Movie Review: The Dinosaur Project
I decided to watch The Dinosaur Project thinking that since a stressful discussion that lasted nearly a week finally ended yesterday, I could use with some cinema entertainment. I heard that reviews were not positive but I didn't check the synopsis; I told others that hey, I'd like to watch and have my own opinion on the film.
Boy I learned that it's good to do a bit of homework before watching the show!
Plot
The film starts off claiming that the footage we're about to watch is an original, unedited film. Okay, impress me. Sightings of Mokele Mbebe, the African counterpart to Scotland's Loch Ness prompts an expedition by the British Cryptozoological Society to track and find the creature. Leading the expedition is the renown scientist Jonathan Marchant and his trusted aide Charlie Rutherford.
A TV team tags along with a pretty medical personnel and a local guide and gets on a helicopter ride to the dense jungles where the creature was supposedly spotted. Jonathan's son Luke is a whiz with cameras and satellite technology; the teenager was supposed to stay in the hotel but managed to sneak into the helicopter; he was discovered and his father is forced to let his son join the expedition because the helicopter can't turn back (I'm not gonna mention the reason here).
Suddenly big flying non-birds crash into the chopper and it crashes, bursts into flame killing the pilot. The team begins a perilous journey back to civilization but learns that there's a "gateway" from which the dinosaurs are emerging from, and they come into close contact with creatures thought extinct but are apparently very much alive and in many instances, very much as deadly as the textbooks say. The footage is "shot" from the moment the team arrives in the airport to the end when they come across the dinosaur population.
Cast
Nothing inspiring about the cast's performance: I guess when your character is a typical stereotype, it's difficult to play it any other way.
Music
Since this is "actual" footage, there's no accompanying music. The sound effects -- I mean the "real" sounds you hear are pretty realistic. I guess :/
Conclusion
The film was shot Blair Witch Project-style, but with such a weak plot and uninspiring acting, it comes off as a dizzying mash-up of jungle + dinosaurs + diluted human drama. I expected a Jurassic Park-esque film but without the back-up of a strong story and supporting soundtrack, this film did not live up to the RM9.50 billing that I'd to pay. Although I'm fascinated with the idea of a living dinosaur population in unexplored terrain, this film didn't quite pull it off.
I should've watched Paranorman.
Boy I learned that it's good to do a bit of homework before watching the show!
Plot
The film starts off claiming that the footage we're about to watch is an original, unedited film. Okay, impress me. Sightings of Mokele Mbebe, the African counterpart to Scotland's Loch Ness prompts an expedition by the British Cryptozoological Society to track and find the creature. Leading the expedition is the renown scientist Jonathan Marchant and his trusted aide Charlie Rutherford.
Cast
Nothing inspiring about the cast's performance: I guess when your character is a typical stereotype, it's difficult to play it any other way.
Since this is "actual" footage, there's no accompanying music. The sound effects -- I mean the "real" sounds you hear are pretty realistic. I guess :/
Conclusion
The film was shot Blair Witch Project-style, but with such a weak plot and uninspiring acting, it comes off as a dizzying mash-up of jungle + dinosaurs + diluted human drama. I expected a Jurassic Park-esque film but without the back-up of a strong story and supporting soundtrack, this film did not live up to the RM9.50 billing that I'd to pay. Although I'm fascinated with the idea of a living dinosaur population in unexplored terrain, this film didn't quite pull it off.
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