Evan Maggit’s review published on Letterboxd:
I know you probably think I’m nuts for rating this so high, but Scott Beck and Bryan Woods totally understand what was missing in the dinosaur films that came after Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, which was to make the dinosaurs absolutely terrifying.
The infamous writers of A Quiet Place did a really solid job immersing the audience into Prehistoric Earth, and they even did a better job than the Jurassic World trilogy when it comes to world-building and character work. My eyes were absolutely glued from beginning to end by this sci-fi action horror spectacle, and I was very proud on how creative this film ended up being. With a mid-sized budget, they did so much in making a clean cut and gritty story.
Adam Driver does an incredible job, and I really loved Adriana Greenblatt’s performance a lot. They made for a really awesome duo, and I cared quite a bit to the point where I was tense whenever anything bad would happen to them. The visual effects actually looked pretty damn cool, and the designs of the dinosaurs and bugs looked solid as hell. I was never had a dinosaur phase as a kid, but if someone was a fan of dinosaurs, this film would absolutely scratch that itch.
The writing is very minimal, akin to A Quiet Place, but it did enough to flesh out both characters. The editing is good, but the score only has a single motif that was fantastic, yet the rest of it was very generic. The production design was good, the cinematography was also solid, and that third act was really thrilling. Lastly, the sound design is amazing, and the jump-scares were surprisingly well-done.
My only personal gripes were that it would be longer and maybe flesh the ending more. Once the film gets to where it needs to go, it just ends there. Also, even though I noted that the visual effects looked great, there was only one VFX shot of pterodactyls flying by… that looked like something out of Birdemic.
Overall, it’s clear I love this way more than the majority, but man, I absolutely admired the effort and creativity Beck and Woods had. It’s clear they had a dinosaur phase as a kid.
