SNOW MONSTER VS. ICE SHARK (2019)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

I don't get the sense that the SYFY channel, whatever its status these days, produces as many giant-beast films as it used to. However, I've been seeing more of them on streaming with Asian names in the billing, so I gather one or more Chinese studios have moved in to make up the deficit.

And just like the SYFY monster-flicks, this one, SNOW MONSTER VS ICE SHARK, is just as bereft of entertainment value as most of the American offerings. Actors who may or may not be talented are stuck reciting bland dialogue. One partial online review asserts that the movie was originally just called SNOW MONSTER, which was more accurate since SM is basically a routine emulation of KING KONG, but with a somewhat larger Abominable Snowman, albeit one with atypical goat-horns.

A fanatical Chinese scientist. name of Lin, sends an expedition into some snowy terrain-- the Arctic, possibly-- in search of a fabled snow monster. The expedition is headed by Lin's own niece Xiaoquin, but all members of the party go missing when a giant creature attacks them.

The government funding the project promptly sends an all-male task force to find the lost scientists, and once the soldiers are there, they stumble around for about half an hour before finally meeting a giant monster. Yet it's not the Snow Monster, but a predacious Ice Shark, leaping out of the water beneath the frozen ice. However, since the shark can't be allowed to take out all the heroes, the Snow Monster shows up and easily defeats the fish (which is nowhere near the snowman's size) by grabbing its tail and slamming it against a mountain. So much for the "vs." promised by the title-makers.

The soldiers are then taken prisoner by some snow-dwelling tribal humans who worship the Snow Monster. But as in more than one KONG remake, the natives and their monster are both benign, and the soldiers encounter at least one of the scientists they sought, Xiaoquin. So no more reason for fighting, right? Wrong; Uncle Lin is a corrupt dirtbag who brings in a lot more soldiers, and even a plane with a sonic weapon, in order to kill the Monster and harvest its genes for-- something or other. 

As in most of the SYFY monster-flicks, there's a lot of limited CGI fighting by the big critter, and he has a kung-fu priestess (Li Ruoxi) who provides most of the human-to-human conflict. Uncle Lin and his forces (were they government-controlled?) are wiped out, the tribe gets to keep its god-monster, and all the good people live and go home.

I will say the production values for this looked a little better than most of the SYFY items this genre, and though there's not a big monster-battle at least it is a valid monster-mashup. But those are the only merits of this forgettable bit of tripe.