Sand Serpents (2009) Reviews

• Absurd, but amusing

  MartianOctocretr52009-07-12

  Another SyFy ditty, with suspiciously familiar creatures and plot lines. This one looks like a hybrid mix of Tremors and an assortment of "Marines fight monsters" movies like Aliens. Giant slinkies with vacuum sweeper tendencies look for quick meals in the Afghan desert. While this week's squad of Marine victims fight with Taliban insurgents, the faceless maws of the Sand Serpents sneak up on both. As per usual, characters are knocked off one-by-one, first with the nameless ones with no lines, then eliminating those with a few lines, finally getting to the top-billing folks. It would be easy to dismiss this one, but it actually does have its moments. The characters that survive more then the first 20 minutes or so are actually developed somewhat, and the acting isn't bad at all. There's a child in the cast who does especially well. The special effects appear cheap in places, as if done on a home PC. However, since the premise is so bizarre, the hokey effects fit in a weird way. One character who never shuts up has the exact fate you hope for and know is coming sooner or later (and that finally shuts him up, permanently lol). This one's just for laughs, like the old MST3K flicks.

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• Dune meets Tremors - I didn't suffer while watching, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it.

  brusimm2009-07-12

  Sand Serpents. No one died in this Syfy Original Movie until the 6 minute mark. Impressive. A small combat unit overseas that ends up dealing with giant underground worms or snakes. You're probably thinking what I'm thinking. Dune meets Tremors. Sure, because it's basically just that. The difference is that the writing is much better than the usual Saturday Night Original fare on Syfy and if you have nothing better to do, it passed the time rather well. There are some obvious holes in the skit as they skipped some scenes where special effects could have been used, but we know what happened. Who really needs to see a giant snake blow up anyway? My guess, they were saving money. When the worms feed on Taliban, they kind of reminded me of giant Slinky's with teeth. Overall, 1-10, I'd say a 5, maybe a 6 if you were drinking. The writing was better than most of their Saturday Night Original movies, the effects weren't bad but there were holes in some of the cinematography. Who ever edited the final product may have been the one that created some of the disjointed scenes. The ending for me got lame as I feel there was a much smarter resolution at hand aside from the one that took place. Then again, if he was stupid enough to have taken his course of action aside, then I guess this scene, that was reminiscent of Reign Of Fire, is fine. You'll know what I mean when / if you see it.

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• The Giant Worms Of Afghanistan

  bkoganbing2009-09-03

  Now that Iraq has simmered down, the war news such as it is concerns Afghanistan. Something the government is keeping from the American public are those giant worms that are doing more damage to the Allies, the Taliban, and anything else they take a mind to eat. And as big as they are they've got some huge appetites. Jason Gedrick and a small group of Marines are stranded out in the remote Afghan desert. But it ain't the Taliban that's worrying them, it's these giant refugees from Tremors. In fact the big worms prove to be an ally of sorts by doing better against the Taliban than these clearly outclassed troops are. No reflection to the Marine Corps, but battling these enemies is something not covered in their training. It all gets downright silly at times. But if these things are out there I suggest we let them breed and chow down on the Jihadists. Otherwise I'd pass Sand Serpents right on by.

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• Uneven and silly, but it does have its moments

  TheLittleSongbird2011-07-09

  I was rather dubious of seeing Sand Serpents. The premise seemed hokey but somewhat interesting, but what turned me off was that it was airing on the SyFy channel who to me seem to have a notoriety for showing and making films that range from just tolerable to bottom-of-the-barrel quality. Luckily for Sand Serpents, it is one of the more tolerable efforts to air on the SyFy channel. I wouldn't go as far to say it was good, it's not, but it was entertaining in a way. Apart from the special effects, the production values are a step above what I usually see on SyFy, with better than expected photography and editing and the scenery/settings is somewhat striking. The acting is also much better than anticipated with the two leads quite good, the sound effects are more authentic and incorporated better than they can be and effort is done into developing the characters and making them likable. The scenes with the monsters of the title of the film are entertaining and done with a decent amount of build-up and suspense, again a big improvement, but there could have been more of it. Production-values wise though, what cheapens Sand Serpents are the effects. I've seen much worse, but some of the effects do look fake and crude. The story didn't gel for me either, interesting but also rather hokey. I liked the idea of merging war drama and monsters, but the execution of the idea didn't come off as successful. The scenes with the monsters are some of the better scenes of the film, but the war drama scenes are clichéd and pedestrian in my opinion. The script is often laughable, with dialogue that does come across as unintentionally funny, the music has its moments but can be over-bearing and predictable and the direction while not a complete hack job was rather unimpressive. There is also one very irritating character, but he does get killed off in an ideal way in one of the more fulfilling scenes of the movie, so that didn't harm the film as much. Overall, uneven and silly, but it did have some entertaining moments, so I can't be too overly hard on it. Besides, I could have been watching another Titanic II, 2010:Moby Dick, Dinocroc vs. Supergator, The Apocalypse and Alien vs.Hunter, which was what I was prepared for, in short a movie so bad you contemplate suicide, however while not great by all means it was actually quite tolerable. 5/10 Bethany Cox

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• Surprisingly Well Done - Suspenseful with a Dramatic Conclusion

  mcgregorandrew2013-08-10

  I wasn't expecting much but I found this movie well written with none of the clunky lines that make me wince. There is genuine suspense and some interesting inter-cultural parallels. The CGI and monster logic are not great but the characters are well done. It's not Aliens or Terminator 2 but I'd say it's more memorable than most. I thought the Afgan characters were interesting with thought provoking stuff about what it's like to be in the middle of a civil war. The tension around the "are they on our side or not" was very effective. The US army characters were a bit stereotypical but well written and acted. I really liked the ending but others might find it a bit grim. Thought provoking to me.

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