reg-550-37503

Brilliantly opportunistic to take the live volcano Katla and turn it into a mysterious and suspenseful series. Families and scientists around the volcano are immersed in an alien moon-like landscape as everything is covered in grey dust, so it was natural to include an alien and slight horror element to the story. As "beings" emerge from the volcano, each affected family deals with this independently and eventually there is a coming-together and discussion about why these mysterious events are happening. The pace is deliberately slow, in synch with the gradually-ascending pyroclastic cloud, and the abandoned town and sleepy hotel near the volcano. Each episode ends in a cliffhanger and makes you want to watch the next one, so be prepared for a binge. Not recommended for younger viewers due to violent acts by an excellent child actor.

I watched a lot of the original TV series, and like many others was drawn to the beautiful bodies instead of stellar script writing. The episodes were not all that bad though, and had enough to keep you watching to the end. Besides, it was decent enough for the whole family to watch...

Fast forward to Baywatch 2017. NOT to watch with your family unless you are the cringe-a-minute sort. Totally gratuitous and unnecessary foul language, and inept and ill-timed attempts at comedy. Replete with clichés and a plot-line filled with more holes than a rotting Swiss cheese, I had to force myself to watch this to the end over three days. Funny enough, the best part of the entire movie was the ending, with all the beautiful bodies running in slow motion...

This started off promising but as expected, with a low budget, this sort of movie degrades into B movie territory. There is a distinct lack of CGI and special effects especially at the end of the movie where so much more could have been done. The script tries to stick to a twist in the famous legend, but does not build up the protagonists' relationship up enough to make the obligatory battle against darkness believable. In one instance Merlin is dead against joining Arthur, and then all of a sudden gets random inspiration to join... "deus ex machina" galore. There are too many similar contradictions in the plot to make this truly enjoyable for me. One wish for low budget films - at least pay for a good writer, even if the acting is dodgy.