Primal, 2019.
Directed by Nick Powell.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Famke Janssen, Kevin Durand, LaMonica Garrett, and Michael Imperioli.
SYNOPSIS:
A big-game hunter for zoos has booked passage on a Greek shipping freighter with a fresh haul of exotic and deadly animals from the Amazon, including a rare white Jaguar – along with a political assassin being extradited to the U.S in secret. Two days into the journey, the assassin escapes and releases the captive animals, throwing the ship into chaos.
As Nicolas Cage’s dedication to his snowballing B-movie legend continues to gain momentum, Nick Powell’s Primal displays an understanding of how to embrace the “Caginess” of “Cage Cinema.” Mainly, like Mandy, it’s less about unleashing the actor’s craziest hysterias or pushing for countless emphatic breakdowns. In this era, a proper “Cage Movie” inserts the debt-dodging actor into logistically unfathomable situations and requires him to be cognizant of narrative batshittery – never cartoonish. I’m not saying Powell’s most dangerous big game thriller is miles above generic, yet I never found myself helplessly bemoaning on-screen developments. Dare I say there’s genuine fun to be had aboard this impromptu jungle cruise standoff?
Cage plays hunter extraordinaire Frank Walsh, who’s just loaded his latest collection of captured exotic creatures onto a Greek shipping vessel for transportation. Among the animals is a snow-white jaguar, which’ll fetch Walsh his grandest payday. You’d think the predatory cat to be the deadliest passenger aboard the ship, but that award goes to captured political assassin Richard Loffler (Kevin Durand) – flanked by U.S. military specialists transporting the prisoner in secret. Cut to Loffler’s escape, Walsh’s herd being freed as roaming distractions, and a boat now thrust into chaos with a wanted professional killer roaming the halls. This is why you never smuggle international terrorists aboard ships with undocumented animals intended for illegal zoo sales!
Despite black market mammal exchanges and Durand’s Hannibal Lecter inspired convict, Primal is still an expected action affair. Richard Leder’s screenplay hinges itself on remarkable storytelling lapses between Dr. Ellen Taylor’s (Famke Janssen) inability to hold a gun or an entire scene “rationalizing” why Loffler is aboard the vessel with so many innocents. Characters do silly things in order to advance an even sillier plot, but we’d otherwise be robbed of such gold as the crew’s galley chef being torn to bits by protective primate parents. There’s a tradeoff, and Powell miraculously gets away with raised eyebrows more than the filmmaker probably should.
Maybe that’s because Cage’s cigar-devouring hunter is the survivalist animal “lover” we so hope appears. Frank Walsh is a man of middle fingers, bourbon intoxication, and feeding his beauties even when a maniac mercenary is on the loose. One of the first things we witness Walsh do is yell at a pesky parrot who steals his lunch, and it’s off the races for Cage – but again, never overtly comical. Walsh’s attitude is that of a disenfranchised zoo worker who turns on the system, taking up hunting as a means of entrepreneurial fulfillment. A gruff loner who uses Bugs Bunny impressions as conversation starters, professes himself not the “good man” Dr. Taylor needs, and protects animals over humans. Did I mention he utters lines like “I know how a fucking faucet works you federal clown?”
Give Durand credit here because he’s selling far more obscurity and performative delusion than Cage. Richard Loffler’s eyes are often wider than a praying mantis’, as Durand mixes cockiness with mercilessness when making jokes about meeting Walsh for shuffleboard on the top deck. Lines that prove he *knows* he’ll escape, that American war dogs led by John Ringer (LaMonica Garrett) aren’t more than brute gorillas, and he’s the kind of psycho decommissioned by the Navy but employed as a hitman by the NSA. Loffler is all smiles when violence erupts, the bloodier the most emphatic. Kudos, Mr. Durand, for grounding a Nicolas Cage performance in comparison.
Primal is a cat-and-mouse chase, or more fittingly, a jaguar-and-human stalk. Loffler tracks Ringer’s squad and kills by separation, much like alphas in the wild. There’s some hand-to-hand tussling between Walsh and Loffler – the former, an ex-military mechanic, who somehow stands to a special operative with extensive assassination training – which is sold with enough rumble-brawling to enjoy. Otherwise, Walsh’s weapons are bows, arrows, and tipped darts with paralyzing toxins. Animals are mostly questionable CGI, which makes sense given the film’s heavy usage of white leopards and mauler monkeys, but engagement is still manageable. It’s a pressure-cooker situation where safety is assured in one “hold” area on the boat, but for uncountable reasons, characters must venture into harm’s reach. For that, Powell succeeds.
I won’t lie and say motivations are airtight, nor are decisionmaking pivots neatly addressed by scripting. Primal is a containment thriller featuring two warring foes (animals and Loffler) different in species but connected by predicament. Nicolas Cage plays a conflicted hero, Famke Janssen reprograms his conscience, Michael Imperioli embodies corruption within government bodies – we’ve seen these arcs before. At sea, with no escape from carnivores or unhinged Kevin Durand deviants? No, and somehow that ends up being Nick Powell’s most marketable achievement. How have I not been transported back to the 90s where Primal should be opening in wide-release alongside every other audacious action hybrid imaginable?
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Matt spends his after-work hours posting nonsense on the internet instead of sleeping like a normal human. He seems like a pretty cool guy, but don’t feed him after midnight just to be safe (beers are allowed/encouraged). Follow him on Twitter/Instagram/Letterboxd (@DoNatoBomb).
Originally published November 6, 2019. Updated November 7, 2019.
