nicole a proposition about the creature. After finding the true nature of the treasure found earlier, the two teams race to find it before being killed by the protective squid.The Good News: As far as giant squid movies go, this one wasn't all that bad. The best aspect is that it decides not to spend all the time on the creature and instead weaves into the lives of others, rather than just being stuck over a single night of carnage. It takes place over a couple days, and that's a rare sight for a film like this. It was also a pretty nice idea to not make it just a biological mutation and was instead just a regular creature. That makes for a far more believable monster. The underwater action is all great, combining to make some great moments. The first attack near the wreck is pretty suspenseful, as it's hard to really get a sense of what's going on in the scene and there's an air that something isn't quite right. It's one of the few scenes around that features a similar idea that's successfully executed right, making the suspense out of what is on-screen through the elements presented. The second dive does the suspense to a much lesser degree, but it makes up for it with the addition of a couple kills and some gore to the mix that is a little welcome. The few non-dragging deaths in here was also nice, but it's only too bad that it hardly ever happened.The Bad News: Frankly, this one suffers from one nagging problem that all similar films suffer from; the use of bad, cheap, phony looking CGI to render the monster. It looks very bad, hardly ever meshes with the actors on the screen, and doesn't really gel with the general rest of the film. It even changes sizes a couple times, making it less of threat. It really should be stopped. The only other really big gripe with the film is that it has a majority of deaths that just involve pulling someone under the water. Most of the kills are done that way, and it really didn't do a lot to establish a general feel for the creature. a couple of different methods would've made it a little more of a frightening creature. There's still a couple of other little moments in here that didn't work or were examples of the usual disregard for logic, plot, continuity or whatever else the Sci-Fi Channel's originals are consistently missing, which are in abundance here as well.The Final Verdict: It's a pretty decent film, but there's still some decent work in there along the way. The biggest thing is that the killer in the film isn't all that threatening, which can really destroy many films. Had that been fixed, it would've been an alright film at best.Rated : Violence and some language