Reptilicus

Poster tagline: INVINCIBLE! INDESTRUCTIBLE! SEE: A MIGHTY CITY TRAMPLED TO DESTRUCTION! SEE: MISSILES AND ATOM BOMBS POWERLESS! SEE: CIVILIZATION RIOTING WITH FEAR! The Japanese have their Godzilla monster-horror movies, Hollywood also has them and the British have tried them with success, so why not the Danes? But as they say, two people might do the same thing, but the result it’s not always the same. Everyone failed here, from the FX artists to the screenwriters and the second rate Danish actors, who, with deadpan performances, recite their lines mechanically like robots (with cringeworthy English), the only one at least a little alive is the actor playing the general, who on the other hand, is hysterically overacting. The FX artists failed, and I have to say that the botched model of the monster was the least of the transgressions. During the final demolition of Copenhagen, there is absolutely no interaction with the already crappy paper models of the buildings, so most of the time the rubber snake rubs its head on them, like a dog on its owner's leg, and spits green saliva in post-production, which doesn't go anywhere and looks like a marker line; and pyrotechnic effects? You can only dream about them. The inhabitants of Copenhagen, i.e. the extras, are running around in a "panic", and if you look closely you can see how they are laughing, I guess the shooting was a lot of fun. The first hour stretches out the time as much as possible, so there is a ten-minute tourist trip through the attractions of Copenhagen, spiced up with a live jazz song (nothing against it, it was ironically one of the few bright moments). And so the only thing that snapped me out of my lethargy was the disruption of the necessary genre cliché with typical characters: the professor with his beautiful daughter and the young scientist with whom the young lady falls in love, but in this case the professor has two daughters. Well, the Danes are original after all :o) (04.03.2013)

Reptilicus is a classic product of its time. An attempt by each country to have its own monster that tries to destroy its capital city. Reptilicus doesn't excel in special effects or story; it's more of a curiosity. It's also notable as the first and so far only monster horror film ever made in Denmark. (13.04.2014)

Reptilicus is a Danish take on the monster genre in which a giant lizard, spewing green slime, threatens Copenhagen. A big-budget, seriously intended commercial flick with a cookie-cutter screenplay and formulaic characters that are well cast by type. Forget the potential European distinctiveness of the material’s concept; everything here looks like something out of Hollywood – the military presence, the crowd scenes, the bascule bridge, the two pretty blondes. There is even an underwater attack on the monster. But the problem lies in the movie’s extraordinarily poor visual effects, which are mind-numbingly bad in some scenes (the aforementioned spewing of green slime, a man caught in the monster’s jaws). American sci-fi movies from the 1950s had better technical production values. And those archival shots of sinking ships, which aren’t supposed to be archival but victims of Reptilicus…ugh! (04.08.2005)