Primitive War

Entertaining time, but is about 30 minutes too long. Felt like the actors were doing character studies for their weekly acting class. They did a solid effort with the about the quarter of the budget that Jurassic park had. There were a lot of good scenes that could of made a great movie if they had better writing and acting and budget buy in. The third act had some great scenes as well and some good cinematography. Why does everyone feel the need to rehash old Vietnam tropes in their movies. This would hit the top of the leaderboard up on Netflix for a mindless, fun science fiction action movie. I just wonder what could have been if more people just believed in this movie.

The dinosaur action was amazing and obviously there's some parts that could look better but that's it if you're really nit picking. If you're a fan of dinosaurs and want a mature tone for your dinosaur media than this is right up your alley, it's not a field trip in the jungle it's a fight for survival and seeing that in a serious tone with consequences was great to see on the big screen. As Luke Sparke said on InGeneral: The Jurassic Outpost Podcast, he said he loves randomness with his dinosaurs and them just being animals and you get a lot of that in this movie. From grazing, to hunting (some were on demon mode), to sleeping they captured the dinosaurs in a great way (while showing off how dangerous and deadly they are).

The Marines and their story took me by surprise with how good it was and how they got a story and honestly the struggles of war and PTSD and just mental health was captured really well and something that caught me off guard. The characters were good and did their job only some were a tad questionable but it's not that bad. The dialogue was good and I was surprised with how funny it was? I guess because it is a war movie set in Vietnam you can use colourful language and they didn't shy away from it and it really sets the tone.

The gore was INTENSE and I'm definitely not use to seeing that in a Dinosaur movie and it was a nice change showing how dangerous a dinosaur is and so much death, I honestly lost count in the first 15 mins there was so much and it was fun a fun WILD ride. For an independent film, the scale is amazing I honestly can't get over how great it was and you can just tell how much passion is in this movie, Luke Sparke is like us A HUGE dinosaur fan that achieved his dream and made his dinosaur movie, I genuinely think you should check it out if you love Dinosaurs and as a Jurassic Park/World fan we need competition and competition breeds greatness, we need more dinosaur media in general and this is the right way forward as a Dinosaur fan. So enough of me yappin and go check out Primitive War.

I have minor gripes, like the movie feels about 25 minutes too long and takes a minute to get going, but I still had a great time with this. Strong performances from the "Vultures" and some legitimately great dino action (especially for an indie film with this budget) carry this one easily. Definitely recommend.

Think "Apocalypse Now" meets "Jurassic Park" for adults and you've got "Primitive War" set in 1968 Vietnam War.

The movie comes out swinging with a troop of Green Berets decimated by prehistoric Dinosaurs...being hunted whilst cool 60's Vietnam soundtrack rocks out of the speakers.

(In this scene Creedence's "Fortunate Son".)

The crack US "Vulture" squad led by their saving Sergeant, Ryan Kwanten, are dropped into this mysterious valley to extract any survivors under highly classified orders from the insane, f-bomb dropping Colonel Jericho (Jeremy Piven "Entourage"/"Rush Hour 2").

Honestly I was expecting low quality VFX, but "Primitive War" impressed this dinosaur fan.

There is plenty of dinosaur action packed into 2 hrs and 15 minutes on a minuscule budget of under 10 million USD and its first class.

They've created more faithful dinosaur designs than Spielberg and his cronies whilst paying homage to lots of Jurassic and War movie tropes.

Throw in a Russian Palaeontologist, Communist Soldiers, Worm Holes and a Nuclear Collider and you've got a party.

This Collider will make a hydrogen bomb look like a soldier lighting one of his farts!

The final battle scene in a South East Asian war zone (actually Gold Coast Hinterland) rivals the latest "Jurassic World: Dominion or Rebirth".

It's balls to the wall insanely good and makes up for some of the earlier lazy character exposition.

Towards the third act I was championing certain characters to survive this horror because I found myself actually engaged with a few of their stories.

They've done so much with so little despite an average script and average acting.

"Primitive War" really sticks it to Michael Crichtons big screen creation.

This is the fun, horror Dinosaur/War movie some of us have been waiting for, despite the crazy Rusky, Asian & American accents and not enough comedy to balance the drama.

Based on Ethan Pettus 2017 book this promises a sequel because there's more material waiting to be mined.

"Primitive War" ain't no walk in the park or run through the jungle, but it's Aussie director Luke Sparke's best film to date.

This was so much fun. Man, I have no complaints. You can tell the director was so passionate about this project, it really shows through. They performed a literal miracle with the budget they had. The dinosaurs look incredible. It's campy and ridiculous and over the top but it freaking works! Ryan Kwanten is the king of B movies and he doesn't let anyone down in this one. I was worried in the first twenty minutes or so because it really felt like they were trying so hard to get you to care about the characters and I really couldn't, they felt flat. But an hour in I cared about all of them. The subplot with how the dinos came to be in Vietnam was also ridiculous but in the best possible way. I don't want to give any spoilers because I think you should just see it in the theater while you have a chance, I don't think it'll be the same watching it at home. A lot of it is also shot very very dark so I can imagine it being difficult to see exactly what's going on watching on a TV screen. Jeremy Piven, say what you want about him, is also hilariously over the top in his performance. You can tell he had a lot of fun with this. There's a specific scene with a tiger that had me actually laugh out loud a little, and then a scene near the end in a helicopter where he's yelling that got me laughing again. That dude has charisma whether you like him or not. I'm going to try to see this again with some more friends before it's gone.