The Dinosaur Project (2012)

Simply A Masterpiece

Best movie ever!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I looked immediately to see when this was made to determine whether it was trying to capitalize on Jurassic Park hysteria. It was not. The effects are on the order of Walking with Dinosaurs, and not up to Jurassic Park standards. The storyline is interesting, but tried and true... a bunch of people in a desperate situation, with one bad guy among them. Like Blair Witch, the movie overdoes the hand-held video effects, and spends a lot of time shaking and pixelating. They do meet up with large prehistoric animals that are out of context. I have no idea why we would see large plesiosaurs and pliosaurs in a small shallow river. The movie setting was off as well. It was supposed to be set in the Congo, but the surroundings and vegetation looked decidedly temperate. Turns out that it was filmed in South Africa, which is temperate.

where to start with this one? okay, i like dinosaurs and i like films, inevitably the two would cross eventually, but when the pinnacle of the Dino-cinema is Jurassic park the bar is set pretty damn high. okay so this one starts and instantly we are introduced to the characters, of course anyone one who see's the films "explorer" dad character will instantly go "how the hell is Allan grant/Indiana Jones in this film?" because thats exactly what he looks like. seriously, hat and all. but the thing is, Jurassic park and Indiana Jones are good films, this one...not so much..wait not at all. okay the main problem i had with this film was its sheer predictability, and trust me i know predictability i watch films 24/7 but when you can watch a film and in the first 15 minutes work out (Without fault) who will live and who will die, there's a problem. and so were introduced to the cast, beardy guy, camera guy, explorer dad, hot blonde, jungle guide and the teenager. but there's the next problem, each of these characters are just cut outs that the director must have stole from the book of "film characters" they are that see through, its like this, beardy guy is a fat arse who in the last part of the film goes all Rambo (trust me its funnier when you see it) camera guy doesn't say much and dies, and thats not a spoiler because who actually cares for these characters, explorer dad is just the generic "adventurer", the guide has a "secret" that you see from a mile off and well it isn't really a secret when you're surrounded by Dino's! and the blonde is well...shes the typical blonde who is the love interest, oh wait she dies early..moving on...there's this other guy, who is the typical over the top manipulative "all for myself" bad guy, and honestly? hes the best character, he overacts to hell but hes the best character he just reminds me of Bruce Campbell, i don't know why, and the worst THE WORST character by far is the teenager, MY GOD is this guy an arse, typical ubertwat who is just in the film to garner it the 12 rating, which quite frankly is a joke, as he either spends half the film arguing with his dad over boring "dad doesn't like me" rubbish or playing with a dinosaur...WHAT?! i came to watch a film where dinosaurs eat people! not a film that plays out like a CBBC special, it really is a joke, and the teenager as annoying as he is is there to make the film child friendly, but you will, i repeat you WILL spend 80% of the film saying "someone please kill him" but to no avail as he obviously survives. the final point for this film i'm going to talk about is the dinosaurs, now i understand that this is low budget, but could you have picked a more boring set of Dino's? they aren't even interesting, at first you go "ooh pterodactyl!" then you realise it isn't its some bat..thing, then you see a raptory thing that isn't even a raptor its the spitty thing from Jurassic park that blinds the fat guy, also there's a water thing you see for all of 5 seconds and a giant spitter, thats another thing with the film being boring and predictable, when something happens you don't see it! they just flail the camera wildly with crackling as to force the audience to go "ooooh dinosaur!" when really nothing is happening at all! shaky cam is getting boring now. okay in all? if you want a good time with dinosaurs watch Jurassic park or play Dino crisis its as simple as that really unless you want to be bored to death with genericness to the core and a character that will make you want to commit suicide, seriously don't watch it, better things can be done with life. 2/10 it gets 2 for nice-ish scenery...what i saw of it that is..

It's a fun movie. The lead is an Indiana Jones complete with the hat. The cute son who wasn't allowed on the trip I knew was going to sneak aboard the helicopter, and I knew the helicopter was going to be brought down by pterodactyls. The hot supermodel blonde doctor was casted for her ability to wear a tight tank top in the Congo. Too bad they killed her off fast, I thought they were going for the slow motion Baywatch effect. That would have been fun. Even the Blair Witch-like filming was fun.If I were attacked by a flock of man-eating "anything" in the middle of he night, I'd probably wouldn't run into the forest towards the river because predators hunt at the waters edge, but it worked out for them, and while on the river I realized that everyone on this "project" was going to die, it was just a matter of time and how.It's like the first jaws. It's kinda fun. It's actually pretty good.

Which is hard to believe of its director. However, if your familiar with Conan Doyles Lost World and Michael Crichtons Congo then you will have to be happy with the fact that its a very good enthusiastic rehash. Except that the unrestrained use of hand-held camera work is so annoying. Still this is the only credible Dinosaur movie since Jurassic Park 1 so if - like me - you feel the dearth it is definitely worth your time. In fact I hope they make a sequel (with normal camera work). Richard Dillane is a more credible Indian Jones than Harrison Ford and the location Scenery is excellent. Why IMDb discriminates against concise reviews is beyond me, there's surely enough waffle in the world already