Age of Dinosaurs does not waste much time worrying about whether bringing dinosaurs back to life in modern Los Angeles is sensible. Genetisharp has worked out how to do it, a room full of people is impressed, and before long the dinosaurs are loose. Frankly, that is the sort of efficiency we expect from The Asylum. This is a 2013 B-movie about prehistoric animals escaping into a major American city. Nobody bought a ticket expecting a quiet examination of corporate ethics.
The setup owes an obvious debt to Jurassic Park, right down to the basic lesson that resurrecting animals capable of eating the shareholders may have been a flaw in the business plan. Once Genetisharp loses control of its creations, the film gets on with what it came here to do: dinosaurs chase people, Los Angeles becomes increasingly unsafe and Treat Williams has to survive the mess.
Williams is a very useful piece of casting because he treats the situation seriously without pretending he has wandered into a prestige production. Ronny Cox brings another recognisable face to proceedings and the pair give Age of Dinosaurs more weight than its budget might suggest. With films like this, having actors who can sell panic while standing opposite an effect that may not actually be present on set is half the battle.
The script is hardly sneaking up on Shakespeare, but it moves quickly enough and understands the audience. We need dinosaurs, jeopardy and increasingly ridiculous locations. We get all three. The practical dinosaur work is where Age of Dinosaurs becomes more interesting than another anonymous CGI creature feature. There are physical creatures in here, and that immediately gives some of the attacks a bit more bite. A snout can enter the frame, a head can turn towards an actor and the performer has something tangible to react to rather than staring six feet above a tennis ball. Not every effect survives close inspection. This is still The Asylum, not Industrial Light and Magic with the petty-cash tin left open. Some shots look much better than others and the join between practical work and digital assistance can be fairly obvious. But there is an enthusiasm to the creature work that suits the film. The dinosaurs feel made rather than merely inserted. That roughness helps. A perfectly polished Age of Dinosaurs would almost be missing the point.
Yes, there is a kitchen scene
The film knows exactly which enormous dinosaur movie is sitting in the audience’s memory. Its kitchen sequence gives Jurassic Park a very obvious nod, and resisting that reference would probably have required more restraint than anyone involved was interested in showing.
It works because Age of Dinosaurs does not behave as though nobody will notice. The film is playing with familiar dinosaur-movie furniture and enjoying itself. You recognise the setup, recognise the inspiration and wait to see how this considerably cheaper relative is going to handle it.
There is something rather likeable about that approach. B-movies often get into trouble when they spend too much energy pretending they are not B-movies. This one has Treat Williams running around Los Angeles while resurrected dinosaurs cause havoc. The title is Age of Dinosaurs. The cards were on the table before the opening credits finished.
From the kitchen to the Hollywood sign
By the time the action reaches the Hollywood Sign, subtlety has packed a small bag and gone home. Quite right too. If you have already unleashed dinosaurs on Los Angeles, finishing somewhere visually recognisable makes far more sense than ending everything in another anonymous warehouse. The location gives the finale a scale the budget cannot always provide elsewhere, and the sight of prehistoric chaos overlooking modern Los Angeles is exactly the sort of image the film ought to be chasing. It is silly, but usefully silly. Age of Dinosaurs is not secretly a lost classic and there is no need to promote it into something it isn’t. The effects wobble, the story is assembled from extremely familiar dinosaur parts and anyone expecting Jurassic Park production values is going to have a difficult evening.
For viewers who actively enjoy The Asylum’s corner of cinema, though, there is plenty here to like. Treat Williams and Ronny Cox keep things moving, the practical creatures give the production some character, the Jurassic Park references are impossible to miss and the Hollywood finale sends the film out at exactly the right level of nonsense.
Sometimes a B-movie only needs to know what sort of B-movie it is. Age of Dinosaurs knows. Someone built dinosaurs, they escaped, and Los Angeles is now having a really bad day. Job done.
