With a title like The Invisible Raptor, you know what you’re getting yourself into. So why does it feel like director Mike Hermosa is holding back from going full-on, balls-to-the-wall crazy? His movie, which star Mike Capes co-scripted with Johnny Wickham, opens with a hilarious sight gag about peeling a hard-boiled egg and features some of the most endearingly unconvincing pixel art in place of actual computer graphics ever committed to film, but seems to lose its nerve once the titular beastie is on the loose. There’s a sense of reluctance that makes it tough to give in completely to The Invisible Raptor’s wacky charms, but the movie is certainly entertaining for the most part.
Sean Astin gets the coveted “and” billing but let’s just say fans of his should steer clear if the beloved actor’s presence is their only reason for watching. Early on, he quips “I could be dead on the floor, and nobody would notice,” which later leads to some Weekend at Bernie’s style shenanigans but otherwise, the film’s actual protagonist is far removed from the lab in which the raptor was created by the kind of scientists Ian Malcolm would’ve warned to think about whether they should before they could. Jurassic Park is a major touchpoint, with much of the action taking place in Dinoworld, a dinosaur-themed local attraction in Spielburgh County (really) that, to be fair, looks pretty sick even if the logo is an obvious rip-off of the long-time family-favorite.
The theme apes it too while our hero is named Dr. Grant Walker (an endlessly charming Capes), he wears a red neckerchief and his crush (Caitlin McHugh), who’s called Amber and is the focus of a mosquito-getting-stuck joke, inevitably dons a tied-up pink shirt at one point too. Oh, and they also both openly hate kids. If only this utter shamelessness extended to the rest of the movie, which is disappointingly neither funny nor wild enough to justify that attention-grabbing title and nonsensical setup. The filmmakers clearly saved a lot of money making the raptor invisible (we only see it properly through thermal goggles), but they don’t get nearly enough traction out of the premise with a sight gag involving three people lifting and “carrying” the creature to a car standing out as the only truly memorable moment.
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Otherwise, it’s a whole mess of terrible, SyFy-level CGI effects which, although charming at first, quickly feels repetitive when it’s all beheadings and eye gouging, with little variety among the raptor’s kills. If only the money they saved was spent on practical FX instead, The Invisible Raptor might have earned some points with horror fans looking for something a bit goofier. When a balloon and an arrow are attached to the creature, the flick briefly sparks to life, hinting at what it could’ve been if there was less emphasis on making a “proper” movie. There are even some great lines, including an increasingly ridiculous back and forth about dino droppings and a discussion about Invisalign that culminates with a mother screaming at her son “We don’t like invisible things in this house!” There are also tons of cheeky movie references scattered throughout, even beyond Jurassic Park.
The most obvious comparison for The Invisible Raptor is The Velocipastor, which at least had the good sense and sheer audacity to lean into its own ludicrousness, using a demonstrable lack of funds to its advantage to create an escalating sense of utter mayhem and madness. Capes, to his credit, is fully committed to the bit but if he was surrounded by more lunacy, the actor’s decision to play things completely straight would be even funnier. Consider that both Richard Riehle and Larry Hankin pop up and barely make a splash and you’ll get some idea of how The Invisible Raptor squanders its potential. The movie is an easy enough watch, though certainly too long at 115 minutes, but with a title like that it should definitely have been more fun overall.
WICKED RATING: 7/10
Director(s): Mike Hermosa
Writer(s): Mike Capes, Johnny Wickham
Stars: Mike Capes, Caitlin McHugh, David Shackelford
Release date: December 6, 2024
Language: English
Run Time: 115 minutes
