The Jurassic Games

Yes, yes! We know, we know, Jurassic Park fans have a beef with whatever is not Jurassic Park. Heck, they would bash the Discovery Channel if given a chance. But the movie is not bad at all. The story was nice and fun, acting was decent, SFX not great but not a fail at all. For the most part, the special effects were decent, with some fails here and there, but nothing to ruin the movie. If you watch movies JUST to see special effects, you might not like it. Just enjoy the story, it is more original than most of the "great" Hollywood ones.

Take a mash-up of the basic concepts from THE CONDEMNED & STAY ALIVE, then add dinosaurs. That gives you the overall premise of THE JURASSIC GAMES. This one is of a much lower budget, so the cast is not well-known and the graphics are only passable because of the VR setting. The plot layout was entertaining and the acting quality is mediocre but not terrible. Enjoyable so long as you are not expecting a blockbuster.

Was not expecting much from 'The Jurassic Games'. It just sounded terribly derivative to the point of being a blatant rip off, the cover/poster looked cheap and like something you'd find advertised for a SyFy or Asylum film, it had a low rating and the reviews were less than promising. So in all honesty was expecting something terrible.

Seeing 'The Jurassic Games' with an open mind and fairness intended, it turned out to be not near as terrible as expected. At the same time, didn't find it a particularly good film either. Just for the record, am somebody who hates being critical and is more often than not encouraging and aims to be balanced and tries to evaluate rather than completely gushing or bashing, so will always severely object to being called an armchair critic/expert that is thrown around a lot immaturely.

There are positives. There is colour and atmosphere in the setting and some slickness in some of the shots. The music is not over-bearing, variety-less or monotonous, even when not being exactly memorable.

A few of the dinosaurs are fun and have some personality that avoids going too far on the goofiness or scare factor. Some of the acting is better than average and there is the odd thrill.

However, the limited budget shows in particularly the not always very well organised editing and the ropy effects. The dinosaurs don't steal the show as much as they should and their contributions not particularly memorable or well used. The human characters are underwritten and have little development or endearing personality, despite the actors' best efforts.

Also found too much of the dialogue on the wrong side of dumb and cheesy, complete with some soapy moments, and that it didn't flow very well. The film is extremely derivative, interesting premise with far too over-familiar execution that has nothing new. The lack of imagination and suspense also hurts the film, too much evokes cringing and the thrills are sporadic. The direction felt like they were not in control of the material and not at ease with the genre.

Overall, not a disaster, not a thrill side. Instead on the lower side of somewhere in between. 4/10 Bethany Cox

It's not a bad movie, it's just far and away not as good as it might have been. You've got to blame the (sigh) writer/director for that although he did have a hand with the writing which is possibly why it's not as bad as it might have been.

First of all it's so derivative - the Jurassic Park series, of course, Running Man, Ender's Game, the Death Race series, and all the YA movies like Maze Runner and the Hunger Games. And loads more.

And, yes, it was made on a budget, hence the complain about the poor SFX although for a B movie they're not too bad. I was thinking they must have got a job lot of dinosaur graphics.

Anyway, taking all that into account, the story line isn't too bad as far as these things go - I can't believe one reviewer actually said it was original!! - go figure - and it's generally pacy enough to keep you watching, at least with one eye, although you know how it's going to end.

Maybe you've got to be in the right mood to watch something like this but it you are, give it a whirl.

Yeah, this is a B movie, but totally entertaining. The acting was fine, the FX were passable, Good 90 minute time passer