Among the more lucrative franchises in the world, “Jurassic Park” has pulled in billions since the release of the original film in 1993. With the new entries in the series christened “Jurassic World” for the most recent releases, the exploits of many B-movie studios rushing to capitalize on the franchises' success have produced several notable recent genre experiences including director Chen Liangyan's latest work, “Metamorphosis” now available to stream on the Youku Youtube Channel.
In the GENGE building in the early morning, the cleaner accidentally opens the iron cage in the secret laboratory while cleaning but is attacked and killed by the “invisible” tyrannosaurus. In order to investigate the source of a strange python, wildlife biologist Ah Liang (Gao Shuang) comes to the gene group where his ex-girlfriend Shi Wen (Sun Ruiqi) belongs. When she takes him to visit the company, he is attacked by a tyrannosaur, and everyone temporarily takes refuge in the security house. Ah Liang finds that these animals are “monsters” produced by mixed genes so they not only have to escape the attack of Tyrannosaurus but also get all the data of the gene group. The mutant tyrannosaurus is extremely ferocious, not only having the size and brutality of the raptor but also the hidden skin color of the chameleon. Ah Liang finds that although the tyrannosaur is fierce, it still has the weakness of the chameleon: fear of cold. Even so, he alone is still unable to fight against such a behemoth. Suddenly, Ah Liang comes up with a way to use the mutated giant python to fight against the mutated Tyrannosaurus, and finds a breakthrough for himself to defeat the dinosaur.
As an unapologetically cheesy ripoff, “Metamorphosis” has a lot to like about it. What works nicely here is the intriguing setup with a lot going on which makes for some acceptable genre elements. Getting Liang onto the project by means of investigating the effects of a simple research into the escaped snake and its strange properties that soon becomes a race to escape from the clutches of the released dinosaur when it gets loose is a highly enjoyable setup. It generates a reasonable explanation for the creation of the creatures and how they're able to operate like they are with that kind of effectiveness at evading capture for so long. Added together with some scientific tidbits from Shi Wen about how the creature can survive as it can with all the tampering done to it and the ability to exploit those factors later on in a pretty interesting way, there's some workable enough setup in place.
When it moves away from the main genre storyline of the research team creating the creatures, the resulting focus on action is quite fun. The ability to accept the goofiness of a dinosaur capable of shifting abilities to blend in with its surroundings will go a long way towards enjoying the action here. With several enjoyable encounters including the confrontation in the showers, a chase through the hallways of the research lab, and a solid chase through an exosystem controlled by several massive genetically engineered snakes, “Metamorphosis” maintains a near breathless pace throughout. It all leads to the final confrontation in the main research facility where it offers up quite an impressive series of encounters trying to battle the creatures on the loose. With both the dinosaur and the snake getting to fight each other and still chase after the remaining characters, this has quite a lot of enjoyable cheesy action.
There are some issues with “Metamorphosis” that hold it down. One of the biggest detriments is the rather unnecessary side story involving the evil geneticist who takes over as the threat of the whole operation. There's little reason to have him suddenly emerge with a swarm of troops and bodyguards to become a threat by holding the group hostage in order to continue his experiments. It not only comes out of nowhere but is an absolute cliche ripped off from the other film it's taking influence from which is quite unfortunate. That also highlights the somewhat generic low-budget CGI featured here, with the various creatures being obviously inserted via lackluster and generally unimpressive SFX that never once look realistic. The main dinosaur is close enough but it's mainly the few scenes of it putting the genetic enhancement qualities on display that makes these issues more impactful. It enhances the cheesiness of the movie more than anything and is what holds this one back the most.
An unapologetically cheesy genre ripoff, “Metamorphosis” contains quite a lot to like for fans of the style more than anything as the flaws here do stand out even if they're expected in this kind of film. Fans of this style of cheesy genre output or lovers of creature features will easily have the most to appreciate here.
