Primeval: New World Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Primeval: New World Blu-ray Movie Review

Jurassic Pork.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 21, 2013

That an old saying that goes “there’s nothing new under the sun” and that must be doubly true of Primeval: New World, a joint British-Canadian series that, like its focal dinosaurs, has gone extinct (though admittedly much faster than the actual creatures did). Based on the British series Primeval, which itself was a kind of warmed over Jurassic Park meets Torchwood hybrid, Primeval: New World is a spin-off without much of a reason to exist, courtesy of being a Xerox copy of an already tepid enterprise which deals mostly with dinosaurs traveling through space-time portals called “anomalies” to wreak havoc on present day Vancouver, B.C. You’ve seen it all before, and in fact once you’ve seen one or two episodes of Primeval: New World, you’ve really seen it all before, as this series follows a depressingly rote formula that basically sees much the same storyline playing out again. . .and again. . .and again. Human fascination with dinosaurs seems to be almost a genetic predisposition—I can still remember to this day being carted off on a family vacation to the Southern Utah burg of Vernal to gaze in awe at the gigantic fossil of a near complete dinosaur encased in a huge rock wall behind a protective plate of Plexiglas. That inbred fascination would seem to give both Primeval and its Canadian sibling the sort of built in interest factor to carry it through any potential missteps, but Primeval: New World is especially predictable, even more so than the original series. (It should be noted that my colleague Ken Brown, who reviewed the Blu-ray edition of Primeval’s fourth and fifth seasons (called “series” by the Brits) evidently thinks more highly of the show than I do.) There are hints of a deeper X Files-esque mythology peeking out from beneath Primeval: New World’s pretty bland covers, but perhaps because the show was axed unceremoniously after its sole season, very few of those elements really are developed to the point where they become integral to the plot, let alone intriguing enough to warrant much interest.

Primeval: New World starts plying its clichés right off the bat, with a technique which will become a recurring trope in the series—innocent victims running smack dab into some kind of prehistoric monster and perishing in the ensuing fray. Soon enough we’re introduced to hunky but emotionally devastated inventor Evan Cross (Niall Matter), whose own wife perished years ago when one of those nasty dinosaurs showed up unexpectedly in his top secret lab. (The series never really satisfyingly explains this particular element and the audience is just left to accept it on its own terms.) Cross has somewhat muddled memories of this trauma, due perhaps to the shock of it all, but in a reference to the original Primeval, he does recall being saved by an ARC paratrooper, an individual he has subsequently put on deep freeze in the top top secret part of his lab. This is one of many actually tantalizing situations that Primeval: New World never fully exploits, again perhaps because of its early demise, though there are some revelations part way through this season which cast light on the frozen guy's relationship to one major character.

Cross has secretly been trying to document the sporadic appearances of the so-called anomalies, thinking they’re just some kind of weird magnetic phenomena (speaking of which, someone better give this show’s writers a quick tutorial on the difference between phenomenon and phenomena, as they incorrectly use the former when they really want the latter on at least a couple of occasions). Cross quickly becomes aware there are nasty creatures showing up, especially when (in yet another predictable turn of events where the character might as well have been wearing a Star Trek red shirt) his elderly partner is mauled to death. The first two episodes detail Cross putting together a team to track down the prehistoric beasts. This gaggle of high tech wizards includes his corporation’s CFO Angelika Finch (Miranda Frigon), who helps with logistics; a local policewoman named Dylan Weir (Sara Canning), whose expertise is in tracking predators like bears (but who quickly is able to transfer her talents to dinosaurs); Toby Nance (Crystal Lowe), a tech head who sets up a huge array of magnetometers to trace where the anomalies occur; Mac Rendell (Danny Rahim), a hotshot motorcycle rider whom Cross “promotes” to handle some of the team’s weaponry; and, in the series’ most obvious tip of the hat to The X Files, a nerdy government employee named Ken Leeds (Geoff Gustafson), who in fact might as well be named Fox Mulder.

One kind of funny aspect to Primeval: New World is the crossover of the character of Connor Temple (Andrew- Lee Potts) from Primeval in bookending episodes in this season. For fans of the original series, this will be an amusing little sidebar, but for those who aren’t aware of the tie-in, Temple actually seems to be a villain, at least in the series’ premiere episode, where he’s patently shifty and a little sketchy looking.

The series does start to play with some time travel paradoxes in relatively entertaining ways as the first season comes to a close, with the threat of the present timeline changing more than a mere possibility. This aspect of the series actually may have turned out to have been actually more interesting than the “monster of the week” approach Primeval: New World opted for. The production here is fairly handsome, though some of the CGI is occasionally less than completely convincing. Primeval: New World is a series that may have come into its own—even if that “own” was patently derivative—had it been able to last a bit longer. As it stands, it’s just the fossil of a concept, neither particularly memorable nor especially exciting.

Primeval: New World Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Primeval: New World is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Much as with its parent series, Primeval: New World benefits from a very sleek and modern production design which of course contrasts rather ironically with the CGI primordial beasts which populate each episode. Colors, while tending to reflect the slate grays of Vancouver, B.C. much of the time, are nicely saturated and accurate looking. Fine detail is often excellent, especially in close-ups of humans (see screenshot 9) and at least occasionally with regard to various CGI elements (see the fur on the bird in screenshot 5). The CGI is at least somewhat variable, however. Some things look great (including that bird), while others have a kind of amorphous, textureless quality that makes them seem more like they belong in a cartoon. Overall, though, Primeval: New World features a nicely sharp and well defined image that exhibits no real artifacting of any note on this Blu-ray release.

Primeval: New World Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Primeval: New World's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix has a lot of opportunity to exploit great sound effects and floorboard rumbling LFE, and in fact it dos so quite consistently. There are a ton of great sound effects dotting each and every episode, whether it's the weird high caw of a prehistoric bird or the thundering footsteps of a predatory dinosaur. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, and there's some nice attention paid to various ambient environments, where, for example, the differences between "The Tank", the cavernous lab where Cross and his team work, and more confined environments is readily noticeable. Surround activity is very smartly handled, especially when the series gets out of doors, which it does quite often. Fidelity is excellent throughout this track and dynamic range is extremely wide.

Primeval: New World Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes. Ten of the thirteen episodes also have a brief making of featurette which tends to focus on one element in the episode. (The insert in the keepcase says there are thirteen of these featurettes, but try as I might, I could not find anything on Episodes 11-13.)

  Episode 1: The New World (1080p; 1:44)

  Episode 2: Sisiutl (720p; 1:51)

  Episode 3: Fear of Flying (720p; 2:28)

  Episode 4: Angry Birds (720p; 2:22)

  Episode 5: Undone (720p; 2:02)

  Episode 6: Cleanup On Aisle Three (720p; 2:14)

  Episode 7: Babes in the Woods (720p; 1:38)

  Episode 8: Truth (720p; 2:34)

  Episode 9: Breatkthrough (1080p; 2:37)

  Episode 10: The Great Escape (720p; 2:42)

• Meet the Cast (1080p; 5:59) features interviews with the cast (and crew). Most of the clips are from the first episode.


• Inside the Tank (720p; 1:19) is a quick look at the secret lab set.

Primeval: New World Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fans of the original Primeval may well find more to like in Primeval: New World than I frankly did, but I think there's a reason this show failed to connect with audiences. It really offers nothing new for the Primeval faithful, and in fact it falls into a formulaic rut so quickly that even aficionados may be as frustrated as I ultimately became. The show's time travel elements actually provided more compelling interest (to me, anyway), but the show's early demise means even those aspects are never fully explored or resolved. For those who did love Primeval: New World, at least it looks and sounds great in high definition.