Starring Guo Xiwen, Chen Linsheng, Thomas Fiquet and Li Guangbin. Written by Shi Chao. Directed by Fugui. Produced by Zhang Jun.

Luo Han (Linsheng), an alcoholic former biologist, leads an expedition to crocodile-infested Hell Island to help a rich businesswoman (Xiwen) search for her missing brother, but it ain’t gonna be easy because there’s a mega croc on the loose.

There’s nothing new here, but I gave the film a watch anyway, as I’m a sucker for exploring-a-monster-infested-island-type adventure movies.

Mainland Chinese killer critter films are rarely content to feature just the one monster, and MEGA CROCODILE is no exception, giving us the extra bonus of seeing leeches, deadly plants, elephant bugs and regular-sized crocs too. The large man-eating plants, referred to as rafflesia flowers, are a fun diversion: you can’t go wrong with fiendish flora, right? The leeches that drop from a cave roof could have provided us with a fun, repugnant scene, but the little, pink CGI leeches are unrealistic and not at all gross. The normal (but very aggressive) CGI crocodiles are shabby-looking whenever they’re on-screen, but the ‘elephant bugs’ did have real potential. These beetles hide in the clothing of an infected female scientist and (so Luo Han claims) are capable of imitating human speech, which is how they were able to make the semi-comatose scientist sound like she was repeatedly calling for “help”, to attract more victims to the bugs. This is a compelling concept, but it is not explored. The beetles are immediately fragged with a grenade and that’s it for them. The main monster, the titular mega crocodile, suffers from substandard CGI effects, just like the rest of the critters.

Story-wise, there’s a lot of elements used in other, similar killer critter flicks… Secret underground experimental lab? Check. A hero with a drinking problem? Check. Dumb, trigger-happy, canon-fodder merc-types? Check. A funny, buffoonish secondary character? Check. There’s also a plot ‘twist’ concerning one of the ragged survivors, who is revealed to be a devious expert from the lab who wants to get his hands on the experimental data, which also happens in DEEP SEA MUTANT SNAKE (2022).

Lapses in logic and plot holes abound: where did all the regular crocs disappear to in the latter part of the film? Where is the poisonous smog that Luo Han keeps talking about? The secret lab only experimented on crocodiles, so what explains the existence of the other lethal plants and creatures? Viewers will probably find themselves not particularly concerned by these questions, because by the end of the movie they will have already forgotten they’d watched it.

But… the film does include monster plants, right? And I love killer flora flicks, so I guess I have to give the film kudos for including those toothsome rafflesia flowers!