Director: Scott Jeffrey
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Jurassic Valley
Genre: Dinosaurs
Plot:
After the onset of World War III, a group of survivors in a military bunker decides to leave when the food supply has dwindled to the point of restocking, forcing them out to the world where they find it patrolled by man-eating dinosaurs released during the period and must get away from the creatures.
Review:
This was a decent enough if flawed feature. Among the more likable factors here are from the somewhat enjoyable setup that brings along several fine storyline features wrapped together here. With the beginning of the film showing the descent into the worldwide dystopian future that the rest of the film is supposedly set in and getting the crew of personnel into the military bunker, this immediately gets off to a strong start as the initial immersion into this world is quite fun. On top of that, there’s a lot to like here with the means of getting the dinosaurs to be released in the aftermath of the damage as well as the concurrent situations with the various survivors who all have their own issues or problems going on that give the film a serviceable setup.
The other really enjoyable part here is the preponderance of cheesy dinosaur attacks and action throughout here. The idea of utilizing the raptors as savage ambush villains in the first half where they attack in the hallways of the military bunker or down in the basement of the facility generates some fun short chase scenes at points. The move into the Rexes and the Pterodactyls in the second half enhance the action considerably with several great sequences including the attack on the car inside the quarry or the final scene in the bunker which is quite fun providing the kind of cheesy entertainment that’s required in these kinds of films. It’s the biggest part that holds this one up the most.
There are some problems to be had here. Among the bigger factors come from the lackluster characters here that, while they go through the motions of setting up the characters and their relationships, runs on a bit too long in a film this short. Rather than spend time with the dinosaurs hunting them down and chasing them, this tends to waste a bit more time than necessary on setting up the storyline involving the pregnant character worried about the fate of her boyfriend while out on the recovery mission or the rather long-winded scenes back at the second survivors' of everyone waiting around for the inevitable without actually trying to barricade anything or prevent the dinos from getting in. This does end up leading to a somewhat bland and dull appearance at points despite the film being so short.
The other factor at play here is the generally unappealing and overall expected lackluster CGI effects for the dinosaurs which shouldn't be a surprise but really features a majority of the usual detrimental features. It shouldn't be much of a surprise to learn that they rarely seem to interact with anything in their environment whenever they're on-screen or tend to change size and dimension depending on the camera angle or sequence involved. However, they also manage to showcase the other expected drawbacks in a pixelated appearance and generally unrealistic movements that make it easy to tell they've been faked. It adds a cheap quality to everything that all makes for the issues holding this one back.
Overview: ***/5
A wholly serviceable cheesy dinosaur effort that's let down somewhat by its flaws, this one is pretty easy to understand where it’s going for fans of the genre. Those viewers who do appreciate the style and approach taken here or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here while most others out there should heed outright caution with this one in favor of indie efforts higher up on the ladder than this one.
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