Well I like millions of others love the idea of learning about dinosaurs, from children to the elderly there is just something fascinating about them. I am far from a palaeontologist, my love has come from having toys as a kid, TV shows and the Jurassic Park series, so I was so excited to see this film.
I'm not sure why but I assumed a film being released on Boxing Day would be a guaranteed classic, boy was I wrong. I wont spoil the so called "plot" of this film, as I don't think that's fair to people who want to see it.
The positives are there though, the animation and the effects are genuinely beautiful and the fact there were elements of learning in the movie is a nice added bonus especially for children. The first annoyance I had and this may sound a little cheap is that I didn't and most wont recognise any of the dinosaurs in this film, they look familiar but none of the "classic" or "well known" dinosaurs are here.
The dinosaurs do have voices, but unlike any good animation film they didn't have vocal movements on the characters, all of it was dubbed over the action and sometimes it was hard to work out who was actually talking, that was my biggest complaint, something I felt was a lazy move by the creator.
The plot is horrendous and extremely dull, it would have been a good hour show on the television on the discovery channel if the voices weren't there. None of the characters are that interesting and they make a very lame attempt to make the lead come across endearing and someone who you want to back for success, sadly he isn't, the film has poor character development and most of the characters are one dimensional and very irritating.
I loved watching the dinosaurs and found some of it educational, but this film would have been better without the poor voices and done as an experience of the amazement that dinosaurs bring rather than a very poor story. Kids wont enjoy the story any better, I'm a huge kid film fan but this is just not a good watch.
I'd recommend buying this when its in the bargain bin in a local shop and watch it without sound, just to appreciate the effects and the wonder of that era.
What a waste of potential!!!
