Sur la terre des dinosaures: Le film

So I took my 5 year old to see this film today and it really was a let down. My son loves dinosaurs and was really looking forward to it but you could tell he was getting bored of it as was I. Usually he will quite happily sit through a whole film at the cinema and just be completely engrossed in it but the story for this film is so terrible that it couldn't seem to hold his attention at all.

For a film called walking with dinosaurs I expected there to be loads of dinosaur species in it but there were very few and there were none of the most well known dinosaurs like the t-rex, much to my son's disappointment.

I really just found it boring which is such a shame as it could have been such an amazing film, I mean it was absolutely beautiful (hence the 4 stars) but I do wish that I hadn't have bothered.

The overall story is one of a misfit runt overcoming obstacles as he grows up. We've seen the story before, nothing new. CGI is impressive and they even had enough sense to include footprints the dirt, so it seems more like the dinos are grounded, more real. It was hard to tell if the background was CGI or real life film w/ dinos added. The studio decided to frame the dino story with a modern day teenager not wanting to see his uncle in Alaska. Totally unnecessary, didn't need it, wasted time. Each time a new dinosaur entered the story, the movie did a freeze frame, the dinos name and an explanation of the name was give. Very disrupting. Then the dinos would use that name to refer to that dino-as if we would call each other Homo Sapien. A lot of the dialog was a bit too cute with references back to the modern world. I took my kid, he liked it, but that was probably because it was a movie about dinosaurs regardless of content. I found it mildly annoying. Strickly kids fare.

The most obvious departure of this 3D feature spin off from the acclaimed BBC series with the same name on which it is based is the fact that the titular dinosaurs actually talk. Well to be honest, talk might be a bit of an overstatement seeing as how the characters' mouths don't actually move much; rather, what we have is an attempt to humanise these dinosaurs for a young target audience, which in the minds of the filmmakers, means fitting Disney-fied dialogue into the picture.

As scripted by 'Happy Feet's' John Collee, the kid-friendly plot follows the template of a coming-of-age story where a young Pachyrhinosaurus named Patchi (voiced by Justin Long) grows into a leader over the course of a long migration. His companion and buddy happens to be a prehistoric parrot that goes by the name of Alex (voiced by John Leguizamo), who forms the bridge between the opening modern-day sequence - featuring a cameo by Josh Duhamel - and 70 million years back where most of the action unfolds.

Cast as timid and socially awkward, the film introduces Patchi as the runt of the litter, easily distinguishable from the rest of his siblings by a hole on the right side of his frill following a close shave with a predator as a kid. A change in the weather patterns prompts his herd's migration by his father Bulldust, which sets into motion a chain of events that will have Patchi eventually claiming the honour of leading the herd. It isn't just his inner strength that Patchi will discover by the end of the journey; along the way, Patchi also finds a romantic interest in the form of Juniper (Tiya Sircar), a fellow Pachyrhinosaurus he experiences love at first sight with.

As far as children-oriented pictures go, the story in this one is on many accounts too simplistic. There is some attempt to inject dramatic tension by setting up Patchi's rivalry with his brutish older brother Scowler (Skyler Stone), but it is hardly compelling stuff. Same goes for the storybook romance between Patchi and Juniper, which to no surprise builds to a happily-ever-after ending. In fact, much more entertaining is Patchi's loquacious friend and ally Alex, whose non-stop chatter consisting of all sorts of puns makes him the undeniably most engaging one of the lot.

Truth be told though, little would be lost if directors Barry Cook and Neil Nightingale had simply done away with the formulaic story. Simply put, the visuals are stunning, seamlessly mixing CGI with breathtaking backdrops in Alaska and New Zealand to transport its audience back in time into a world when dinosaurs ruled the Earth; and the experience is even more awe-inspiring captured on film using the cutting-edge cinematographic technology which James Cameron had employed for 'Avatar'. Seeing as how tacked on the dialogue feels to the visuals of the movie, one can't quite help but feel that the filmmakers should simply have stuck with the original's documentary approach.

Of course, Nightingale is no stranger to that; as the creative director of BBC Earth and the producer of countless other nature documentaries, he is more than well versed in the language of non-fiction. Unfortunately, he seems to have given freer rein to Cook, whose background in animated features like 'Mulan' and 'Arthur Christmas' has resulted in what is essentially a live-action Disney cartoon about dinosaurs. In spite of the occasional educational cards sharing the scientific names of the dinosaurs and their general dietary preference (whether herbivore or carnivore or omnivore), there is no shaking off the feeling that the charm of the original series has been largely lost on its journey to the big screen.

Not that the US$85 million dollar production is without merit - like we said, the combination of computer animation and live-action is never less than impressive and captivating, demonstrating the leaps and bounds by which technology has advanced since Steven Spielberg first enthralled the world using animatronics in 'Jurassic Park'. On that account alone, it should more than be a fascinating watch for the kiddies; grown-ups though will have a harder time immersing themselves into the lifelike world, ultimately challenged by the artificial dialogue and even more clichéd plot.

Dinosaurs have long proved a source of fascination for human beings - the notion that magnificent lizard-beasts used to rule the world we now live in... well, it would almost be the stuff of science-fiction, except it's just pure, unmitigated science. Walking With Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie - created using the same technology pioneered by BBC Earth for its classic 14-year-old dinosaur documentary - has decided to go fully into the realm of fiction. The result is wildly uneven, featuring spectacular animation but a laboured script that only occasionally manages to rustle up some interest and laughs.

Patchi (voiced by Justin Long) is the runt of the pachyrhinosaurus tribe. Small and clumsy, he seems fated to play second fiddle to his swifter, meaner brother Scowler (Skylar Stone) for the rest of his life. He's even thwarted in pursuing Juniper (Tiya Sircar), the girl of his dreams, when his brother wrests control of the tribe. As Patchi struggles to find his destiny, his tribe keeps strictly to their migration schedule - one which routinely takes them through a literal valley of death ruled over by their world's fiercest predator: the Gorgosaurus.

In visual terms, Walking With Dinosaurs is an undeniable treat. The gorgeously-animated dinosaurs, seemingly photo-real, have been transposed onto lushly-shot live-action footage of New Zealand and Alaska. As Alex (John Leguizamo), our winged Alexornis host, swoops over the rolling terrain, it's almost possible to believe that dinosaurs still roam the Earth.

What works considerably less well is John Collee's uninspired script. It's clearly targeted at children, but in an almost insulting manner. Alex's narration manages to be funny every once in a while - a particular highlight being his discussion of the Gorgosaurus' miniscule forearms (reminiscent of its T-Rex cousin). But, in the main, the dialogue between the dinosaurs is flat and comes close to silly, while Karl Urban and his young charges wander in for a few pretty pointless shots used to book-end Patchi's narrative.

This might work quite well for the very youngest of children, but adults and anyone above the age of ten might find themselves wishing ardently for the animation to be allowed to speak for itself. It's certainly rendered in impressive enough fashion - there's plenty more soul and depth in the eyes and actions of these great beasts than in their words. As it turns out, there might be some merit to watching Walking With Dinosaurs as a silent movie: it was originally conceived as such before the powers that be decided that it had to be rendered more kid- and family-friendly (i.e., more accessible).

There have been some truly great dinosaur movies made in our lifetime: ones brimming with action and tension (Jurassic Park) and others that deal particularly well in humanity and heartbreak (The Land Before Time). Walking With Dinosaurs tries for both and ends up with neither... although, to be fair, it does march along in mostly inoffensive fashion. Just don't expect too much from its narrative.

I'll be short: Great 3d animation wrapped around a stupid script that even kids found to be idiotic. There... I was a big fan of the show, and had great expectations about this movie. After seen "land before time" and "dinosaur" I expected this movie to raise the bar, both technically and in the narrative department. Wrong. The animation is top notch, not discussion, even better that "dinosaur" that was very good already, but when it came to the screenplay, and those dialogs, man, that was painful to watch. I mean, I saw kids yawning in the theater. A story may be simple, but never boring. Dialogs may be sparse, but entertaining or funny. The dialogs here where just plain dumb, boring and cliché. 5 out of 10 for me.