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Initial Thought: I have been following the Tremors series minus the television adaptation since part one. The first one is a classic favorite. After that though everything just went downhill. They all got pretty bad with only a few select scenes amongst them that were any good. Anyways I actually still got excited about this because after 11 years you would think maybe they finally have their shit together. So I decided I would check it out and see if they could finally make an entertaining sequel.
Characters/Acting: Michael Gross aka Burt Gummer is the only returning connection of the human characters. It would have been awesome to have Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward as well. That tends to be hard to do as time goes by though. I do enjoy Jamie Kennedy although he has made several bad choices he still oozes funny to me. So I hope he fits well here. Well he does actually fit fine with the cast as I hoped. Michael Gross is still pretty funny as the constant actor to show up for every entry. Brandon Auret still feels like Hippo from Chappie except more toned down I guess. I adored the Veterinarian woman simply because she was a hottie and badass. The acting is a bit cheesy at times as expected, but it isn't bad.
Story: The giant, man-eating Graboids are back and even deadlier than before, terrorizing the inhabitants of a South African wildlife reserve as they attack from below and above. The CGI is pretty good for a fifth installment that's direct to DVD. I do wish it hadn't all been CGI though. I would have liked a bit more gore than was given. Most of what happens is off-screen or fairly brief. For a DVD I would have expected more of that. It has some goofy moments as one should expect. I didn't see that twist coming, but I felt it was a bit tacky. I figured that was how they would take out the creature. There is a little extra after the credits.
Directing/Writing: So Don Michael Paul is the director here. He isn't known for making good movies. He is also known as a sequel director. The only film of his I saw was the surprisingly enjoyable yet unnecessary sequel to Jarhead. Brent Maddock doesn't return to direct. Instead he is noted for the story. He has been around since part one. He also is known for Short Circuit and Wild Wild West. So as a writer I've enjoyed him, but as a director not so much. John Whelpley only wrote part three of the series which isn't one I particularly enjoyed. So that isn't much of a good sign. We also have S.S. Wilson who has worked along with Brent Maddock on everything. He also directed part two of the sequels (Not good but loads better than the others) as well as part four. I'm hoping they have their skills worked out for this sequel. Well looks like they improved, but not as much as they could have given the length of time they've had.
Final Thoughts: So this actually wasn't the worst of the series. It still wasn't all that good either. It had a few good moments though. I was really hoping there would have been some different level of monster, but the route they went was still an interesting concept. At least this improved from the previous sequels. Only watch this if you are a die hard Tremors fan. Otherwise you have come to the wrong place for something exciting.
