The Dinosaur Project

"The Dinosaur Project" ...........

Putting all the bad reviews aside i decided to take the time to watch this film and i actually found it pretty good. The story was interesting, the acting was good, the direction and camera work(for "found footage") were all fine. I'm not sure why everyone dislikes it so much but People who enjoy Watching the "Found Footage" Genre will definitely find this one entertaining. It reminded me of "Troll Hunter" (2010) and "The Tunnel"(2011) meets "jurassic park 3". All in all this is a pretty good effort, If you want to pick holes, check out the latest Hollywood blockbuster at you local cinema, even then you get crap movies sometimes.

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.

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

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.

After reading the negative reviews online I decided to give this film a go anyway after my plans for the weekend were cancelled... And what a surprise it was after expecting another Syfy B movie type film, although not exactly mind-blowing the CGI dinosaurs were fairly convincing if not impressive! And while I've seen better acting out there Kane's performance although rusty at times played out well especially in the "alone with the camera" scenes. I found the story rather silly at times but once I looked past the Sci-Fi genre and looked at the story from a more fantasy perspective I found myself enjoying the movie throughout. This movie has definitely earned my respect and although some scenes failed to live up its' title of "The best dino movie since Jurassic Park" I look forward to watching this title again along with my dino-enthusiast friend. Nice one!