Seeds of Destruction

source: Seeds of Destruction

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This movie has its premise being that some archeologists discover seeds from the garden of eden which get released. While I will give props for this being a fairly original idea the film itself spends a lot of time proselytizing to the audience. I wanted something entertaining not a sermon. Its still not the worst film I have ever seen but it really ruins an otherwise decent premise for an entertaining movie.

Don't think I have a good opinion about this terrible movie. There's nothing to save from the fire of hell but one thing is, at least a bit, interesting: the plot. Seeds from the Garden of Eden that destroys contaminated earth? You must recognize that it is very very original! But that's all. If you have something interesting to do, like cut your nails or watch the grass growth, please forget that movie. But if you are bored in your sofa you can watch this and laugh thanks to it's horrible special effects, the horrible performances and the plot's failures like "oh, the copter isn't too damaged but you killed my pilot, don't worry, I can pilot it cause I'm a very smart doctor". II must confess that in that precise moment I'm a bit bored cause I'm watching the film. And you know one of the strongest points of this kind of productions? Curiosity. Yes, you will see the entire movie only to know the end or the next failure in the plot. Long life to SyFy productions, the best comedy films that were not planned and filmed as comedy films.

In a Nevada mining area, environmentalists Jesse Moss (as Joe) and Luisa D'Oliveira (as Kate) have staked out a position in order to catch polluters on camera. Instead, the young lovers watch as a man cuts himself and heals his wound with a leaf. Next, the healing plant's seed is procured. It grows a mammoth root that causes mammoth earthquakes. Nearby scientists are aware of the problem. There are more seeds, and more earth-shattering disasters. Secret agent Adrian Pasdar (as Jack Tompkins) learns from blonde botanist Stefanie von Pfetten (as Jocelyn Stein) that the seeds are from the Biblical "Garden of Eden". When banished from their blissfully perfect home, Adam and Eve stole the seeds. Presently, the giant roots ravage the land and threaten to extinguish all human life on the planet... With some notable exceptions, God has a history of killing everyone on planet Earth. But don't let that ruin the story for you; perhaps, He is merely giving the characters in "The Terror Beneath" a very scary warning. And, if you want to say God was sleeping on the job when He let the seeds out of the Garden, remember He also let in a nasty snake. God may have some good seeds up His sleeve. Of course, it's also possible God has no active participation in story. Syfy director Paul Ziller should know for sure, since he was also part of the writing team. The credit "Produced by Raymond Massey" refers to the grandson of the original. The greatest special effect is a wobbly camera. The landscaping, before camera shaken, is nice. This dumb movie was retitled "Seeds of Destruction" for home video release. ** The Terror Beneath (2011-10-08) Paul Ziller ~ Jesse Moss, Luisa D'Oliveira, Adrian Pasdar, Stefanie von Pfetten

Militant environmentalists Kate and Joe witness, and videotape, the rapid growth of a gigantic root system that literally begins mowing through the country like an earthquake. What we have here is another great performance from Jesse Moss in a film that is less than stellar. I have enjoyed his work in "Dear Mr Gacy" and the amazing "Tucker and Dale", and really hope that Moss rises up to the next level. He is an A-list actor who works in the B-movie world, and that is just unfortunate. And then we have Paul Ziller. Trying to determine whether or not Ziller is a good director is hard to say. We cannot really blame him for the cheesy titles or the cheesier special effects of his films. He is working for SyFy, and that is clearly their decision. What happens if he breaks free of the bad graphics and is given a real budget? I think he might have potential! Anyway, the film is neither good nor bad. It is a SyFy film. If you want to be entertained without having to think for 90 minutes, this is a fine choice.

Another silly SyFy Channel offering. Having run out of natural disasters, aliens, and monsters elsewhere, the producers turn to the idea of a gigantic, fast-spreading killer plant that proceeds to wreak havoc across America. Yes, this is an ecological disaster movie just as nonsensical as the one portrayed in M. Night Shyamalan's THE HAPPENING, although not quite as unintentionally funny as that movie. The story involves some good-natured scientists who are ripped off by a renegade, who ends up unleashing terror upon the world. It's a little like the Nedry situation in JURASSIC PARK, except without even that film's level of believability. What this all boils down to is a repetitive series of scenes in which giant roots spring up from below the ground and smash everything to pieces. The usual problems are present in this SyFy production: bad acting, a weak script, dodgy CGI effects, a general lack of realism. I guess most of us will expect these things by now, but SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION is just too repetitively staged to appeal to B-movie fans. It's root attack followed by root attack, with nothing to break up the monotony.

A Syfy channel original, THE TERROR BENEATH, fares a lot better than some other highly touted destruction flicks. A couple of young environmentalists Joe(Jesse Moss)and Kate(Luisa D'Oliveria)stake out a sight in hopes of taping some illegal dumping. Instead they videotape something that can effect the whole country if not the entire world. A humongous root system begins ripping up the land not unlike an earthquake. The root is actually growing and moving at a rapid rate. A government agent Jack Taylor(Adrian Pasder) teams with a well-known botanist Dr. Jocelyn Snow((Stefanie von Pfetten)to find the origins of this unusual threat. Miss Snow thinks the root system could be from an ancient seed from the Biblical Garden of Eden. The only person known to be in possession of such is a former partner of Snow's, Dr. Frame(James Morrison), who happens to be working on cultivating is own replica of the Garden of Eden. The seed that caused this root system is actually trying to purify the world from pollutants; not destroy it. Special effects are pretty decent; good thing because its the star of the movie.

After seeing The Terror Beneath(or Seeds of Destruction), I was really not sure what to rate it or even to make of it. In the end, I thought it was not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, and had a lot of faults, but better than a lot of other movies I have seen on the SyFy Channel, which range from moderately entertaining to awful beyond description. The effects are quite decent, especially for a SyFy original, the scenery is very nice and the acting is better than average. Although the premise is pretty ridiculous, basically part-Jurassic Park/part-The Happening/part-50s Monsters movie with plants and biblical references, the story was at least interesting a vast majority of the time. Though I have to say there are still the typical suspend disbelief moments that you'd expect from SyFy especially the idea for someone to be shot on the outside of the helicopter and yet the helicopter itself would have no bullet holes, as well as overly-silly parts like the tentacle-like-roots repeatedly grabbing people and often for no reason. For my liking there are one too many Biblical references, the dialogue is cheesy and some of it reads of "this story in the Bible actually did happen", and the characters here are again no different from the stereotypes in other SyFy movies. The music in my opinion is also forgettable and too much of a slow tempo at times, making The Terror Beneath sluggish at times. In conclusion, a very difficult movie to rate. A good movie? No. A terrible movie? Again no. A tolerable movie? Yes. One I'd see again? Probably not. 5/10 Bethany Cox

The Terror Beneath