Kingdom of the Dinosaurs

Right, well I don't really have to state that I wasn't exactly harboring much of any grand expectations to a movie with the title "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs", now do I? Yet, I still opted to watch the movie, regardless, as I believe in giving a movie a fair chance.

And needless to say that writer and director Scott Jeffrey didn't exactly deliver a top notch movie here. The script and storyline in the movie was a rather generic, very much a rip off of the "Jurassic Park" concept idea genetic cloning of dinosaurs gone bad and the dinosaurs escape captivity. That was basically it, so you're not in for 80 minutes of rocket science here, should you opt to sit down and watch "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs".

I was only familiar with two performers on the cast list, and that was Nicola Wright and Chrissie Wunna, both of which have an abundance of shoddy, questionable B movies on their resume. So you're not really in for 80 minutes of Shakespearian theater when you sit down to watch "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs", not that I was actually expecting much of any acting really.

As a movie with dinosaurs, then having believable and realistic-looking, or at least as realistic as one can assume extinct dinosaurs would look, sound and feel, is definitely a must. Did they have that in "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs"? No. Of course they didn't. The CGI animated dinosaurs stood out like a sore thumb, and not even a blind man would buy into what was being shown on the screen. The CGI in the movie were atrocious, which is rather amazing for a movie made just last year.

Actually, the best thing about "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs" was the movie's cover. Yeah, I kid you not.

My rating of writer and director Scott Jeffrey's 2022 movie "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs" lands on a two out of ten stars.

...this film won't disappoint. There's not much pretense at a real story or any character development but plenty of very stupid people that you don't much care about running and screaming and being eaten along the way. It wasn't too gory, either, which appeals to my inner 8-year-old who's there for the dinosaurs, not the slaughter. The British accents were a nice change for this American and some of the scenery is really unexpected. The movie is derivative and repeats cinematic dinosaur tropes like velociraptors in the kitchen and ripples in a glass indicating the approach of a T Rex but for me, that there even are cinematic dinosaur tropes is magnificent. Who needs a plot when they've got a T Rex?

At the start, we find a biotech company that has created dinosaurs, and a war that is starting. Of course the dinosaurs escape. A phone alert was sent to key people to head to a specified shelter. It is then two years later, and we find about a dozen in the shelter, supplies running low. Some want to go look for food, but one tells them they would be told if it were safe to go outside, but there has been no communication in six months. For a fun low budget film, expect perhaps over the top acting, actors not taking things seriously, and cheesy effects. The CGI isn't all that good, as it doesn't blend well, but I have seen worse. But the actors seem to be following the script and directions well, and that is the real problem. If smart people were to get to the shelter, they sure missed, based on the decisions made. Several decided to go out, and they find a house fully functional, and even a car that runs, plus others. Their weapons are pistols. Meanwhile to get better reception with the party that left, one man goes to the entrance to get in touch with them, leaving all the doors open. A raptor gets in, and kills and chases people in the bunker, who all run, leaving all the doors open behind them. The actors seem to take their roles seriously, and predictably. It just is that the script is so bad, one cannot believe they would possibly do what they are doing. And what scriptwriter would have a military team using only pistols when there are meat eating dinos out there? This could have been a fun cheesy low budget B-movie with a much different script.

After the onset of World War III, a group of survivors in a military bunker decides to leave when the food supply has dwindled to the point of restocking, forcing them out to the world where they find it patrolled by man-eating dinosaurs released during the period and must get away from the creatures.

This was a decent enough if flawed feature. Among the more likable factors here are from the somewhat enjoyable setup that brings along several fine storyline features wrapped together here. With the beginning of the film showing the descent into the worldwide dystopian future that the rest of the film is supposedly set in and getting the crew of personnel into the military bunker, this immediately gets off to a strong start as the initial immersion into this world is quite fun. On top of that, there's a lot to like here with the means of getting the dinosaurs to be released in the aftermath of the damage as well as the concurrent situations with the various survivors who all have their own issues or problems going on that give the film a serviceable setup. The other really enjoyable part here is the preponderance of cheesy dinosaur attacks and action throughout here. The idea of utilizing the raptors as savage ambush villains in the first half where they attack in the hallways of the military bunker or down in the basement of the facility generates some fun short chase scenes at points. The move into the Rexes and the Pterodactyls in the second half enhance the action considerably with several great sequences including the attack on the car inside the quarry or the final scene in the bunker which is quite fun providing the kind of cheesy entertainment that's required in these kinds of films. It's the biggest part that holds this one up the most. There are some problems to be had here. Among the bigger factors come from the lackluster characters here that, while they go through the motions of setting up the characters and their relationships, runs on a bit too long in a film this short. Rather than spend time with the dinosaurs hunting them down and chasing them, this tends to waste a bit more time than necessary on setting up the storyline involving the pregnant character worried about the fate of her boyfriend while out on the recovery mission or the rather long-winded scenes back at the second survivors' of everyone waiting around for the inevitable without actually trying to barricade anything or prevent the dinos from getting in. This does end up leading to a somewhat bland and dull appearance at points despite the film being so short. The other factor at play here is the generally unappealing and overall expected lackluster CGI effects for the dinosaurs which shouldn't be a surprise but really features a majority of the usual detrimental features. It shouldn't be much of a surprise to learn that they rarely seem to interact with anything in their environment whenever they're on-screen or tend to change size and dimension depending on the camera angle or sequence involved. However, they also manage to showcase the other expected drawbacks in a pixelated appearance and generally unrealistic movements that make it easy to tell they've been faked. It adds a cheap quality to everything that all makes for the issues holding this one back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.