Skip to main content

The Good Dinosaur (2015) - Review


The Good Dinosaur is the second release from Pixar in 2015 (Other one being the amazing 'Inside Out'), and I was really looking forward to watching it because, well, It's Pixar, CMON!!

The movie takes place in a setting where the asteroid that killed all the dinosaurs missed earth, resulting in them to keep on living for millions of years more. Now this is a really interesting premise and they could have done so much with it, but sadly we only get a buddy-up adventure type movie. Not that there is anything wrong with those types of films, they can be pretty fun but I just can't help but feel like a huge opportunity was wasted here just because of that approach.

Anyway, so the movie focuses on a child dinosaur in a family of dinosaurs, which are obviously sauropods (But not sure which one, eh who cares), and are living on a farm because I guess dinosaurs not dying out have evolved them a bit more. Some stuff happens and the child dino now has to find his way home while being accompanied by a human child, and now we have our buddy adventure story.

Now the movie does some things really great. The animation quality of the environments and surrounding are simply gorgeous. Photo realistic beauty. The level of detail in some areas was so great that you almost forget that you are watching an animated film. Along with that, there were some truly genuine great moments/scenes in the movie that you have come to expect from Pixar's brilliance. They were beautiful, tugged on my heart strings and I wanted more of them. The Soundtrack was also pretty good.

But then there is the other side; the story was lackluster, the secondary characters weren't anything special and the movie wasn't particularly funny/humorous, which isn't bad per say but to have a serious movies, you need a better story, which this was certainly lacking. The overall execution just didn't felt right, made the movie to not naturally flow between scenes of brilliance. Also, what's up with the weird dino design. They looked off to begin with but then coupled with the gorgeous surroundings, the contrast just became too profound. Wish they did em like dinos from 'Dinosaur'.

The couple of amazing moments give you hints of something that could have been another pixar hit, but the less than stellar scenes in between strung together with a lackluster story made for an experience that, although not low enough to be called mediocre or even bad, still ends up being a disappointment. For all intents and purposes, this is not a bad animated movie overall. It is just not a great one either. It is simply normal, which was a disappointment for me as I was expecting a lot more from the premise and from Pixar. I would still say it is a worth a watch it if you like animated movies.

7/10

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Shin Godzilla (2016) - Movie Review

Shin Godzilla is the newest Godzilla film from Toho, the studio behind the Japanese Godzilla films dating back all the way to 1954. This one is a reboot of the franchise, yet again, for the contemporary Japan and the plot is basically what you'd expect; Godzilla arrives and wreaks havoc, all the while the Government tries to defeat it. Since the original Godzilla was inspired by the effects and scars from the WWII Atomic Bombings on Japan by USA, and how destructive and horrifying that power is, this one is similar and was inspired by the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster, all the while being disguised in a monster movie. Godzilla in this movie instills a sense of dread and fear as this indestructible monster with the power to lay waste to everything, a biological TERROR, and I really liked that about this movie. The way its proper form looked, particularly the head, was unsettling and that was the movie's intention, so ...

Spartacus (2010) - TV Series Review (Complete)

Spartacus is a surprising series for me. I first watched it when there were only two seasons out, and back then it was kinda OK for me. Now, after re-watching the first two seasons along with the rest, I found it to be a pretty good series, great even. The series is about Spartacus and how he journey's from being a free man to a gladiator, and then to a leader. The whole series is structured in such a way that their is an overall forward progression with each season focused on a specific part. This results in focus on each area and ultimately they all come together quite nicely. Also, the series is divided into spartacus' related scenes and the roman leaders etc related scenes, developing both sides, side by side, throughout. This not only makes it easy to develop a large number of characters, it also develops both sides and not making it plain black and white. It makes things more interesting, and makes some outcomes way more satisfying. There are A LOT of characters t...

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) - Movie Review

The Hitman's Bodyguard stars Nick Fury and Deadpo-I mean Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds in a buddy action-comedy where Reynolds is a professional bodyguard who gets tangled up with a hitman portrayed by Jackson.  What worked for me in this movie were the scenes with Reynolds and Jackson together. Their performances were what you'd expect them to give in a movie like this. Not breaking new grounds or anything like that but being their usual comedic personas, and they both were entertaining....well for the most part anyway. They had a nice chemistry, and they worked off each other well. And most of the action scenes were enjoyable, one in particular, which was a long take including Reynolds. The problem with The Hitman's Bodyguard, though, was that it had a lot of other stuff going on as well which just wasn't interesting enough for me to care because not only did it detract from the fun of the main duo, the movie took it way too seriously. It ...