One of the coolest things I learned from Primitive War is that there is apparently an Australian box office blockbuster film industry, ands that it has cool directors like Luke Sparke making amazing movies on a fraction of the budget that American blockbusters consume. Primitive War got a very limited theatrical release about a month ago and I managed to catch it twice with different family members. Yes, Primitive War was so good I watched it twice in the same weekend. I also enjoyed it about twenty times more than the last three Jurassic World movies combined.
Primitive War opens up in the middle of the Vietnam War during an offensive push into territory where the American troops suspect Russian activity to aid the Viet Kong. A previous recon team went in to the valley where strange things are being report and no one came back, so a second recon/rescue team is ordered in top find the first team and evidence of what the Russians are up to. The team does not discover Russians (though there are Russians), but instead they find dinosaurs....lots and lots of dinosaurs.
Indeed, it appears the Russians have a secret research base nestled in the region, and they've been experimenting with some sort of particle collider that created a wormhole into the ancient past, dragging what is clearly a near infinite number of dinosaurs....like, more dinosaurs than is ever seen in all of the Jurassic movies. The collider experiment is out of control, and a myriad of dinosaur laden epochs are literally bleeding in to the modern world!
What ensures from all of this is a tale of survival horror, mad scientist generals, an aggrieved Russian paleontologist, an escalating series of increasingly amazing set pieces and action sequences, a team of American soldiers that all have better and more distinct personalities than any of the characters in the latest Jurassic World movie could evoke, and an end sequence that is so ridiculously over the top that it has to be seen to be believed.
Honestly, if you are a fan of dinosaur movies, pulp adventure films, or heck, enjoy a good old "soldiers vs. extremely bad odds" type setups, Primitive War is very much worth a watch. Although it doesn't have the perfect polish of a film with a bigger budget and a bunch of star recognition actors, it manages to accomplish everything your typical blockbuster manages to, with more fun and flair than is ever normally seen in movies with much bigger budgets. Primitive War was a solid A and well worth a watch. Indeed, I enjoyed it so much I plan to find more of Sparke's other films to see how they are.
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