Receiving a limited theatrical release on August 21, 2025, through Fantom Entertainment, and set for a VOD release on October 3rd, Primitive War is a new Australian Sci-Fi/Horror film from Director Luke Sparke. Based on a 2017 novel written by Ethan Pettus, the script for the feature film was co-written by Sparke along with Pettus. What can be described as a dinosaur movie, it easily carves its own path out of Jurassic Park’s shadow and brings something exciting all on its own, actual terror.
Taking place in 1968, during the Vietnam War, a recon unit named Vulture Squad is called to rescue a missing Green Beret platoon. The Green Beret’s commander, Colonel Jericho (Jeremy Piven: Serendipity 2001, Entourage series), keeps details very short about the classified mission with the Vulture Squad, including their Sargent First Class Ryan Baker (Ryan Kwanten: True Blood series, Red Hill 2011). Having little details creates unease amongst the Vulture Squad as we watch their dynamic before they are deployed to the jungle in search of the Green Berets.
It does not take them long to be found out by the not-so-native wildlife, where Sargent Baker is attacked but manages to escape the unknown creature. The unit heads for some caves, where you are introduced to one of the recurring dinosaur species, the Deinonychus. In this film, it does a great job of recreating more accurate dinosaurs. These Deinonychus are covered in feathers, a smaller relative of the raptors often seen in Jurassic Park films. Yet, these dinosaurs are not precise just in their appearance, but also in their hunting style. We see them overwhelm the Vulture Squad in their pack numbers several times in the film, a nod to the fact that they are pack hunters. As well as how they kill their prey, surrounding them, pouncing on them with claws outstretched, faces digging into flesh over and over again, sometimes disemboweling.
Overall, the dinosaurs in Primitive War are well-crafted. The CGI alone is impressive, especially coming from a smaller production company like Spark Films. Each dinosaur shown on screen is more accurate to what scientists believe these animals actually looked like, which serves as a nice refresher from the inaccurate adaptations in the Jurassic Park / World films. This included feathers for all raptor species, a more accurate length and fin type for Spinosaurus, and even differences between male and female T. Rex, as well as stripe patterns to better camouflage. These accurate representations help immerse you even further, as these creatures can easily adapt to their new habitat and reap the benefits for their survival, at the behest of the humans stuck there, of course.
After they escape the caves, the Vulture Squad is split into two, where most of the squad is together except Sargent Baker and Rookie Leon Verne (Carlos Sanson Jr.: Bumps series, Ladies in Black series), who then meet Soviet paleontologist Sofia Wagner (Tricia Helfer: Battlestar Galactica series, Lucifer series) and you learn about the bigger plot as to why the Green Berets disappeared and how dinosaurs are walking amongst them. As Baker is interrogating Wagner, we’re brought to see the struggles of the rest of the Vulture Squad as they head for the rendezvous point.
Another commendable aspect of Primitive War is its accurate representation of soldiers. Not just the barking of orders or the fighting style, but the bond between a squad, between their rankings, and most importantly, their PTSD and mental struggles. We see a great range in the Vulture Squad, from the Sargent making sure that his squad can lean on him yet also handle themselves, the rookie’s apparent lack of field experience, the struggle to cope from their sniper Logan Stovall (Aaron Glenane: Snowpiercer series, Interceptor 2022) who mentally leans on his sniping partner Gerald Keyes (Anthony Ingruber: The Age of Adaline 2015, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 2023) to keep himself in the present and not get lost in his head from horrible battle experiences over the years. It is refreshing to see proper depictions of the cost of being in a war, other than losing limbs or dying.
You are introduced to the true antagonists – outside of the Soviet vs American struggle taking place in this remote jungle at the cost of the native Vietnamese people – the Utahraptors. These are intelligent creatures who hunt in a smaller pack than the movie’s Deinonychus, yet are around 6 feet tall and absolutely terrifying. They are seen playing with their food, the Vulture Squad, once they were reunited, by poking their heads in and out of the windows of a research facility where humans had taken refuge, while another one sneaks to break down the door. Their leader, who ends up with a knife through one of its eyes, becomes our ‘villain’ in a sense all the way to the end of the film, where most of the dinosaurs you see throughout the film are lured together in an absolute massacre of the humans occupying the remote location.
Overall, this novel adaptation has turned into one of the better dinosaur films. It does have a far-fetched plot in certain aspects, as it had to connect the Vietnam War, the American and Soviet struggle, and the reason there are dinosaurs in the first place. While it is Science Fiction, some pieces definitely lean further into the fiction side. Outside of that, Primitive War is impressive, with accurate depictions of violence from both humans and dinosaurs, the feeling of being hunted always lingering in the back of your mind, detailed renderings of the dinosaurs, effective CGI, and seamless editing. Cryptic Rock gives the film 4 out of 5 stars.
){kind=link}
No comment