{"id":163381,"date":"2025-08-21T08:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163381\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T08:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:54:15","slug":"film-review-primitive-war-b-grade-monster-movie-favours-characters-over-carnage-to-its-own-detriment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163381\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Review: Primitive War; B-grade monster movie favours characters over carnage to its own detriment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Whilst I absolutely have to hand it to Australian filmmaker Luke Sparke<\/strong> for his inventive genre blend in Primitive War<\/strong> \u2013 that being the war-set action film and the dinosaur-centric creature feature \u2013 this bloated actioner, overall, never quite finds the right footing in how to successfully execute such a bodacious mash-up.<\/p>\n

With a requisite \u201cFortunate Son\u201d needle drop (following a cold open that clues us in on the dino attacks to come), Primitive War sets itself up in 1960s Vietnam, where the film\u2019s ragtag group of soldiers (led by a no-nonsense Ryan Kwanten<\/strong>) come to find that their mission is not as straightforward as they were led to believe; Jeremy Piven<\/strong> adding his usual comedic intensity as their foul-mouthed commander.<\/p>\n

It makes sense that Sparke\u2019s script \u2013 based off of Ethan Pettus<\/strong>\u2018s book of the same name \u2013 would want to flesh out its characters so that we give some semblance of a shit when they become ultimate dino food, but at 130 minutes there\u2019s too much time devoted to their dynamic, which fails to extend beyond the usual machismo banter; and because its 1960s Vietnam, be prepared for a slew of casual racism from the all-American soldiers at bay.\u00a0 Essentially, we go to a movie like Primitive War for the bloody carnage promised, not for the mental deterioration such an experience can have on its soldiers.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m all for the psychological aspect of war, but when Primitive War descends into B-grade movie chaos, where questionably-accented Russian scientists are responsible for bringing dinosaurs back to life, it hardly feels like the right space to explore anything of intended dramatic weight.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a shame that it never finds that balance, because when the film delights in the variety of species ripping the humans to shreds, it proves entertaining; it also has to be noted that the effects are, for the most part, quite solid for a film that would\u2019ve had something of a limited budget.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, there\u2019s an enjoyable, intentionally nonsensical monster movie at the core of Primitive War, unfortunately unable to be fully realised through a sense of seriousness and overt character focus.\u00a0 Its theatrical release is still a win for the Australian film industry though \u2013 we certainly can\u2019t take that away \u2013 and such funding to help Sparke execute his vision hopefully indicates that more genre voices can be heard.<\/p>\n

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TWO STARS (OUT OF FIVE)<\/p>\n

Primitive War is now screening in Australian theatres.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

*Image credit: 3DVF
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Peter Gray<\/a><\/p>\n

Seasoned film critic and editor. Gives a great interview. Penchant for horror. Unashamed fan of Michelle Pfeiffer and Jason Momoa.
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\nContact: [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whilst I absolutely have to hand it to Australian filmmaker Luke Sparke for his inventive genre…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[94375,25403,94381,1939,648,3774,94377,4740,94374,12732,104,10934,22232,392,6083,171,94387,94388,1020,42166,3193,990,6413,393,94390,3998,3166,94384,3195,1801,1149,94383,1165,4550,11878,94379,18929,53,975,50,51926,14737,6606,3092,2136,74542,11853,46525,94385,94389,94376,13048,94378,94380,1164,94386,67,132,68,989,924,94382],"class_list":{"0":"post-163381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-abroad","9":"tag-adelaide","10":"tag-album-reviews","11":"tag-albums","12":"tag-arts","13":"tag-asia","14":"tag-asian-music","15":"tag-australia","16":"tag-australian-music","17":"tag-bands","18":"tag-breaking-news","19":"tag-brisbane","20":"tag-byron-bay","21":"tag-culture","22":"tag-editorials","23":"tag-entertainment","24":"tag-external-links","25":"tag-featured-gigs","26":"tag-film","27":"tag-film-reviews","28":"tag-films","29":"tag-food","30":"tag-games","31":"tag-gaming","32":"tag-gaming-reviews","33":"tag-gossip","34":"tag-hobart","35":"tag-hunter-valley","36":"tag-industry","37":"tag-international","38":"tag-interviews","39":"tag-launceston","40":"tag-lifestyle","41":"tag-live","42":"tag-live-music","43":"tag-liverpool-sound-city","44":"tag-melbourne","45":"tag-movies","46":"tag-music","47":"tag-news","48":"tag-non-profit","49":"tag-perth","50":"tag-photo-galleries","51":"tag-photography","52":"tag-photos","53":"tag-release-dates","54":"tag-reviews","55":"tag-schedules","56":"tag-setlists","57":"tag-special-features","58":"tag-sxsw","59":"tag-sydney","60":"tag-the-great-escape","61":"tag-tour-dates","62":"tag-travel","63":"tag-twitter-feeds","64":"tag-united-states","65":"tag-unitedstates","66":"tag-us","67":"tag-video","68":"tag-video-games","69":"tag-wollongong"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}