Planet Raptor: Look out behind you! It's puppets and bad CGI!

There are so many cheesy elements to Planet Raptor, you can't help but laugh your way through it. It's pretty clear they weren't taking it seriously, at least judging by the video game style CGI they lifted from Raptor Island. They even stole an entire scene from Raptor Island, conveniently making sure there's an underground volcanic nesting area for the giant raptors stalking this odd, deserted planet.

The year is 2066 and we're all over outer space now. We even speak alien languages and have laser guns, but it's still not so sophisticated that our soldiers forgo a good old fashioned pump action shotgun. We can go into deep space and respond to distress signals, which is handy, or we wouldn't have even a superficial basis for a plot. A team is deployed to a remote planet with the vague premise of rescuing survivors, but then a convenient radiation storm prevents them from returning to the ship right away. They make sure a scientist wanders off on his own and becomes a snack, and the rest is B movie magic.

There's scientists among the soldiers, and they have their own agenda, even though I was never clear what that was. I think it was something about getting alien DNA, but frankly I was just giggling at the puppets and bad CGI, so I didn't pay close attention. I haven't seen raptor puppet action like this since Carnosaur 2, and I laughed myself silly through that movie, too.

Ted Raimi makes an appearance as an untrustworthy, rather creepy, doctor willing to inject the team with various concoctions to see how long they'll last. Mr. Raimi takes a raptor to the head with the best of them, showing that less is more when it comes to making us believe you're being killed by a puppet.

Peter Jason plays the crusty veteran, 'Pappy' with the same zest and humor we see from him in all his other roles (and he has a ton). He's easily my favorite character out of the whole lot, and is the one the writers kept 'in character' the entire time.

Vanessa Angel plays the token female scientist who is naturally drawn to the leader of the squadron. She's beautiful as ever, so I hate her, and she plays well against Steven Bauer (who happened to be the bad guy in Raptor Island). She's a scientist, he's a soldier. She wants to focus on her mission (whatever that is). He couldn't care less. The writing starts things off in the 'God, I hate you and all you stand for' direction, then veers into the 'Wait, I think this could be something beautiful' area so quickly I swear I heard gears grinding in protest. Let's say character development and consistency wasn't a key focus here.

This is an odd sort of flick that plunders plot points from old Star Trek episodes and other B movies. The acting is often over the top, the special effects are just awful, but somehow I really enjoyed it. I think it was the fact it revels in how bad it is, and actually strives to reach yet unattained heights in making a bad movie. Like an English bulldog is so ugly it's cute, this movie is so bad, it's entertaining.

Look at the characters, plot, dialogue and special effects separately, and you'll wonder why anyone bothered to make this thing. Put the pieces together, and it's kismet. Planet Raptor is meant to be laughed through. Sit down with a big bowl of popcorn and lowered expectations. I won't ask you to shave your head to join what I anticipate to be a cult following, but I may ask you to distribute pamphlets to help spread the word about this wonderfully awful bad movie!