Robocroc is one of those movies where you shouldn't expect too much from and had potential to be enjoyably daft. It has a great title, the scenery is quite nice(although the zoo doesn't really look much like one) and there are three quite good performances from Corin Nemec, Dee Wallace and Steven Hartley. Nemec has a lot of fun with his role and avoids becoming too much of a Steve Irwin clone, Wallace has a character that's ruthlessly evil and she relishes it and Hartley is wonderfully grizzled. Elsewhere in Robocroc, the movie, even when judging it for what it is, came across as rather messy from a personal perspective. The production values are a little drab- though there are much cheaper low-budget movies elsewhere- and the crocodile, who doesn't have much personality, looks more silly than menacing. The writing came across as cheesy and daft and not in a good way, I found myself either cringing in its banality, laughing out loud at how stupid some of it is and rolling your eyes at the cheesy tone it adopts. Some may find it enjoyably daft and light-hearted- and they're entitled to- and others won't, that's what opinions are for. The characters are not much more than underdeveloped clichés and despite the efforts of a few members of the cast are not easy at all to root for. And excepting Nemec, Wallace and Hartley the acting is not good at all, often of the dull-as-dishwater type and there is not much awareness of the situation or proper emotion. The story is the biggest problem, as said already it did judging from the title have potential to be daft in an enjoyable way. For this viewer though it was too dull to even be that. There is a severe lack of suspense. The premise is not much different from other "monster" SyFy movies and Robocroc doesn't do anything new with the formula at all, in fact it's all very predictable and at times confusingly structured as well. The pacing lacks momentum and the exposition scenes suffer from that and that they's rather talky and at times not always on-point. And sadly, the killings and the scenes with the crocodile, who isn't even introduced until half an hour in, are little better. The killings are not in the least bit suspenseful or fun- not helped by that they're not really shown- and the silliness becomes too much to really digest, very Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus-like. To conclude, Robocroc has a great title but apart from that, the scenery and three good performances it's pretty messy. SyFy have done far worse but that's not much consolation. 4/10 Bethany Cox
