Right, so this movie is an adaptation of the 1970's kids show of the same name. This was actually news to me as I originally thought this movie was based on various classic adventure flicks from the days of yore; maybe throw in some Doug McClure. Nope, the original source material is actually a silly kids TV series that I have never seen, but now want to.
I have no idea how accurate this movie is to the original TV series, but plot wise it's not very original at all. Washed-up palaeontologist Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) is the key founder and driver of his own 'quantum palaeontology' theory. He meets a woman, also in his field of work, who shows him a unique fossil and crystal she found that gives off strong tachyon energy. Amazingly Marshall has been working on a 'tachyon amplifier' (whatever), so they both go to the location where the fossil was discovered. Once on location, high levels of tachyons are detected. Marshall activates his amplifier (because science stuff) which, somehow, triggers a massive time warp, of which both get sucked into. Unsurprisingly their mission is now to find a way back home.
So having never seen the original TV series I cannot compare anything here, but I was deeply disappointed at the route this movie took. Yes okay, the original series was pretty silly by the sounds of it, obviously being aimed at kids, but this more adult affair just didn't land for me. I can't say I'm totally surprised, it is a Will Ferrell vehicle after all, but I was really hoping for a slightly more genuine adventure and not an all out sophomoric spoof.
For starters this movie has not aged well, shock horror. The mass of CGI is terribly obvious plastic looking CGI. Unfortunately the early 00's was not a good era for CGI. What makes things worse is the terribly obvious greenscreen shots and sequences too. Almost every shot looks fake as hell with the actors clearly on sets in front of greenscreens. Every now and then there is a real location shot that merely stands out like a sore thumb against the CGI.
As said this is a Ferrell vehicle, so expect lots of loud rants, silly quips, double entendres, and stupid lame moments of raunchiness. Some will enjoy this, for me it's a no. Yes this kind of angle has worked well for Ferrell, but it just doesn't work here for me. This would have worked far better with a more legit angle, Indiana Jones for kids, but lighthearted. There was no need for the adult angle, and that probably turned away potential money. The whole thing is lacking charm and stakes, you don't really care about the characters or what happens, it's all just a waste.
Heck, they even throw away the dinosaur threat by making the T-Rex friends with Marshall in the finale. Well, that after we have a entire sequence of childish back and forth about how the dinosaur pooped Marshall out after supposedly eating him. And this T-Rex is just like a big dog apparently, it even knew when Marshall insulted it, which was the core of an entire dumb grudge subplot. It really does seem like most of this movie is made up of inane childish dialogue simply because they had no real idea what to do. Nothing happened when Marshall crept through the baby Pteranodon nest. Nothing happened when the giant crab appeared (just another lame visual gag), and all the action sequences were so so weak, I can barely call them action sequences.
Overall this was a really big disappointing ugly mess. For me, there are virtually no redeeming features here other than the really nice costume and makeup work on the Sleestak lizard suits. Everything else here was a total misfire from visuals to gags to the casting. Even Ferrell was an annoying douche throughout this. If you want a better adventure yarn, try out the Brendan Fraser vehicle 'Journey to the Center of the Earth', which came out a year before this.
3/10
No comments:
Post a Comment