“Primitive War’ is a war horror
movie directed by Luke Sparke. He brought Ethan Peltus’ novel Primitive War:
Opiate Undertow to the screen. He ended up co-producing it because the
Hollywood studios did not want to back a Jurassic Park clone. Sparke had to
raise the money himself. The picture had a $7 million budget, but made only $1.2
million at the box office. A sequel is being planned for 2027.
The movie is set in Vietnam in 1968.
It opens with an American Green Beret squad being wiped out on a dark and stormy
night by dinosaurs. Col. Jericho (Jeremy
Piven) calls upon a LRRP (long range patrol) unit to locate the Green Berets.
They, of course, are not aware they will be encountering dinosaurs. They are
cocky and unconcerned. It will be a piece of cake. Too bad “Predator” had not
come out yet. The team is led by Sgt. Baker (Ryan Kwanten) and has seven
members. They are dropped off in the jungle by Huey helicopters. Soon after,
they find a giant animal footprint, a giant feather, and a huge pile of shit. Hmm.
Perhaps there is more than Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in the jungle.
Actually, there is dinosaurs, but also a Soviet group tracking them. It is led
by Gen. Borodin (Jeremy Taylor). He is in Vietnam heading a project to create a
particle collider that will transport Soviet soldiers to anywhere in the world.
Guess what it accidentally transported from the distant past. In case you are interested in the science behind this, it's called "deextinction". I doubt they had a scientific advisor on set. Baker and his
boys find out about this nefarious project from a sexy Soviet paleontologist named
Sofia (Tricia Helfer, using an atrocious Russian accent). She has this funny
notion that they should shut down the project in order to save the world. What
ensues is a lot of running through the jungle (some of it to the Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Run Through the Jungle"). The Vulture Squad has to escape dinosaurs and
firefights with the commies. If you think most of Baker’s squad will
survive, you haven’t seen movies like this. Imagine “The Dirty Dozen” with
dinosaurs.
This is a fun movie. If you like
dinosaurs, Cold War good versus evil, and gore. Lots of gore. Considering its
low budget, the CGi dinosaurs are amazing. 32 years after “Jurassic Park” awed
us, a dinosaur-loving director can make a low budget movie which has dinosaurs that
look as realistic as a movie that had a $60 million budget. There are a variety
of dinosaurs including Utahraptors, Tyrannus Rex’s, Brontosaurus’ and Pterodactyls.
The movie does feel like it was shot in Jurassic Park.
There is not much character
development, other than Baker and Sofia. The squad is a typically heterogenous
cinematic unit. The men are all cliches. The wiseass, the stressed out, the
black with a machete, the fucking new guy. Baker is stereotyped, but he is well-played
by Kwanton. He and Helfer have some chemistry. Their relationship breaks no new
ground as the two start off disliking each other. This will change, of course. The
rest of the cast is competent. Oddly, the weak link is Piven.
The movie is chock full of action
which builds to a final ten minutes of mayhem. Unlike “Jurassic Park”, it is
not for children. The violence is bloody. It borders on combat porn, but at
least each of the main character deaths are varied. Kudos to the screenwriters
for being creative. Some of the action is pumped up by some classic hits like “Fortunate
Son” (over the opening credits) “Time Has Come Today”. “Revolution Road”, and “Give
Me Some Lovin’”.
“Primitive War” is one of the better war horror movies. It was not on my list of the ten best , but that was because I had not seen it at the time. I would put it at around #5 on an updated list. It is better than it has any reason to be. Don’t expect anything new if you have seen a few “rescue behind the lines” movies. Throwing in realistic looking dinosaur separates it from all the other movies in that subgenre.
GRADE = B
