Living in a remote Thai village, the discovery of a giant egg in the nearby lake signals the start of a monstrous creature running through the community looking to recapture the egg, but when an even bigger monster appears in the community must unravel the truth about its existence to stop it.
Overall, there's quite a lot to like about this one. Among the stronger elements is a generally fun setup that mixes together several impressive elements into a strong old-school monster-on-the-loose fable set in the modern day. The initial idea of the creature appearing in the village and setting out on a path of revenge after a villager innocently takes its egg away is fine enough as it gets us to the expected monster carnage with a modicum of foresight required to believe it since real creatures would be that protective over their young. This realism-minded setup is matched by the secondary human storyline involving the scientists arriving and trying to study the burgeoning conditions around the lake before the creature shows up as their mission was to figure out why the area was so unusual beforehand it all makes sense as to why the creature is there attacking everyone. The ensuing intervention from the local police and other armed forces is at first seen as a logical means of protecting the citizens That manages to set the stage for the film to feature a slew of impressive creature action. Making good use of the creature's size advantage over normal citizens, the initial sequences including the opening attack on the villagers at the lake or the later chase of the brother and sister through the local rice paddies offer a lot to like by ending up featuring high-energy action as it's lightning-fast agility and physical weaponry are put to use in large-scale ambushes to wipe out and attack others. The confrontation with the police where they manage to capture it in the city streets is equally fun with a decidedly fun twist coming into play keeping them from killing it while a later sequence involving the massive mother arriving and stalking a couple inside a stranded car as it looks for it's missing egg being transported inside is a truly chilling and suspenseful action scene. This becomes the starting point for this one to turn into a solid kaiju-style offering in the final half. While the audience has been aware all along of the existence of the massive mother, the characters' blissful ignorance when dealing with the escaped human-sized creature is understandable due to their encounters thus far. Since the smaller creature was the one out and about rampaging in the community and the mother's off-screen presence after leaving no witnesses, the discovery of the mother's existence all along turns into a rather fun city attack sequence. Filled with rushing crowds, multiple encounters with citizens fleeing the area, a rather ingenious plan to stop it that plays off what's been established in the film's lore and a series of great effects work to showcase the monster interacting with humanity, there's quite a lot to like with this one. There are a few issues with this one that hold it down. One of the main drawbacks is a curious decision to remove several potentially intriguing sequences with the creature attacking major parts of the city and reserving them as flashbacks. Rather than get to see the creature rampaging at a playground or a construction site, they're instead portrayed as the inspector arrives at the aftermath with inserts used to depict what initially happened. Since they're back-to-back sequences in the film placed only minutes apart from each other, the decision to feature them in this manner is confusing more than anything. The other issue here is the confusing epitaph that finishes this one with some bizarre action and a highly unnecessary coda about the true monstrous persona in humanity that has no real build-up and feels quite bizarre to be added onto this story when it had a more logical endpoint much earlier. These factors all manage to give it a few flaws to hold it back.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.
Overall, there's quite a lot to like about this one. Among the stronger elements is a generally fun setup that mixes together several impressive elements into a strong old-school monster-on-the-loose fable set in the modern day. The initial idea of the creature appearing in the village and setting out on a path of revenge after a villager innocently takes its egg away is fine enough as it gets us to the expected monster carnage with a modicum of foresight required to believe it since real creatures would be that protective over their young. This realism-minded setup is matched by the secondary human storyline involving the scientists arriving and trying to study the burgeoning conditions around the lake before the creature shows up as their mission was to figure out why the area was so unusual beforehand it all makes sense as to why the creature is there attacking everyone. The ensuing intervention from the local police and other armed forces is at first seen as a logical means of protecting the citizens That manages to set the stage for the film to feature a slew of impressive creature action. Making good use of the creature's size advantage over normal citizens, the initial sequences including the opening attack on the villagers at the lake or the later chase of the brother and sister through the local rice paddies offer a lot to like by ending up featuring high-energy action as it's lightning-fast agility and physical weaponry are put to use in large-scale ambushes to wipe out and attack others. The confrontation with the police where they manage to capture it in the city streets is equally fun with a decidedly fun twist coming into play keeping them from killing it while a later sequence involving the massive mother arriving and stalking a couple inside a stranded car as it looks for it's missing egg being transported inside is a truly chilling and suspenseful action scene. This becomes the starting point for this one to turn into a solid kaiju-style offering in the final half. While the audience has been aware all along of the existence of the massive mother, the characters' blissful ignorance when dealing with the escaped human-sized creature is understandable due to their encounters thus far. Since the smaller creature was the one out and about rampaging in the community and the mother's off-screen presence after leaving no witnesses, the discovery of the mother's existence all along turns into a rather fun city attack sequence. Filled with rushing crowds, multiple encounters with citizens fleeing the area, a rather ingenious plan to stop it that plays off what's been established in the film's lore and a series of great effects work to showcase the monster interacting with humanity, there's quite a lot to like with this one. There are a few issues with this one that hold it down. One of the main drawbacks is a curious decision to remove several potentially intriguing sequences with the creature attacking major parts of the city and reserving them as flashbacks. Rather than get to see the creature rampaging at a playground or a construction site, they're instead portrayed as the inspector arrives at the aftermath with inserts used to depict what initially happened. Since they're back-to-back sequences in the film placed only minutes apart from each other, the decision to feature them in this manner is confusing more than anything. The other issue here is the confusing epitaph that finishes this one with some bizarre action and a highly unnecessary coda about the true monstrous persona in humanity that has no real build-up and feels quite bizarre to be added onto this story when it had a more logical endpoint much earlier. These factors all manage to give it a few flaws to hold it back.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.