Dinotopia

Beautiful production and striking set pieces do little to raise this clumsy drama to any level of worthiness. With a laughable script and cheesy acting, so much visual inventiveness has been squandered. How unfortunate that the hackneyed and stilted story centres on the two bratty brothers rather than the rich and well conceived culture in which they find themselves.

All a bit of a wasted opportunity I'm afraid. Effects do not validate an otherwise tedious experience.

For those who read and loved James Gurney's Dinotopia books, the miniseries was quite a letdown. With one dimensional characters, hammy acting (with the exception of David Thewlis), and a clunky script, it failed, even over a six hour period, to capture the magic that Gurney had created. The good news is that the series seems to be a marked improvement. While still plagued with cheesy dialogue, the cast comes across as much more talented, and they have a good deal more charisma. The abundant dinosaurs, while not ILM quality, are very impressive, and become a part of the story rather than a cheap visual gimmick. The producers also have wisely decided to keep much of Trevor Jones' orchestral score from the miniseries, a blessing in today's slew of corny pop TV themes. While it still has a long way to go before it can be called as good as the books, this series shows great promise. Let's hope the pieces continue to fall into place before it is cancelled and the opportunity is lost forever.

While this series was not as visually pleasing as the miniseries, it created characters who were deeper, and a plot line that fully captures viewers attention for all 13 episodes. The darker side of Dinotopia comes out in a way that helps the viewer to connect even more to the story. All the actors and actresses were great, and while the dialogue lacked in some parts, the realism of the characters did not. By the end of the series you find that you have laughed and cried with the characters, and found the occasion to yell at them on various occasions. In all the series was great, both for a lover of the dinotopian story lines, and for the first time viewer. A diffenent 8 out of 10.

Seems like I'm one of the few that liked the miniseries better than the actual TV series...

Gripe One: Complete change of cast for the main (human) characters. BAD idea! The original actors showed enough potential in the miniseries that I would have liked to see them grow into their roles.

Gripe Two: Only minimal tie-in with, or continuation of, the story put forth in the miniseries.

Gripe Three: The replacement "actors" couldn't act to save their own lives.

Gripe Four: The writing stank.

I think it would have been a much more interesting story if the island's location had been revealed somehow (perhaps by the ELT -- Emergency Locator Transmitter -- in the plane going off), and the lead characters had to -- somehow -- convince whoever came tracking the thing not to expose the place to the world. Granted, you could only do that in one or two episodes, but I still would have liked to have seen it.

Sorry, gang. I have to give this one two thumbs down, and breathe a sigh of relief that it was put out of its misery after, what, about six episodes?

I was glad to see the human story is as prominent as the Scifi/Fantasy element in this continuation of last season's miniseries. The cast has been replaced for the weekly series, apparently to good effect. I especially like Shiloh Strong as David, the more responsible of the two brothers. There's an unreal quality to the effects--though I don't know the degree to which it can be explained by my own knowledge of the processes involved or whether my senses are reacting to direct evidence. Special effects are both better and worse since they have come to depend so heavily on computer-generated images.

If the creative forces behind the series have mapped their strategy carefully, this could become a classic; unfortunately, it has little chance to last beyond its maiden season. An effects-laden show like "Dinotopia" is much more expensive than a typical series, and it's highly unlikely to attract blockbuster ratings which would be necessary to justify the expense.