Primitive War is currently in UK cinemas, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.
Synopsis
During the Vietnam War, a recon unit ventures to an isolated jungle valley to uncover the fate of a missing platoon. They soon find themselves in a fight for their lives against an unexpected enemy, prehistoric dinosaurs.
Review
A Vietnam War movie with dinosaurs genuinely sounds like something I would have thought up as a kid when playing with my toys. Now, in the year 2025, someone has actually gone ahead and made a movie around this bizarre premise that looks to answer the question I don’t think anyone was ever asking: what if Platoon and Jurassic Park had a baby?
Straight out of the gate, I can imagine a lot of people reading the synopsis and immediately comparing it to something like Sharknado in terms of quality. However, having seen said movie, Primitive War is actually competently made from a filmmaking perspective, taking a rather insane concept and producing the best-case scenario from it. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, but considering what most people will expect from it, the end result is surprisingly entertaining.
Considering its low budget, one of the highlights of the movie is the dinosaurs themselves. They’re terrifying and bloodthirsty, stopping at nothing to devour this group of elite soldiers. A lot of the time, the creatures are restricted to lurking in the shadows, which makes sense from a budgetary angle, but after a certain point, the movie is not afraid to show the dinos in their entirety for prolonged periods of time. The CGI on display here is nothing short of amazing, as the creatures look just as convincing as they do in the Jurassic Park series, whether that’s during intense close-ups or breathtaking scenic shots of them inhabiting the Vietnamese landscape.
Another thing that works rather well is the blend between the two conflicting genres. Primitive War stays as grounded as it can to its Vietnam War roots, which works to establish a clear tone from the start. Once the dinosaurs are introduced, it just feels like a natural progression of the story rather than a jarring tonal shift, and the fact that they were able to make these two wildly different genres work with each other is definitely something to applaud.
The cast of characters we are presented with for the movie is nothing special, as each team member is essentially ticking a stereotype you would expect from a war movie. Some of them have a bit more personality than others, but on the whole, they’re nothing to write home about and work fine enough for the sake of the plot.
As previously mentioned, despite being very entertaining, the movie isn’t without its faults. The main issue this movie suffers from is its length and pacing. It comes in with a 2-hour 13-minute runtime, and it really doesn’t need to be that long. There is a point where the movie feels like it is coming to a natural conclusion, only for it to carry on for another hour. In its defence, this extra hour is redeemed slightly with a truly bombastic and explosive final set piece that really puts its concept to work. That being said, there are multiple scenes throughout its runtime where the pacing will drag considerably, or the movie will struggle to justify its length in the first place, which is a shame, as despite its solid execution, some moments feel like they outstay their welcome.
If you’re looking for a nonsensical but well-made war movie that happens to have dinosaurs in it, then look no further. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel by any means, and its story explanation for the dinosaurs being in Vietnam is, to put it lightly, paper-thin. However, what you do get here is a violent, blood-soaked genre mash-up that really shouldn’t work but actually exceeds expectations on more than a few occasions.
Verdict
Primitive War is an action-packed film that certainly delivers on its bonkers concept. Though it is about an hour too long and filled with war movie stereotypes, what it is able to achieve with its limited budget is impressive to say the least.
⭐⭐⭐
