Speckles: The Tarbosaurus (2012)

Great Film overall

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

As a dinosaur enthusiast, I can comfortably call this movie the Citizen Kane of dinosaur movies. With dynamic characters and a riveting story that seamlessly tied in adult themes (love, death, and revenge) to a children's movie, I can safely call this movie a future classic. Every frame and line of dialogue is pure 24k GOLD. The one-line zingers keeps the audience on the edge of their seat for the entire movie. One of the best movies OF ALL TIME. The movie can be thoroughly enjoyed by a viewing by yourself or with a group of friends. 11/10 would recommend, can't wait for the sequel coming this summer! I will certainly have a showing of this in my college's dinosaur club.

The animation in this movie is outstanding. Sadly, that is the end of what's good about it. It's told from the point of view of Speckles, the youngest dinosaur in the pack and that is the main problem. They put a tremendous amount of work into creating a incredible graphics, a photo realistic world to depict the violent life of the dinosaurs and then used a anthropomorphized child's voice with horrible dialog that sounds like its from a PBS kids show as the main narration. Imagine watching Jurassic Park with Fifel the Mouse narrating the movie for the first third of the film and you get the picture. Eventually, the voice get older as Speckles get older but the dialog gets no better and the story becomes ridiculous (including showing a Tarbosaurus (similar to a Tyrannosaurus) cliff dive into the ocean). While it's not a documentary, it would have been better served with adult documentary like narration. That change alone would have made this movie more watchable. No narration would have been better and made this movie much more watchable.

Many people will be wondering why I gave this movie a 6/10, many critics are giving this harsh reviews, which this movie doesn't deserve, so I'm here to share to you why I thought this movie was both entertaining, action packed and upsetting at the same time.This move takes place in 80 million year old South Korea, this is were we meet our protagonist Speckles, This is my first complaint why is our hero named Speckles, this shows laziness or even stupidity in the character design and this name is not very intimidating as it is a ferocious meat eating Tarbosaurus, which is a relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, this brought it down a point. Why couldn't they name the dinosaur differently, here are some names you can give him, Lunar scar, moon-fire, Half-moon, are just to name a few.Another complaint I have in this movie, is in both the Narrators, they are boring and uninteresting and the child narrator gets annoying at times, the main narrators voice when the protagonist is an sub adult and so forth is not intimidating, why couldn't they get a deeper narrator voice for the adult part, why not James Earl Jones, that would have been more appropriate for at least the adult segment, so this again brings it down a pointThe final two complaints I have of this movie is that they kill off Blue eyes (Speckles mate) and Incorrect data of the dinosaurs, the second one brings down more points than the first but here is why I did not like them killing Blue eyes, she was a main character, she was Speckles friend for over 20 or so years and his mate and finally she gets her corpse abandoned by Speckles so as to be disgraced by Raptors was the final indignity to this character, half a point off.The second issue takes away the final 1.5 points away, most of the dinosaurs and creatures were not in their proper time lines, for example Velociraptors appear ed 75 million years ago, Tyrannosaurus Rex and Tarbosaurus around 70 million years ago and so forth. another issue is that the dinosaurs were also not in their proper geographical setting, most of the dinosaurs were from North America, Torosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and so forth, even the Asian dinosaurs weren't found in South Korea, Tarbosaurus lived in Northern Mongolia when it lived on planet Earth.I can live with this even though I am a Dino Freak and know more information than most, my reasoning the Disney Movie Dinosaur. This Movie had certain in-corrections, most Hadrosaurs, Raptors, Ceratopsians and Ornithomimosaurs all lived in the Northern Hemisphere, Iguanodontids and Abelisaurs like Carnotaurus lived in the southern Hemisphere and most of the animals in that film lived in different times as well as this films. So why is this film getting hammered for this and not Dinosaur Another thing about the dinosaurs is the looks, especially on the Raptors, is incorrect and foolish, the Raptors look like punk rejects from the 90's what the hell is with that, but how did the other elements of this movie hold up lets find out The Movie had great CGI, and sound effects, the Visuals were astounding and even the eruption scene was done spectacularly and there is two points already, the story was mediocre but great for a movie like this and it has some great character development, especially later in the film, this brought the movie up to 4 points. I have read crap about this movie before hand it is not accurate to what it is portraying, that is true to some point, but yet again these reviewers overlooked a fine detail, that this is a "Movie" and not a documentary, Dinosaur did the same thing and reviewers aren't slamming that down its throat like in this "Movie".The thing that brings this movie up to six is the Characters and the Antagonist One Eye, the characters in this film are fleshed out pretty well and add on to the fight scene between One Eye and Speckles, for example when Speckles family dies due to One Eye starting a stampede to rid himself of his rival and even killing his own mother while he watch gives a sense of remorse to this young Tarbosaurus and builds the suspension to the fight later, even though he fights and even beats One Eye earlier in the film. But know lets go to one eye, and ow my God he is bad ass and ruthless, shown by his killing of Speckles family, he shows his bad ass style a few times in this film the first for me is when he climbs out of the sink hole, the second when he tries to rape Blue eyes or mate whichever you prefer so he can take her away from speckles and finally the underwater fight scene.This is also where I have read crap lately, that the hunting used by One Eye, the boulder to trap an Ankylosaur tail, was to intelligent for this dinosaur, and I would agree if this was a documentary, this is a film and films are not always meant to make sense, even to a well known fact, Dinosaur did it to Alidar the main protagonist and the leaders of the herd of Herbivore dinosaurs which were known to be less intelligent to Therapod or carnivorous dinosaurs period, with a few exceptions.Time to finish off here, this is only opinion based and you can either love this movie of hate it, it is great for the whole family and it gives you some facts about the dinosaurs it is portraying, but for the sake of this movie a remake needs to be made and in this remake make sure Blue Eyes doesn't die, but to Dino fans, new comers to the Dinosaur genre and to people with an open mind I recommend this film

(Note, this review MAY contains Spoilers!)I remember watching this movie on YouTube two years ago. I was initially pessimistic about it, considering that this movie is Korean. As I watched more, I couldn't help but find myself liking this film. After all, I am a lover of dinosaurs and its quite badass having a Tarbosaurus as the protagonist.To start off, the story is basic: The life of a Tarbosaurus named Speckles. Initially having a happy life, his family and life is shattered when a Tyrannosaurus named One Eye appears usurps their territory, killing them in the process. What follows is the tribulations and struggle of Speckles who tries to survive during his lifetime. Overtime, we get to see his character mature as he grows up.So, what are my thoughts of this film? As stated before, I like this film. For kids, it is an enjoyable dino-flick and I think the film is suitable for families of all ages. However for dino-nerds and professional critics, its a hard watch as many usually point out the lack of logic and the excessive flaws of any film possible (Even the best ones).The Good: To start off, I like the character of Speckles. You can quickly empathise with him and his maturity and growth over the course of the story is very well done. Other characters include Blue Eyes (Another major character), Speckles's family and One Eye (The antagonist) who while somewhat generic, seem to serve their purpose quite well. One Eye is a character that you WILL hate, so that's a good plus for me. The animation is brilliant and that's what I think is the movie's best element, considering that Speckles was meant to be a 3D film. The story is simplistic, but I think it works and flows with the coming-of-age genre quite decently. Aside from the titular Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, there are also several dinosaurs not known to the public (E.g. Tsintaosaurus, Therizinosaurus, Pukyongosaurus and Charanosaurus) featured which I think helps the film in being colourful and more diverse in establishing different fauna. Lastly, the music of the film is superb in my opinion. It catches the mood quite effectively and provides a sense of adventure and thrill in this film.The Bad: Not every film is perfect.The same can be said for Speckles. Firstly, the film's story is shown through narration, which goes through different voice-overs depending on Speckles's age. Needless to say, it was insipid (Especially the narrator for infant Speckles) and I felt it was distracting and a juvenile attempt to make the film more geared towards kids. While there is a good species number of dinosaurs in this film, its easy to point out that several of them are actually FROM North America (Tyrannosaurus, Torosaurus and Ankylosaurus for example). Some animals are even over-exaggerated (One species reaching lengths of a 100 feet, despite being way smaller!). One Eye also seems to resemble Scar from The Lion King (Notice that BOTH have scars) and are cunning, but I'd say both are good villains in their own right.In conclusion, Speckles the Tarbosaurus results in it's pros slightly overpowering its cons to make itself known as a film kids could enjoy. There are heart-warming scenes which while depressing, also makes the story a little bit more forced when it comes to empathising with Speckles, but they are sad nonetheless. For dino-nerds, its a mixed bag and its a tough call when it comes to watching something realistic about dinosaurs. However, Speckles the Tarbosaurus makes for a good substitute and I'd say its an enjoyable film. For anyone who was kids who love dinosaurs, I'd say give them a watch. You'll let me know :).For my evaluation in terms of story, characters, music, animation and my own personal enjoyment, I would give Speckles a 7.8 out of ten. My best recommendation is that you should rather watch the movie on YouTube rather than just buying it. Kids will love this film and adults will find it heart-warming and depressing Overall, its a good dinosaur film albeit with its own set of flaws and a nice departure from NOT using well known dinosaurs (E.g. Apatosaurus) as the protagonist, having shifted to a lesser known species (Tarbosaurus) for a boosting popularity.