TheLittleSongbird Review of Mammoth

Mammoth (2006 TV Movie)

Cheesy and ridiculous with a fake-looking mammoth, but is redeemable

[5/10 · 20 August 2012]

For SyFy Mammoth is actually tolerable. The premise was silly in the first place, and I had low expectations but I watched with an open mind with little else constructive to do. It does have problems though, most typical of SyFy and were admittedly on my part expected. There are definitely worse looking creatures in other movies, but the mammoth does look very fake and un-menacing, and the editing does betray this at times. Think a giant vacuum on legs and you have the mammoth here. The script mostly is lazy, any attempts at humour come across as cheesy and unfunny, while the story suffers from predictability and one too many ridiculous scenes like the mammoth soul-sucking with its trunk and it managing to sneak up behind its victims without them hearing it(either it was a logic lapse, a case of character stupidity or both). The characters are mixed, a couple are surprisingly likable if rather clichéd but others verge on annoying and are not developed enough. On the plus side, it does move quickly and doesn't feel dull unlike other SyFy features. The editing is not too hackneyed, despite moments where it all too obviously betrays the cheapness of the effects, and the scenery and lighting have some atmosphere. The score is quirky and haunting, and I did enjoy some of the references and homages, they were fun to spot and didn't feel like rip-offs. The direction is competent enough and the acting is better than average, especially from Summer Glau and Tom Skerritt. Vincent Ventresca also does his best with little. In conclusion, a reasonably fun movie, cheesy, predictable and ridiculous and the mammoth is not convincing enough, but the acting, the fact that it never bored me, the music and the references and homages were enough to enable me to stick with it. 5/10 Bethany Cox