Primitive War

I just watched Primitive War and I was surprised by how much they pulled off with only 7 or 8 million. That in itself makes it worth a look. The movie is not perfect but the effects are shockingly good for the budget. The dinosaurs and the composites look near flawless and if this is the start of a new wave of low budget movies with high quality effects then big studios better pay attention.

Now the movie itself is not great but it is not trash either. The weakest part is the writing but honestly it is on the same level or even better than the last Jurassic Park films which cost hundreds of millions and still feel like B movies. Here you get a recon unit called Vulture Squad sent into a jungle valley to find a missing Green Beret team and of course they end up facing dinosaurs and leftover Soviet experiments.

The acting is fine. Nothing amazing but solid. It is fun to see familiar faces like Tricia Helfer Ryan Kwanten and Jeremy Piven along with some others you probably recognize from TV.

What makes Primitive War stand out is how good it looks. You get action scenes and quiet moments with dinosaurs that feel like a comic book come to life. It is basically Aliens meets Predator meets Jurassic Park all mashed together. Yes it is derivative but it still feels premium because of the effort and technical skill behind it.

For me this is a 7 out of 10. If it were a giant Hollywood release I would probably rate it lower but as a smart well made B movie it is absolutely worth watching. Go in with moderate expectations and you will have a good time.

The dinosaur action was amazing and obviously there's some parts that could look better but that's it if you're really nit picking. If you're a fan of dinosaurs and want a mature tone for your dinosaur media than this is right up your alley, it's not a field trip in the jungle it's a fight for survival and seeing that in a serious tone with consequences was great to see on the big screen. As Luke Sparke said on InGeneral: The Jurassic Outpost Podcast, he said he loves randomness with his dinosaurs and them just being animals and you get a lot of that in this movie. From grazing, to hunting (some were on demon mode), to sleeping they captured the dinosaurs in a great way (while showing off how dangerous and deadly they are).

The Marines and their story took me by surprise with how good it was and how they got a story and honestly the struggles of war and PTSD and just mental health was captured really well and something that caught me off guard. The characters were good and did their job only some were a tad questionable but it's not that bad. The dialogue was good and I was surprised with how funny it was? I guess because it is a war movie set in Vietnam you can use colourful language and they didn't shy away from it and it really sets the tone.

The gore was INTENSE and I'm definitely not use to seeing that in a Dinosaur movie and it was a nice change showing how dangerous a dinosaur is and so much death, I honestly lost count in the first 15 mins there was so much and it was fun a fun WILD ride. For an independent film, the scale is amazing I honestly can't get over how great it was and you can just tell how much passion is in this movie, Luke Sparke is like us A HUGE dinosaur fan that achieved his dream and made his dinosaur movie, I genuinely think you should check it out if you love Dinosaurs and as a Jurassic Park/World fan we need competition and competition breeds greatness, we need more dinosaur media in general and this is the right way forward as a Dinosaur fan. So enough of me yappin and go check out Primitive War.

As a low-budget gore film, it did a good job, but as other reviewers have said, it is about half an hour too long. Filled with lots of exposition and character development to the boring degree. I had to skip the occasional 10 minutes, as I would have given up. The film does not need all the filler; it's a fast-paced action genre, and this was not fast-paced. The acting and sets were good, and the Dino attacks, among other elements, were well-executed. It's a shame that someone thought over two hours was a good length; an hour and a half at most would have been better.

Entertaining time, but is about 30 minutes too long. Felt like the actors were doing character studies for their weekly acting class. They did a solid effort with the about the quarter of the budget that Jurassic park had. There were a lot of good scenes that could of made a great movie if they had better writing and acting and budget buy in. The third act had some great scenes as well and some good cinematography. Why does everyone feel the need to rehash old Vietnam tropes in their movies. This would hit the top of the leaderboard up on Netflix for a mindless, fun science fiction action movie. I just wonder what could have been if more people just believed in this movie.

The film features some impressive CGI dinosaurs that are detailed and cool to watch. The visual effects carry much of the movie's entertainment value and create the strongest moments on screen.

The acting, however, is weak and they all seems to be very loud. The performances feel flat and unconvincing. Dialogue delivery lacked emotion throughout the movie.