Back to the Jurassic 3D Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Back to the Jurassic 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Doomed to extinction.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 29, 2015

There are many tell-tale signs that a movie's probably not going to be worth one's time, and at least five of them apply to Back to the Jurassic. For starters, here's the easiest one out of the way first: Digital animation. Sure, the type has produced some instant classics, but the fact of the matter is that the market has become flooded with copycats and Johnny-come-lately wannabes that don't necessarily aspire to compete with Pixar or DreamWorks but that only want a small piece of a very large pie. Second, and truth be told more or less tied to the first, it's a small movie from a little studio and has "instant bargain bin" written all over it. That's not to say that small companies cannot make a great movie (or that large companies cannot make a bad movie) but the box art screams "generic" and the storyline looks tailor-made to pander to kids who love both dinosaurs and colorful animation. Next, the movie had no major visible advertising campaign, no high profile product tie-ins, no hyped and lengthy theatrical release. Again, that doesn't immediately spell doom and gloom (maybe a movie that's not co-branded with a fast-food chain might be a positive) but the absence of a larger push does raise a red flag that maybe it's not really ready for primetime. The last two are a little harder to spot and more specific to this film rather than the broader industry. One is the blatant, word-for-word rip-off of Jurassic Park's tagline. It's right there on the box for all to see in its full plagiarized glory, but it might take more of a grizzled movie veteran to spot rather than a little kid whose parents didn't even know one another existed back in 1993 (or may not have even been born) or a mother desperately grabbing for something -- anything -- off the Wal-Mart shelf that looks colorful and alluring that might silence the screaming kids for 90 minutes. Last, and perhaps most damaging -- but also the least visible -- is that Back to the Jurassic once actually existed as Dino Time, a 2012 South Korean release. The movie has essentially been re-branded, no doubt to "tie in" with Jurassic World fresh on everyone's mind and the studio hoping to ride that movie's lengthy coattails to some semblance of DTV success in an Asylum kind of way but without quite so much blatant disregard for taste.

It's not THAT bad!

Unfortunately, the movie delivers as expected, producing a totally forgettable but, eh, ultimately passable kid-centric adventure. The film centers on Ernie (voiced by Pamela Adlon, who audiences might remember voicing "Bobby" in King of the Hill), a high-energy kid whose misbehaviors land him in trouble with his mother (voiced by Jane Lynch), draw the ire of his sister Jules (voiced by Tara Strong), and make him a hero to his best friend Max (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal). Ernie has the good fortune of living in a dinosaur fossil hotspot that's also home to one of the great dino museums in the world. He and Max sneak in one day -- when Ernie should be minding his mother's store while she's away -- and uncover one of the new exhibits. They're busted, and Ernie's grounded. But that doesn't stop him from visiting Max, with his sister secretly on his trail. At Max's house, they all get caught up in an egg-shaped time machine of Max's father's creation and are hurtled backwards in time to the peak of the dinosaur era. There, they're taken in by a kindly mama dinosaur named Tyra (voiced by Melanie Griffith) and make friends with one of the infant dinosaurs in her care that they call "Dodger" (voiced by Rob Schneider). But when Ernie decides he'd rather explore than return home, the kids find themselves in the adventure of their lives.

Back to the Jurassic represents modern digital family animation at its most simple. It's a completely flat movie, an unassuming and baseline adequate film but a fully unremarkable little venture that seems less concerned with building a tight narrative, introducing and developing memorable characters, and dazzling with the most gorgeously realized digital world possible and instead settling for a rather cheap, almost slapped-together movie that only seems to care about getting a product on the market rather giving it the sort of care and attention that separate the winners from the losers. The story line isn't totally unimaginative but it's not all that creative, either, particularly when it comes to characters who are almost literally nothing other than walking, talking animated movie cliché and reinforced as such as the plot, which follows all the animation tropes, allows them only enough room to demonstrate their flat arc through the mayhem and learn a little bit about themselves, one another, and the world, all ideas and lessons that the audience could have told them a minute into the movie.

Indeed, Back to the Jurassic opts to include all of the basic animation cues and fall into the trap of inescapable predictability. Ernie wonders how the "mysterious rock" got an inscribing that predates man, but the audience won't have any trouble sorting it out the moment it's introduced. But it's not just the plot transparency, it's the total film transparency that huts worst. From the voices to the music, from the character shenanigans to the wrenched-in heart, from the misadventures to the recycled life lessons, everything points in the same tired direction. It may not be completely fair to criticize it too harshly; it's a movie aimed squarely at kids whereas the big boys frequently build to, and market for, a wider base as movies suitable for everyone, and by and large they're right by offering more engaging stories, more well-rounded characters, and other critical bits to keep everyone in the audience happy rather than just those too young to realize they've seen it before.

Back to the Jurassic 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Back to the Jurassic contains both a 2D and a 3D transfer on the same Blu-ray disc. The 2D image is solid, never rising above and never dipping down below. Textures are basic and the Blu-ray reveals all of the movie's relatively flat and inorganic elements, from modern clothes to prehistoric terrain, in all of the base simplicity the production allows. Colors are suitably vibrant if not rather strictly basic. Natural greens are the highlight but other hues impress in terms of basic vitality and balance. Aliasing is evident in a couple of places but it's so mild that most casual viewers won't even notice the flaw. The 3D image doesn't add much to the experience, sadly. Like everything else about this release, it's simple and serviceable, adding a noticeable, but not incredible, bit of additional depth to the image. And it doesn't offer much else. There's some nicely pronounced spaces between objects, such as clumps of trees or characters and backgrounds, but nothing too extraordinary. Characters and objects don't enjoy much in the way of organic volume as compared to the 2D-only image. Fortunately, the solid colors and details remain in 3D. Since the Blu-ray comes with 3D standard, 3D-equipped viewers may as well throw on the glasses for the first spin out of the case, but chances are subsequent viewings will be best enjoyed in the more face-friendly 2D-only transfer.

Back to the Jurassic 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Back to the Jurassic's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack gets the job done, no more, no less. The track does make regular use of the surrounds -- there are some nice directional and environmental effects that see pterodactyls swooping from back to front, cars zipping from side to side, and natural exterior ambience presenting through the back channels -- but it does nothing else particularly well. Music lacks energy, playing with an evident shyness that keeps it from shining with the aggressive posture its Rock-inspired tunes demand. The low end is active but not so pronounced that the entire room will shake with each thunderous dinosaur footfall; such effects produce some bass but nowhere near the level of raw power needed for success. Dialogue is a little shallow and lacking precise prioritization, sometimes getting a little lost in the shuffle, particularly in loud action scenes accompanied by music, such as a wild ride down a prehistoric river. The track satisfies basic requirements but the movie could have certainly benefited from a more carefully engineered sound mix and a lossless presentation.

Back to the Jurassic 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All that's included are previews for Back to the Jurassic, Dinosaur Island, Deep Sea Challenge, When Calls the Heart, and Khumba. The trailers are encoded in 3D but play in 2D.

Back to the Jurassic 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Back to the Jurassic might entertain the youngest of audiences who are less concerned with all of the movie's shortcomings and only interested in the colors, sounds, and dinosaurs. It won't find much crossover appeal with adults, however, who will likely see right through it for what it is, a decent enough filler movie that's completely unimaginative and destined for the bargain bin the moment it hits store shelves. Alchemy's Blu-ray 2D/3D combo release of Back to Jurassic features adequate video and audio. No extras of substance are included. Recommended for the youngest audiences only.