Age of Dinosaurs

The movie is a poorly written script, lazily constructed dinosaurs, the worst CGI ever, underdeveloped characters, lack of production values. Even the very first big screen dinosaur movie Jurassic park released around 1992 (25 years ago), had much better graphics, the story and character write-up. More to it, it looks so obvious in the closeup shot that the character is talking to a rubber. You can make out the obvious difference in colour and graphic rending between two shots - closeup and far. Bottom line, it is more of senseless dinosaur behaviour and total disregard to physics results and results in a movie that is terrible to watch.

I gave this a four because I like Treat Williams and it was fun to watch Jillian Rose Reed jiggle. Nice to see Ronny Cox get a role where he is not an evil bad guy for a change. Of course he is not to informed about the things going on in his company, so in a way he is ultimately responsible for all the death and destruction that is unleashed when a whole bunch of dinosaurs created by his company are set loose on LA (no real lose). I found the articulation of some of the CGI creatures to be3 suspect. They just didn't seem to move right. It did start to get pretty ridiculous in the last many minutes. The daughter jumps for the chopper, grabs dad's hand/arm, slips out and starts to fall. Then a pteranodon swoops by and grabs her out of mid air. First I don't think it could support the girl's weight while in flight. Second well the first reason is enough. Then there is the scene at the Hollywood sign where Treat pushes the flying lizard that got trapped in the crashed helicopter over the edge using one finger. This is a typical SyFy channel under produced and written movie.

Though the plot was somewhat unclear and reminiscent of Jurrasic Park, it was an interesting movie in my opinion. I enjoyed watching this movie with my friends and we were on the edge of our seats throughout most of the movie. The graphics could have been slightly better and more detailed, the action scenes were very intense and actually very suspenseful. Some parts were predictable but I was surprised about how well put together the movie was. While most of the people who wrote a review say that the movie is terrible, I see the potential for a great movie series after watching it. Age of Dinosaurs really is an underrated thriller that doesn't get the praise that it truly deserves to be given.

I expected not too much, after all it is a low budget movie in a genre defined by multi million dollar projects like Jurassic Park. But there are just tons of problems with this movie. The script is bad, the acting ranges from okay to bad, the effects are bad, the sound is bad. The script has a not very original story, no plot twists, but lots of logical errors. The effects are simply bad. As soon as any dinosaur moves more than just a little, the animations look like from a 90s computer game (close ups and slow movements actually look decent). The CG do not match the footage, it just looks like copied from another movie and dropped into this. The (way too many) explosions are better, but still no match for many 15-20 year old movies. The characters.... no development at all. I kinda liked the Chief, and Jade is cute, but wanted to just look away for all those embarrassing lines. Sound effects and music were okay, but in many dialogues you hear lots of clothes rustling on the lavalier microphones. And so many WTF moments. Why would a Stegosaur be standing on top of a skyscraper? Why would every helicopter pilot try to get within biting range? Two stars for trying to make a movie, and failing I absolutely recommend that you do NOT watch this one.

A dinosaur rampage ! Not the most original idea for a movie but one that sounds like total and enjoyable nonsense , There might be a slight reservation to this and that is AGE OF DINOSAURS is being broadcast on the SyFy nearly every film you see on it is overly reliant on CGI and dumb scripting . That said the film does contain a couple of relatively well known cast members in the shape of Treat Williams and Ronny Cox and even if they're not Hollywood A listers at least it gives some hope for the movie As Morgan Freeman said to Tim Robbins " Hope is a dangerous thing " and watching this film you know what he's getting at . Any hope that this would be an atypical SyFy channel movie are soon dashed . The dinosaurs are of course poor CGI realisation and one wonders how much fun it would have been working on this production ? " More fun than actually watching it " you cry and you'd probably be right . Once the dinosaurs make a breakout there's no internal logic on a narrative or mis-en-scene level . For example after the mad scientists and the greedy corporate capitalists have brought the reptiles back to life , they all make a beeline for the nearest cupboard because hiding in a cupboard is the only way to escape from a dinosaur . The production team realising that the audience tuned in to see on screen dino carnage try and get around this by introducing spectacle but you end up thinking maybe hiding in a cupboard best suited the story . As the terrible lizards charge down a busy LA street it's obvious this has been achieved by randomly filming an everyday street scene and generating CGI dinosaurs on to the footage . Words fail to convey how unconvincing all of this is as a cyclist peddles down the street not noticing there's a giant T-Rex a few feet away from him . The dinosaurs for some reason then attack a shopping and the first time the shoppers realise there's a lizard attack is when they're on the dino-menu . Considering the time frame involved and that there's a news copter flying around you'd think the shoppers would have been forewarned by someone calling them on their cell phones telling them what's happening . This type of clumsy ignorance is typical of the film but it does contain at least one sensible thinking when the media warn everyone to remain indoors and not to venture out in to the streets which of course negates the production team having to film scenes with lots of extras

How on earth they got Treat Williams and Ronny Cox to do this movie is an amazing feat. This movie is of course essentially a rip off of Jurassic Park: The Lost World - well... the final two reels anyhow. Unfortunately, the script is so horrible. (If you were a fireman, standing holding an ax, and a dinosaur was in the process of tearing into somebody 4 feet away from you, wouldn't you at least take a swing, instead of standing there for five seconds with a bored look on your face?) The visual FX are OK for this movie. They are about one generation from being 'done' as the dinosaurs didn't seem to blend in with the lighting from scene to scene, but not entirely distracting. The "script" is just so bad, that is really what takes you out of the movie. Although, I wonder if there was any writing forethought at all, and if this really wasn't just an exercise in improv, then having the effects done to suit the filmed improv. Visually, this movie was a touch better than a similar movie called Carnosaur (1993), though this is twenty years later in the technology for the FX. The reason for the two stars is simply because the visual FX were at times OK. And I did appreciate the fact that when the dinosaurs tear into people, they didn't feel the need to show the actual teeth tearing the flesh. There were cutaways where you only saw the blood splatter - reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock's style. The Mythbusters once proved that "you can polish a turd", however in this case, the script is a turd that probably couldn't be polished with out a few more rewrites - or a burning the first draft, and restarting all together.

Had to sit through this for a bit since some friends wanted to get silly! At the end we were depressed and sorry, very sorry, and for a bunch of all different motives, curiously enough! Well, I was sad ( beside the point that Asylum is still making Z grade pictures and still going strong, how/why? ) to see a truly aged and uninspired, almost desperate looking, Treat Williams once and not too long ago, a star capable of exemplary, and even though at times underrated formidable performances ( think Milos Forman's strong "Hair" and Sidney Lumet's very, very good "The Prince of the City" and many more always at least respectable International films, where the actor always would bring his raw manliness and, never less than compelling talent!) while here he's practically deconstructed, abused, and badly photographed in a way that is indecent and almost moving and unnerving at the same time: his material is again Z grade but there are actors able to convey some to such inexplicable products ! Not Mr. Williams and certainly not, all the rest of this embarrassingly amateurish, poorly directed cast, typical faces of the shady D to Z Grade Hollywood's film industry sad underground belly. What to make of this? I don't know, I just know that nobody made it to the end , and , we strictly avoided even just talking or making a joke about such sad experience for the whole rest of the evening, as if it hadn't been enough of a nuisance, and so horribly jeopardized by just such a low, lowest general level, something I could only define like a caricature of a bad movie, really I could not call this even some cheap little show, more like a misfire of very sad and timely proportions! Everything was beyond unacceptable, even the lousy Cgi, and, I'd rather not say about the writing, and, directing, lensing, and sets, because it could get way too bitter and offensive! Best to laid them all to rest in the shelve of time holding the forgotten crap made in Films, and also with a true hope: that is that sooner than later, Asylum successfully will abandon this miserable and excruciating failure in filmmaking ( even that of bad filmmaking!) and, all of a sudden, embrace a new business, maybe in the butchery or debauchery jamboree of much lighter weight fare,something carrying way lower more manageable by them responsibilities and eyes, intents and education they obviously so awfully lack of in this Industry! Maybe, even more engagingly remunerative since it would appear these budgets are always so laughably spent! I don't see one reeding quality here, just one: stay away from this garbage, please !!! Stop making such bad movies please .. It starts feeling like more of a criminal intent than an exercise in ( really bad) entertaining ! And even for a movie with this lame title : and that my friends is saying something! Ugh!

How many attempts have been made to make a prehistoric monster in the modern day movies have their been? None of them have even come close to the Jurassic Park series, including this movie. SPOILER BEGINS This 'story' is about several species of prehistoric dinosaur being recreated through genetic engineering. They are first shown to the world in LA. Obviously they all manage to escape their cages and reek havoc in the city. It is up to Gabe Jacobs (Treat Williams) and his daughter Jade (Jillian Rose Reed) to save the city while trying to save themselves of course. That's all you need to know really. SPOILER ENDS The screenplay written by Hank Woon Jr was atrocious, the direction by Joseph J Lawson was to say the least dismal and the special effects were reminiscent of Ray Harryhausen. Ray I feel provided us with much better and realistic effects. The only redeeming factor of this movie is that it included both Treat Williams and Jillian Rose Reed who put in good performances with the terrible script they had to play with. All in all this movie will not go down in the annals of movie history as a classic, more likely in the category of movie which should never have been made.

Terrible CGI, terrible acting, terrible plot! The film is so repetitive- find my daughter, found her, oh damn, lost her again! Time to find her again! Rinse and repeat. A defense for the awful CGI may be 'They had a low budget' in that case, they should have never made the movie! Simple as that! I wouldn't mind if this movie didn't exist because they had no budget. We could have had a good movie with bad CGI, but the crew weren't trying! No movie screams 'We don't give a crap' more than this one! It just reeks of disinterest more than any film I've ever seen! Also, as far as I'm concerned, being a firefighter doesn't mean being in the military! So I don't understand why our main character is such an expert with guns and fighting simply through putting out fires!