Director: Luke Sparke
Screenplay: Luke Sparke
Based on: Primitive War by Ethan Pettus
Starring: Jeremy Piven, Ryan Kwanten, Tricia Helfer
Year: 2025
Duration: 133 mins
Country: Australia
Certification: 15
Based on Ethan Pettus’s self-published 2017 novel of the same name, Primitive War is set in 1968 during the Vietnam War and sees a small group of daredevil soldiers sent on a mission to investigate the mysterious and bloody disappearance of a Green Beret unit from a remote valley. What they find there is a seemingly impossible number of dinosaurs, each with a particular fondness for human innards. Leader of the group Baker must rally his ragtag team of misfits to get them through the jungle alive and try to work out what is really going on.
Primitive War has many big hills to climb. First, it has to go up against the juggernaut that is the Jurassic series, which over the past 30 years has put paid to any competition on the dino-movie front rising up. Secondly, it has one hell of a hook that needs to deliver on all the pulpy, self-aware goodness it promises.
Unfortunately, the film doesn’t manage to understand how to play a dinosaur war movie. Director and writer Luke Sparke pitches it somewhere between a serious war drama and a pulpy dinosaur exploitation film, and this leads to a tonally messy end result. Like the novel, the film deals with issues ranging from PTSD to mental health and drug addiction, but these work against the gory dino action and slow the whole thing down. Particularly early on, every time something scaly comes out to take a bite out of someone, the film seems more interested in dropping in a bit more backstory or exploring past troubles the characters have gone through.
The cast of characters is also rather forgettable and flat. Most scenes are played at one level of high tension, screaming, or firing guns. There is no light and shade. We do, however, get Jeremy Piven back in a film role as Colonel Jericho, and he at least understands the assignment. Every other word is a curse word, drawled and spat at his subordinates. He is about two cigar puffs away from “so bad it’s good” territory.
Where I will give this film credit is in the dinosaurs and the special effects. As a die-hard Jurassic fan, what I come to a dinosaur movie for is the dinosaurs, and here we get some amazing moments that are both brutal and peaceful. Anytime the Rexes show up I had a smile on my face, and there is a particularly nasty Quetzalcoatlus scene where the flying lizards remove the soft parts of a fallen soldier in horrific fashion. The dinosaurs feel like real animals, and while it never comes close to the majesty of Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park, there are moments that are incredibly impressive, particularly when you take the budget difference into account.
The fact that Primitive War was made without major studio backing and has still managed a worldwide marketing campaign with over 2 million views on the trailer should be applauded. If you can see this on the big screen, do, and get a bunch of friends to go with you. If you can ignore its narrative flaws, it has enough gore soaked dino action to keep most audiences entertained.
Primitive War is in a limited cinema release from Friday 28th November. Visit PrimitiveWarMovie.com for listings.