T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous

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.

No, not the absolute best movie that could have been made given the resources available to the film makers, but definitely a different approach for a relatively new format - i.e. 3D IMAX size. Compared to some the things that had been done by Douglas Trumbull for the likes of Universal at a very high budget, this motion picture was quite passable for a production done on the cusp of the CGI era. And, IMAX had a tendency to hire actors who were capable of telling the story rather than distracting from the ultimate goal of education.

Let me warn you that the subject matter is educational and meant to evoke some of the possible theories and realities of palaeontology. Much of what IMAX produced for decades filled in the scientific genre of big screen learning before the Discovery Channel had hit its stride. The producers were very limited by the size of the equipment and the resultant technologies needed to bring this very expensive experience to the very large screen. These days, of course, you can do a 3D motion picture using a film camera that practically fits in the palm of the hand.

Now on to something I'll bet very few folks recognize in the story line. Listen to Ally's experience in the museum, and some of you may realize that she is either a full blown diabetic or somewhere on the edge. Many kids have this problem, and it's a real limiting factor when you go out there on a professional dig where it's possible to get lost in the canyons of the west when being overtaken by low blood sugar. It clearly explains why her father is reticent to take her on a dig. Despite his seeming distraction with work, he really does care about his daughter's well being.

Finally, I want to thank the film makers for the location of their shoot. Anyone who dares to travel the badlands of Alberta, Canada, will not regret taking a trip to Drumheller to see the world's greatest palaeontology museum, The Royal Tyrell. We've never seen anything that gets near to the quality of displays and historical information as this amazing organization. Both my wife and I have been to all the filming sites used in the motion picture, including the preparation rooms (minus the little changes they made for the film). It brought back some incredible adventures to our memory. It's the only place I know of where a walk of 100 feet will transport you one million years into the past.

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.

I won't repeat what others have so correctly said about this movie. I only wish to respond to an assertion that this movie is one that might only be enjoyed by children under 6. I took my two boys (5 and 3) to see this movie so they could see dinosaurs roaming the large IMAX screen. Instead we saw a slack-jawed teenage girl and her father walking around a museum. I don't think many dinosaur-loving 6 and unders would even like this movie. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!!!