As proven by the success of last year’s Beast, action thrillers with one-word titles that focus on a big-name movie star being plunged into a life-or-death battle against a feline feral carnivore are always going to be able to find an audience, so it was only a matter of time before Primal circled back around.
Instead of Idris Elba battling against a lion, director Nick Powell has Nicolas Cage wearing a concerningly large hat going up against a white jaguar. Having captured one of nature’s most elusive prizes, the actor’s big game hunter is looking forward to a hefty payday, before things inevitably go awry on the cargo ship he’s using for safe passage when an assassin being extradited to America on the very same boat breaks free.
That forces Cage, with his trusty rifle and even larger headgear in tow, to try and survive a cat-and-mouse game that quite literally involves one of the largest you’ll find on the planet, as well as the notorious killer who needs to be apprehended. It’s incredibly dumb, but it’s a VOD genre flick starring the world’s most famous walking meme, so there wasn’t really anything else to be expected.
Primal is by no means a great film – or even a remotely good one – but if the mere mention of “Nic Cage fights a CGI jaguar and wears a really big hat” is enough to float your boat, then it’s not a stretch to call it borderline genius in terms of nothing but sheer ridiculousness. Per FlixPatrol, iTunes subscribers have decided to go all-in on the bizarrely bonkers sharp-toothed tale, which is a completely understandable call.
