Dinosaur Island

I'm not really sure what to say about this movie. On the one hand, it is squarely aimed at small kids, and not very sophisticated small kids at that, so any criticism might seem churlish. On the other hand, it has faults which make it a little painful for adults to watch. Cringe-inducing, mostly, rather than truly horrible. So I'm going to dive in and just say it like it is. Horrible acting. Terrible dialogue. The two main leads - both kids - are not very good. The girl is tolerable and has potential, but the little boy is just teeth-grittingly bad. It's an odd state of affairs that the two main characters weren't given better direction and coaching, since they occupy so much of the film's running time. In addition, the dialogue has some truly awful moments that defy belief. Who wrote some of this stuff? Combined with the bad acting, it just makes for some truly cringe-inducing moments. This is by far the worst element of the movie, which is otherwise quite well done. The production values, whilst not huge, are generally pretty good and the CGI, though not entirely convincing at all, at least has the benefit of being imaginative. Some very talented people came up with some very nice and original images, monsters and scenes. That the CGI isn't up to the task of convincingly delivering these ideas is not their fault and they should be commended for their efforts. Again, it's a kid's film, so the budget probably wasn't there for anything more substantial. But, for what they did manage, it is pretty good. The story is pretty imaginative too and, whilst it won't make you wonder what is going to happen next, neither will it make you go "Huh?" at any point. As I say, the only thing which really let's the movie down is the acting, and the young leads can at least be forgiven for that. They are young, after all. So is it worth watching? If you have kids, yes. But only young kids. Older ones will find it as badly acted as I did, I'm sure. If you don't have kids, then no, probably not. It is, however, a perfectly safe film to sit kids in front of at the weekend and drift off yourself. SUMMARY: Poor acting in an otherwise imaginative film. Passable CGI and story. Really only for little kids, who won't mind the bad acting.

I'm reading a lot of reviews claiming that this is the "worst film ever". It's not. There are easily two or three worse films. The problem for this film is that it sells itself as a serious piece of dinosaur-themed sci-fi, as if going head-to-head with the JP franchise is something easily achieved. Unfortunately, we're now judging it against a tough set of criteria, and this film was never going to pull it off. In short, the acting is poor, the story is dull and the daft sci-fi approach doesn't gel with the scientific approach. The CGI isn't utterly terrible, but they overstretch themselves. There has been some effort to update dinosaur and pterosaur portrayals, but overall, they're flippin' awful. The 'azhdarchid', or whatever it is, is unbelievably bad. Seriously. See if it's on Youtube so that you don't have to sit through the whole thing. The tyrannosaur stands around yelling at everything, and only when everything is already half a mile away does it give chase. Your kids might like it, but just make sure you're not stuck watching it with them.

This was a nice fun filled family film. My kids love this so much and watched it sooooo many times that I'm becoming all too familiar with the dialog. The depiction of the feathery dinosaurs has sparked my kids little imaginations and they have taken to sticking anything vaguely feathery to themselves and then run about roaring. The little blue bird that makes the funny noises is also a favorite. "That is correct" has become a household catch cry followed by giggles. My only criticism of the film is that it could have maybe been a little longer which would mean that I only had to listen to it 5 times per day instead of 10. Definitely a winner for kids.

As regt said the only reviews you see that have a number bigger than 2 are basically users that participated in the making of this movie and then made an account specifically for this movie, which brings this movie even to a greater shame than it was already. I'm not even gonna bother to detail the whole thing, the movies is simply just bad, plot-wise, visually a literal piece of human waste, the characters are boring and the acting is just plain bad, special effects are as lamer than a 80's movie. Don't believe me? Well just check the reviews...all you see from the idiots who created their accounts are 8's and 10's and yet the rating is a solid 3,8 and it keeps going down. My advice, don't even illegally download this movie, you'll just waste bandwidth.

This was actually a really great film, I watched it when I was in the UK. My kids loved it - it is definitely for small kids though but I found it engaging, funny and interesting. The acting was good, I think some would be put off by the Australian accents but I think that overall it was competent. The visual effects were very cool and it was great to see feathered dinosaurs, which my kids had never seen before. I thought the score was beautiful and tied into the scenes beautifully. I would recommend this film to families who are looking for a bit of fun and some wholesome entertainment which there isn't a lot of around these days.

But I have to give it 10, since it doesn't deserve 3.5 either. This is not an all bad movie, thought it would be god awful #%%^, but the production value is quite high, and though the story isn't anything special. It's quite entertaining. Plus they have actually tried to make the dinosaurs as we think they look like now. Would probably rate it as 5 or 6, a good hangover movie. And yes it looks like the production company has tried to fiddle wit the score, but the horrible reviews, what do you expect from a children/sci-fi/family movie? At least there are no talking dogs.

Looks like some of the reviewers here have an axe to grind. There is no way this movie deserves a 1 star rating. I saw this at a pre-screening event and it was a really enjoyable film. The CGI was really good. The Director is Emmy Award winning for Art Direction and Graphic Design. Check out the trailer, the Creature Animation is overall excellent. This is not a film for adults but is geared for young kids. Great story with a nice ending. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can see why it has sold out all international territories as there is nothing that would offend international sensors. The UK DVD release sat on the charts for 4 weeks and from what I know has done very well. Overall, my recommendation is that it is a really lovely, well made film that children and adults will enjoy. It fits right in the family genre space and is well worth seeing.

I bought this on a whim from a local shop as my 4 year old son loves dinosaurs. The storyline in his film is abysmal and the acting is even worse. It's not remotely enjoyable, it feels like a chore. I'm aware this film is aimed at children, but there are plenty of kids films out there that can be enjoyed by adults too. This isn't one of them, and even my son gets bored during this film. The special effects are terrible too - the dinosaurs look more like brightly coloured fluffy chickens than anything else. I can only assume this film was a straight to did release as it's become very clear as to why I hadn't heard of it before!

This is a nice family movie. Just watched it with my 9 year old son and we both enjoyed it. Reminded me of the Journey to the center of the earth. Nicely done technically and the story line was enjoyable as well. The acting wasn't bad either in my opinion. It is not easy to come across a move that you can safely watch with your kid and is enjoyable for an adult as well. Therefore this movie should not be ignored in my opinion. Here's my child's opinion: "it was very good and exciting and enjoyable for old and young children." Definitely deserves more than "4". I'd give it 6.5, but in order to compensate for the way too low rating, I give it a 10! ;)

Decent Kids Movie! If you see this expecting a grown-up style movie, you'll be disappointed. It's clearly made for a very young audience, and I think they did a fantastic job in that regard. The animation was fantastic,it was quite educational, it had characters that the kids fall in love with, and it wasn't too long. It was nice to see the dinosaurs portrayed accurately with feathers even the tyrannosaur and the acting was pretty good. The story flow was well done and it had a nice little ending. The score is beautifully done and represents the characters and feel of the movie well. If you like watching your kid really enjoy something, take them to this film.