The Dinosaur Project

Logline: Found footage of an expedition into the Congo jungle where a team of explorers stumbles upon a colony of Dinosaurs.

Cast: Natasha Loring, Matt Kane, Peter Brooke.

Directed by: Sid Bennett

I bet not many people out there have heard of The Dinosaur Project. Being a blogger, I try to find very recent material - both popular and unknown. I find it gives a better angle on learning about movies when I take from both Hollywood blockbusters and indie films with low budgets. I chose this one simply because I love dinosaurs, the trailer didn't look THAT low budget, and because this was just recently released and not many people have even heard of it.

Summary

The film's protag, Luke, follows his father on an expedition in Africa in attempt to discover the mythical Loch Ness Monster. To make things a little more spicy, Luke and his father have a rocky relationship. Luke wants to be exactly like him, but his father really doesn't want him around and is angered by the little things that Luke does wrong. While in their helicopter they spot a flock of enormous looking birds that end up crashing into the propellers, sending the helicopter down into mysterious land. Deep in the Congo jungle, the crew stumbles upon an even bigger discovery - dinosaurs are still alive.

Review

Jurassic Park must have ruined dinosaur movies in Hollywood. Think about it. When's the last time you've heard of a dinosaur movie being produced with a good enough budget to make the dinosaurs visibly satisfying? I guess Spielberg set the bar so high that people don't want to attempt jumping over it - and that sucks.

I give all the credit in the world to Sid Bennett. Dinosaur movies are still relevant in my opinion. I've been craving for something new to be done with the concept. I very much doubt this film had any kind of budget, but the dinosaurs didn't look that bad! Surprisingly they're done pretty well. The only thing is - people will moan and complain that it's a found footage film, meaning that the camera is a bit shaky. I've went into this before during my Troll Hunter review, so I won't do it again. I still enjoyed it even though the camera was shaky at times.

So, enough reviewing the concept and camera work... what about the movie itself? Well, the story isn't deep by any means. We have the conflict between Luke and his father, and the rest of the movie is about finding civilization without being eaten by dinosaurs. Characters lacked a unique edge. No one really stood out. The father dressed exactly like Indiana Jones. Luke was just your average teenager. Charlie, another member of the crew, was selfish - that's it I guess. Nothing really stood out, nothing made me cheer for them while they were escaping the jungle.

On the bright side, this film is paced very well. There are constantly things happening. The runtime is 1h and 23 mins and the film has little to no excess fat weighing it down. I love films like this. I've stated before and I'll state it again: I'd rather watch a 1h and 25 minute movie that isn't weighed down with fat, than a 2h movie that is. The story did lack depth, but  but it wasn't to the point where the action suffered. It didn't have any subtle plot points, you know? It just followed the structure of the general story without any substance. I guess with the introduction of dinosaurs I was interested anyways.

One thing I was really disappointed with was the fact that they never really portrayed a hidden meaning as to why all of a sudden dinosaurs were in Africa. Some films have underlying messages as to what made them come out, others flat out tell you why. Given that these dinosaurs are present time, in an actual location on the globe, it would have been nice to have some kind of explanation why they've never been discovered before. Considering some of the dinosaurs can fly, you know, you'd think there'd be a reason. There wasn't.

Topic of the Day

I chose to do two topics today.

1) I hate that some found footage films are way too obvious.

If the beginning of the movie shows that footage was found somewhere, it is pretty evident that NO ONE makes it out alive. So the whole time I was watching characters that I knew were doomed. It is never made clear what happens to Luke, but considering no one had found him yet, you know.... I just hate having a film spoiled like that. Found footage shouldn't been shown as found footage until the ending.

2) If you're going to make an indie film, realize the budget in doing so.

It's kind of silly to think of what went through the creator's minds when this film was made. "Let's make a movie...", "Ok, but we don't have much money". "Let's make it about dinosaurs?", "That sounds like an awesome idea!"... tell me if that conversation makes any sense to you. I'm not saying that the visuals were corny at all, but the film did lack essential moments that this genre is so used to having. For example, when the helicopter goes down, most of the footage is cropped out and the screen goes blank. When they get attacked in their boat, the screen goes blank and comes back when they're on shore. A bigger budget would have allowed for the filmmakers to show what was happening instead of having the cameras turned off. These are the moments that make a dinosaur movie. I'm not totally blasting the creators, it's actually quite astounding what they did with their budget, but I can't ignore my inner urges to see moments like this lost and excuse it due to the constraints of money.

Consensus

The Dinosaur Project is an impressive feat for an indie movie with the concept of dinosaurs. The film's dinos are actually not that bad, but it does lack the essential movie moments by choosing to black out the screen during action sequences due to the lack of money needed to show what happened without looking corny. The characters are pretty lackluster and the story lacks depth, but due to a short runtime and a well paced timeline of events the film becomes quite a fun ride at times. I can't completely recommend it, but I can't say it's bad either. It may or may not be worth your time.

5.8/10