The Primevals

Younger viewers need to understand that, however odd this film may seem, this was precisely and absolutely the way Sci-Fi was done 75 years ago. The stop motion animation in Harryhausen style speaks for itself. The name Rondo Montana (!) speaks for itself. The script seems an assembly of short, staccato, phrases totally lacking in emotion punched up by a soundtrack overflowing with gravitas -- exactly the sort of presentation most of us from that era remember. The only thing jarring to this reviewer was the use of color. Every synapse in my brain said this should have been in B&W. The only benefit color gave us was the needless awareness that, no matter how dirty their surroundings, the players always wore spanking clean outfits, as if right off the shelf from the local Target. Always been a fan of the Mills sisters, and nice to see Juliet once again commanding an entire film. For viewers of a certain age, a treat. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

I don't know why this movie is rated so low. It's not great but it is entertaining. It feels like a 90's episode of The Lost World, but in a good way. Every ten minutes a new plot twist is implemented, and the action is fun. Cheesy, but fun. I can point out its flaws such as the cardboard acting, forgettable stereotypical characters, low budget sets, etc., but it all adds to the entertainment value. If you like conspiracy theories, movie making, and/or 90's style adventure this movie is for you. And, as others have surely harped on, the stop motion is great. It feels slow-mo in places, but it's something that can be overlooked. I enjoyed this movie.

In 1978, the film magazine Cinefantastique ran a cover story on an upcoming SF movie, The Primevals, then in preproduction. The Primevals, an ambitious effort on a modest budget, was intended as a showcase for stop-motion animation.

I was in college at the time, and as an animation fan I was pretty excited about seeing this movie. As it turned out, I had to wait just a little longer than expected. Forty-six years, to be exact. It never occurred to me that I'd be nearly eligible for Social Security before The Primevals finally came out.

You see, the initial effort to make the movie fizzled. It was revived in 1994, when the live action and some of the effects were shot. Then the studio behind the project went bankrupt, and the movie, still in post-production, was shelved. It remained in limbo for decades until producer Charles Band and effects expert Chris Endicott worked out a plan to finish it. By that time, the film's guiding light, animator-writer-director David Allen, was long gone, having died of cancer in 1999.

With a new crew of animators, newly repaired or entirely refashioned models, and digital composites instead of back projection, The Primevals finally completed its remaining effects shots (or all the essential ones, anyway; the plot was slightly streamlined as a cost-cutting measure).

As of June, 2024, the movie has been released to streaming services. I watched it last night. As I expected, it often betrays its humble origins, with uneven performances and an overall "1980s TV" quality, which is especially noticeable in the overbright and rather flat lighting. Nevertheless, given the budget and the technology, it's an impressive piece of work - and obviously a labor of love for the creators. Allen and his colleagues made a real effort to elevate the stop-motion genre, eschewing dinosaurs and mythological creatures in favor of a more complex scenario involving alien contact and directed evolution. They also worked hard to integrate the stop-motion elements into the story in a natural way, rather than using them as standalone set pieces, as was too often the case.

The irony is that after all this time, The Primevals can no longer serve its intended purpose as proof of the viability of hand-crafted animation effects in a digital world. That ship has sailed. Instead, the movie will likely go down as the last live-action feature film to use stop-motion creatures in a big way. It's probably not the legacy Dave Allen wanted, but it does assure him of a small place in movie history. And it's a great gift for stop-motion fans like me.

Kudos to Endicott, Band, and their associates for making The Primevals a reality - finally!

I really wish I could give this movie a ten rating for the amount of heart that was put into it. This was a nice nostalgic trip back into time for those of us who grew up with these fantastical, silly, yet still entertaining movies.

Ray Harryhausen was such an inspiration for so many people, and I think David Allen did a fantastic job and it's sad that he wasn't alive to see his last project come to fruition.

My thanks to all that helped pay for the completion of this film.

I would say this was better than half of all the Doug McClure movies I used to watch. Some acting was bad, some wasn't. Some of the writing was good, some wasn't. Still, I was entertained, and that was all I was hoping for.

We still enjoy stop motion, both the old ones from the childhood of cinema and the new ones.

Personally, I like stop motion much more than computer special effects because it is more unreal and beautiful.

The most valuable part of the movie "the primevals" is the stop motion, followed by the story, and a bit of Leon Russom.

What bothers me is the cold, emotionless and clumsy performances of the actors (except Leon Russom).

Apparently, among the actors of the primevals, the only one who took the movie seriously was Leon Russom.

At the end of the movie, I wished that all the actors in the movie would be killed (it would be better if I killed them myself) so that the movie would have a pleasant ending.

And for a lovely and childish movie, in today's world of serious movies that hit the human brain like a hammer, I say: Thank you David Allen.