T-Rex 3D

From the bulk of reviews on this site I gather most people don't realize that IMAX is about presentation and style rather than story and content. Shot on vertical 70mm film the reels in the projection booth take up a huge amount of space, thus the running time of IMAX movies tends to be kept to around 45-50 minutes. Thus the format lends itself more towards the documentary/short movie genre. Most of the movies are factual but sometimes original stories come along. T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous is one of them.

It came out in 1998 and when I was at the Trocadero IMAX-3D cinema in London I had to choose between this movie and another called Across the Sea of Time. I chose the latter. Which is a shame coz the dinosaurs and huge shots of this movie would have looked better in 3D.

T-Rex begins with an impressive opening shot of the camera swooping over the Arizona desert, which still looks great even on a widescreen TV instead of the huge IMAX screen. There's a hefty narration from the lead actress conveying relevant information about dinosaurs. In this respect the film feels a bit like a 10-year-old's educational program. But being familiar with IMAX movies I was expecting this. I think too many people were expecting a Jurassic Park variant.

Tho I would have expected a few more dinosaurs. In the 45 minute running time there wasn't much dinosaur action. Though there was a good amount of story that I did get into. Plus the movie has a great score by William Ross. He released a promo CD of this score but it's impossible to find.

Hey, I was entertained and I thot the brief story was quite okay. The horribly slanderous reviews on this site really baffle me. The IMAX format does not work well on DVD, you have to see these movies in the cinema. But if you have a good sound system then the DVD is still worth it.

The DVD is in 1.33:1 full frame (they are shown theatrically at 1.44:1 so there isn't much modification to the framing) with a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack that is quite impressive. A slight featurette and an IMAX movies trailer are also included.

If you haven't yet seen an IMAX 3D film this is the one to watch!

Ally (Liz Stauber) works in the natural history museum and wants to be a paleontologist like her Dad (Peter Horton). When her Dad returns from a dig with what she believes could be a T-Rex egg, a mishap leads to toxic fumes escaping from the 'egg' which Ally accidentally breathes, taking her back in time into a fantastic example of the IMAX 3D experience through her hallucinatory journey.

The 3D effects are stunning, from the archaeologists chipping away at the rocks apparently sat on your knee to the amazing close-ups of the pre-historic creatures as they appear just inches from your face!

If, like me, you feel that the average film is too long, then you'll love this. At around 45 minutes, it's more like a long TV program than a movie so there's no chance of boredom setting in, and the continuous 3D effects throughout will leave you grinning with awe and enjoyment.

Sure, it isn't Jurassic Park, but for a short, and presumeably low budget movie with a relatively unknown cast, the effects are very good indeed and the story is simple, but nice.

This film really needs to be viewed as it was intended to be though, in 3D, so that the effects come to life and engross you into feeling you are there.

An IMAX 3D must see!!

Nothing to really say about this movie except that I remember having seen it. I was scrolling through Brett Leonard's filmography after having watched his 1995 magnum opus Virtuosity and the title jumped out at me. I remember my mom shouting, "Back to the Cretaceous!" pretty much any time the topic of dinosaurs came up for a good few years after seeing this. I guess the phrase really struck her fancy.

The reviews here are pretty negative. Probably they are correct in that the film isn't very good. I was only 11 when I saw it at the IMAX at Navy Pier, now sadly closed for good due to the pandemic. Pretty much all I remember are those sweeping shots of the desert that open the film--quite effective in large-format 3D. I knew that the movie wasn't as good as Jurassic Park, and the effects were quite cheesy, but due to the short running time and the 3D gimmick I basically viewed it as something of a combination of one of those videos you would watch in science class to fill time while your teacher recovered from a hangover and a theme park show, like the T2-3D: Battle Across Time at Universal Studios. Let's face it, you don't expect stellar acting or solid storytelling from either of those subgenres.

I guess the one thing this has over the Spielberg movie is that it knows which Mesozoic period the T-Rex lived in.

If you've never been to an Imax show or a 3-D film, go along for the experience. However, what it has in effects, it lacks in dialogue, storyline etc. Forty six minutes was enough.

Maybe it's because I'm not 11 years old anymore, but I watched this movie with my 9 year old nephew, and neither one of us bothered to push the still button, when we went to the bathroom. Is this the way American kids are lured into learning science? A teenager stumbling through ridicoluos scenes with dinosaurs, only to get rescued by her father, who seemingly abandoned her?