The Dinosaur Project

A surprisingly fun "found footage" film, "The Dinosaur Project" is great for dinosaur junkies, or anyone that can handle the POV experience. Much better than than some of the super low rated reviews I've read, I was glad I ignored the bad ratings and rented (VOD) it anyway. Although it's no where near the scale (or budget) of Jurassic Park, it's a well made and good looking low budget dino flick.

A group of archeologists, complete with TV film crew, all decked with Go Pro's (mini HD video camera's that you wear to record your POV-many extreme sports athletes are using them now) head into the jungles of South Africa to find Africa's equivalent of the Loch Ness monster. Of course, on the flight into the jungle some pre-historic birds fly into the blades of there helicopter and the team crash lands in the middle of the jungle (right where the sitings have been, luckily). The surviving team must now navigate through the harsh jungle, and prove whether or not there are still dinosaurs hidden in the jungle that locals swear are there...

The dinosaurs look great, surprisingly since it was a low budget indie film. The acting is, for the most part, good and believable. The story was entertaining, but I felt it got a little absurd in the last act (but its a movie with dinosaurs in the jungle so it gets a pass). It is Unrated but is an easy PG-13, so you can watch it with the kids on family night.

The Dinosaur Project is a great rental with good looking dinosaurs and an absurd but fun last act, so check this film out on your next family movie night!

Don't let the strangely low rating on IMDb fool you folks. This movie is an entertaining mixture of a dinosaur movie and a "found footage" film. If you liked Jurassic Park and Paranormal Activity then I think you'll enjoy this movie, it's got elements of both intertwined within.

However, don't make the mistake of believing that it's trying to copy either of those movies, it stands out on it's own and is quite unique in many respects. It's highly advisable to not watch The Dinosaur Project with the expectation of seeing Jurassic Park 4, you'll almost certainly be disappointed. Instead, view it as a different twist on the whole dinosaur theme.

It's got moments of humor, moments of horror and 5 different species of satisfying CGI dinosaurs (a few more species would have been nice). There are quite a few great dinosaur shots, including one scene where a dinosaur is filmed from first person perspective while swimming with it's siblings, which I thought was very well done. There are scenes with flying dinosaurs, swimming dinosaurs and land-based dinosaurs, so there's quite a mix of dinosaur material incorporated.

The acting is about average for today's standards, there's a mix of good moments and not so good moments, it's really nowhere near as bad as one of the other reviewers has mentioned, all the actors did an adequate job. I've seen a lot of big budget Hollywood movies with acting that was far, far inferior to this. None of the actors deserve awards for their performances but they all (story-permitting) deserve to be rehired for the sequel.

And one thing to mention is the camera work, I thought it was filmed exceptionally well with some very inventive usage of the first-person perspective, nicely mixed with third-person shots. I was actually hugely impressed at how well it was filmed for the constraints that a "found footage" film puts on the director. From a technical point of view, it's probably one of the best examples of the genre in my opinion. I'm not really a fan of "found footage" film as such, but this movie is a brilliant example of how to use it effectively. And there are a number of people with cameras in the movie, so we get to see different camera angles too.

By no means is it perfect though, there are moments in the movie which are implausible and the scripting could have been improved in places. But I could say the same for a lot of movies I've seen, and many of them are, again, big budget Hollywood blockbusters. This movie isn't trying to teach you about dinosaurs, it's not scientifically precise, it's not trying to emulate the epic nature of the Jurassic Park franchise. All it's trying to do is entertain you, in a sort of pop-corn flick fashion. At the same time however, it's unique, absorbing and well-directed.

With a somewhat open-ending, I'd definitely be interested in watching part 2 if it ever gets produced. Remember, it's not Jurassic Park, it's a different spin on the dinosaur theme but with understandably similar consequences of human and dinosaur coexistence.

If you're a fan of anything dinosaur-related then this is a movie you don't want to miss. Just go into it with low expectations (like I did after seeing the low IMDb score) and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. I give this one a 6.5.

The movie has a very fun story to it, which leaves a lot of space for action and playing around with.

Yes, some of the acting was cheesy, some of the story was cheesy, but all in all the story was very entertaining.

I think they should have dropped the POV style of filming, because as a normal movie it would be great.

Fun shots, lots of action, and a cool story.

There are also very original takes on the whole dinosaur-man connection which I haven't seen in any other movie.

CGI was really well done, which is pretty rare in movies that seem low budget.

I think for some reason people are just hating on the movie for no good reason (there is no reason why this movie deserves 1 star...)

The ending leaves lots of space for a sequel, and I cant wait to see it.

There are better dinosaur movies out there than The Dinosaur Project(naming them though will be unfair) but there are definitely far worse like almost every dino movie released by SyFy or The Asylum. The Dinosaur Project is far from perfect or great, but it was entertaining and did have some things it did well. Is it better than the IMDb and what has been said about it? I think so. Some of the camera work did have a dizzying effect with some shakiness that at times didn't add anything. The acting is a case of it being acceptable in parts, Richard Dillane is very good actually and while underused so is Natasha Loring, most of the time actually it was the case, but being rather cheesy in other parts especially the last act. Matt Kane does look wooden and Peter Brooke wildly overplays. The villain was not written at all well, there was no real point to him(the dinosaurs were conflict enough) and some of his scenes belonged somewhere else altogether, while the last act got far too silly and stretched credibility to the limit. However, the scenery is beautiful and made good use of and the dinosaur effects are surprisingly good. The dinosaurs themselves are very believable and creepy and have more colourful personalities than the human characters, agreed about that lovely moment with the baby Ceratosaurussen. Wish we could have seen more of them. Some camera work is inventive, the music is jaunty and the movie does have a snappy script that doesn't pad things out too much and has some light-hearted humour that sounds easy rather than awkward. The story goes at breakneck speed and is mostly enjoyably fun with the attacks having some genuine tension. On the whole, a fun film that could have been executed better but is nowhere near as bad as some have cited to be. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This movie really had me smiling at the end of it. And thats a good thing, really i could take this over the more recent king Kong any day of the week, this film does not even try to compete with a heavyweight masterpiece like jurasic park and as a result stands up on its own merits.

Forget about the biased cheap scores the review sites have given this film, forget that this film has a cast of relatively unknown cast members, forget that this film isn't scientifically realistic, Just go and watch with an open mind.

Its just so ambitious yet also so modest, one of the few pleasant surprises this year.