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Reviews
Dinotasia (2012)
Uninformative, pointless, and poorly done
This is an awful film in light of what it claims to be: a documentary making use of the latest research. There is no narration to provide you any information, save for a few "philosophical" comments from Herzog. There is no discernible aim, narrative, or point to the film. It is extremely disingenuous and unprofessional to claim something is based on research and then not provide even the slightest information about what that research is.
The viewer is shown a number of different types of dinosaurs, though we are never told their species. You can identify vaguely what family they belong to: sauropods, raptors, tyrannosaurs, etc. There is no real explanation of the temporal or geographical context. No information is provided about the dinosaurs or their behavior.
This film is just pure fantasy with a nihilistic perspective showing dinosaurs slaughtering each other left and right to the point that one wonders how any species managed to survive for any period of time.
Spoilers ahead...
At one point two tyrannosaur type dinosaur parents look on their tiny, vulnerable babies fondly as they play. The babies then run off and get eaten without the parents even batting an eye until it is done. Animals that produce few offspring need to parent them more than animals that produce large numbers of offspring in order to ensure the survival of the species.
The viewer watches as some species of pteranodon pushes its babies off a cliff to teach them to fly only to watch them be snatched up mid air by other pteranodons. Just ridiculous.
At another point a sauropod eats hallucinogenic mushrooms. The viewer is treated to the animals perspective. Apparently dinosaur eyes perceived light and color in the exact same way as a human eye. Also interesting that 3 mushrooms have the same effect on an 80 ton sauropod as on a 130lbs human.
Most of the dinosaurs are not well rendered either. The two-legged predators are mostly OK, but any of the four legged species look horrible. There locomotion is all wrong.
This is just utter ridiculousness. I watched it thinking that it must be a joke. The only point I can discern is this: there are dinosaurs, they killed other dinosaurs or got killed until a meteor hit. I'm still not convinced this film isn't a joke of some sort. Is it? Did I miss something?
If you want a well research documentary with lots of CGI dinosaurs, watch the excellent "Walking with Dinosaurs" done by the BBC.