Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Critters 4'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

It always seems as though outer space is the place where a fair majority of horror franchises go to die. Granted, that’s not one hundred percent always the case, since the Alien franchise wouldn’t work in the slightest if it wasn’t set in the stars, and Jason X was in fact, a fun final ride for Jason Voorhees but really, these films are simply the exception to the rule because once a beloved franchise heads out into the cosmos, the end is usually nigh.
 
This is likely due to the fact that the franchise in question is completely and utterly out of ideas to begin with, and at this point, space is the only place where something creative can occur. But usually, that final space-bound adventure is a mess through and through and when it comes to the Critters franchise, despite once again loading up with some surprisingly good acting talent, the saga saw the series come to a pathetic end in the depths of outer space in Critters 4.
 
But it wasn’t just the journey into the universe that killed this franchise, the fact that the story takes some strange liberties contributes to the saga’s untimely demise and hampers this movie’s ability to be good. Take Ug for instance. Because in this particular tale, he has transformed himself into an evil and greedy corporate monster, and even changed his name for that matter and this twist simply doesn’t make any damn sense. For a guy like Ug to be genuinely good in the earlier films and suddenly become evil for no apparent reason is just silly and jarring to say the least and that aspect of the story was supremely unenjoyable. 
 
However, Ug’s turn toward evil isn’t the only element that made this movie an utter failure. The production values simply aren’t there since the space station that our characters find themselves upon looks like a re-dressed office building at times and well, it really is a long drawn out sequence aboard said station and much like the last film, a lot of what happens here is downright boring and that’s a shame because this blasé plot and the shuffling about on the station completely wastes the acting talent present in this film since the always incredible Angela Bassett, and cult movie legend Brad Dourif are part of the cast.
 
If anything, this movie truly demonstrates just how out of gas the Critters franchise was at this point since nothing new is brought to the table, outside of that silly twist involving Ug and well, it’s hard to watch really. Because this franchise used to be about fun and adventure and none of that is present here. Just re-hashed ideas and borrowed concepts and while it is what it is, this franchise deserved a better finale, plain and simple. And maybe someday, someone will take up the mantle and give this series a proper farewell, but until that day…this is how the Critters franchise ends, with a whimper…

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