Another movie about dinosaurs with a completely forced and unnecessary voice over. Didn’t I already review a movie like that? Yes. But this is the slightly better version of that, released the year before. Slightly being the key word here.
Walking With Dinosaurs: Korean Edition. That’s what it is. But to its credit, it is WAY less annoying. And it’s about a Tarbosaurus, my 3rd favorite large theropod dinosaur. There are 3 aspects that they got better in this one.
Improvement #1: There’s only one dinosaur that talks. Well, he kinda talks. It’s more like what’s going through his mind. Sometimes they act more like a narrator than a character, though. One down side is that the voice actor for when he was young was more annoying than any voice actors from Walking With Dinosaurs combined. YES. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. The voice actor for when the dinosaur is older sounds stupid, sure, but it’s not as bad.
Improvement #2: The voice actors actually manage to SHUT. THE. F. UP. for more than 10 seconds! Sometimes it might be a whole minute or two (maybe longer) before any lines are spoken! Those moments of voicelessness are the best parts of the movie, because it lets the audience watch the film without holding their hand all the way through. When the Tarbosaurus does talk, all he says is “Oh, no! It’s One-Eye!” or “My sisters!” or some other brief exclamation. He may go into detail about some dinosaur species, but at least he doesn’t rewind the footage to show everyone that he fell into a river instead of diving! Or use phrases like “Dude!” or “Not cool!” or “Take that, random tree!”
Improvement #3: No childish poop jokes! In fact, there wasn’t really anything that could be considered ‘humor’ at all in this movie. There were a lot of really dark moments that clashed with the child pandering of the voice overs, like when a baby Tarbosaurus gets smashed by a rock, or when his brother gets shoved off a cliff. Yeah, take 3-4 year olds to see that!
That does bring up a question: Is this for kids? Little kids? The voice overs say so, but the fact that the film focuses on predators negates that statement. In every other movie about dinosaurs, the predators are the bad guys. This movie has Tarbosaurs as the main characters. That’ll go over well with little kids. “Look! That dinosaur is ripping the throat out of the gentle, harmless plant eater! Isn’t this fun, kiddies?”
When I was a kid, I’d sure think watching that would be fun, but I couldn’t say the same for others who don’t get that it’s just nature. Would kids cry during a documentary about lions when they kill a zebra? It’s possible. But that’s how nature works. Little kids probably won’t get that.
One big complaint I have is the historical inaccuracies. The film takes place in Korea, about 80 million years ago. I’m pretty confident in saying Microraptors and Ankylosaurus didn’t live in that specific area. Or that specific time. With all the Velociraptors, Tarbosaurs, Protoceratops and Therizinosaurs, it made me think of the dinosaurs found in Mongolia around that time frame. The continents were different back then, so maybe fossils of those species were found there after they shifted. But I am 100% certain that Torosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex did not EVER live in that area or in that time frame. Torosaurus ant T-Rex never even met! They couldn’t have ever met! There’s no way! That’s what always gets me. Those painfully obvious inaccuracies.
Another part about the T-Rex meeting Tarbosaurus thing I hated was when they fought. It looked neat, but the Tarbosaurs should have died when the T-Rex clamped his jaw on their necks. That one bite should have killed them. But it didn’t. Because no one cared about facts.
The CGI is significantly lower budget than Walking With Dinosaurs, and you can tell. Some shots look really good, and others look off. More off than on, in this case. The designs of the dinosaurs aren’t bad, the textures range from great to okay, and the way they look added into the real life landscapes doesn’t always make it look like it’s really there.
That being said, the dinosaur fight scenes do look cool. The soundtrack is nice, and the movie, overall, isn’t too terribly bad. It’s still not good enough to make me watch it again, but I don’t absolutely hate it as much as 20th Century Fox’s Walking With Dinosaurs. If you’d ever want to put it on for your kids, go ahead. They won’t feel stupid.
FINAL RATING: 11 / 50
STORY: 1 / 5
VOICE ACTING: 0 / 5
CHARACTERS: 0 / 5
CGI: 2 / 5
ADVENTURE: 2 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 3 / 5
TONE: 1 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 2 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 0 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 0 / 5
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