Reptisaurus (3½ Stars)

This is another low budget monster feature from Christopher Ray, made in 2009. I don't consider that it's up to the quality of "Megaconda", but let's not be too hard on him. This was the first film that he directed. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Five young people are shipwrecked on a small uninhabited island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. A giant flying lizard is eating intruders. Two American soldiers have been sent to kill it, and the civilians just get in the way.

The soldiers are supposedly highly qualified, but it doesn't show. They fire their automatic assault rifles endlessly at the Reptisaurus without effect, but they don't learn from it. They just don't have the intelligence to realise that their guns don't work. Halfway through the film they meet a scientist who's been hiding out on the island for the last three months. She tells them that it's an artificially created bat-snake hybrid with hard skin that can't be penetrated by bullets. Do they learn from her? No. The next time they see it they shoot like mad all over again, ratta-ratta-ratta, having learnt nothing from experience or scientific advice.

It's a fast-moving action film, but it's spoilt by the poor acting of the female cast. I know it's difficult to look scared when you're staring at empty air, because the monster will be added later with the magic of computers, but it's something you have to do today. One of the strengths of Christopher Ray's films is the high picture quality, but in 2009 he hadn't yet learnt his craft. The indoor scenes are murky, and sometimes the lighting changes when the camera angle is switched.

It's a fun film, but I can't imagine I'll watch it again. It's not available on disc, but you can watch it on Amazon Prime.