My Review Of “The Dinosaur Project”

“The Dinosaur Project” is a strange blend of found footage and science fiction that takes Jules Verne into the realm of nightmare. It is a more intense film than I was expecting with an slight atmosphere of hopelessness polluting the air of adventure. The film is directed by Sid Bennett and follows a group of scientist on a quest to search for the mysterious prehistoric creatures said to be terrorizing the locals deep in the jungle of central Africa. It is a tragic story that plays out through video recordings of the journey that is orchestrated by the lead scientist’s stowaway son who has his mind set to record the journey to discovery. This movie manages to be refreshing, dark and thrilling. It stars Natasha Loring, Richard Dillane, Matt Kane and Peter Brooke.

The film keeps a constant feeling of watching tragedy unfold scene by scene as camera roulettes between camcorder and digital clips thanks to the various small wireless camera’s the young boy brings with him. This film doesn’t give you a moment to be bored with the usual camera tricks that are common with found footage film due to the intense action and total fatality of the characters storylines. The movie feels like a complete misadventure that is believable. I almost forgot the this was a fictional account due to the back and forth between choppy footage and hand held camcorder style the movie uses. The dinosaurs in this film are vicious, unnatural predators that bring the nightmare home and yet there are small moments when the story shows a playful excitement of new discovery of a species thought to be extinct for millions of years. This isn’t a fun carefree film like Jurassic Park  but it isn’t suppose to be that kind of film. “The Dinosaur Project” is a pleasant surprise as far as being intense and chilling. This movie was an intense little story that was entertaining and pretty dark. A very cool dinosaur picture.