Jurassic Games you say? Would there by any chance be a new, big-budget franchise dinosaur movie hitting our cinema screens in the next few weeks? An ideal opportunity, then, for studios to dig around at the back of their ‘cheap and cheerful’ cupboard to see if there’s anything vaguely prehistoric they can foist upon a public eager for the latest in the Isla Nublar saga or else too stupid to realise that this similarly-titled knock-off isn’t the real thing.
In fairness, The Jurassic Games isn’t the worst of these wannabes we’ve endured over the years, delivering plenty of dinosaur bang for your buck and some decent action sequences wrapped around a storyline which, a little late to the party, takes its lead from the reality TV show obsession and throws in a dash of Hunger Games YA-style survivalist drama in an attempt to rope in as many demographics as possible. The titular games is a near-future TV series in which convicted death row killers are sent into a prehistoric virtual reality environment and are tasked with fighting to the death – against each other, blood-hungry predators, deadly plants – with the winner being the last man or woman standing. But if they die in the artificial environment, they die in real-life, their bodies terminated by lethal injection out in the real world. Fun for all the family and, we’re told, essential viewing.
This year’s Games promises to be the best yet with rootable hero Anthony Tucker (Adam Hampton), wrongly (it seems) convicted of killing his wife fighting his desperate fellow-competitors as they turn on one another and battle to survive tyrannosaurs, raptors and pterodactyls as well as booby traps and killer bugs. Meanwhile, back in the Games’ mission control, obsequious and unnamed host (Merriman) is milking the show (and its manufactured emotional set-ups) for all it’s worth but there are those who don’t share the audience’s enthusiasm for the grisly spectacle and are working to shut down the show.
There’s a lot going on in The Jurassic Games and by and large, it’s breezy highly watchable stuff. Dinosaur die-hards will be pleased to find that there’s no shortage of their favourite beasties on display and the CGI is generally pretty effective, any shortcomings attributable to the fact that they’re supposed to be creations of VR technology – which doesn’t stop them chowing down on one two of the unfortunate competitors as the games rage on. There’s some joyous scenery chewing evident in the acting department, a bit of miscasting (some of the competitors don’t convince as ruthless killers) and as the games themselves seem to occur in real-time, it appears that the Jurassic Games TV series runs only as long as the film itself. This is a surprisingly agreeable effort which you’ll forget as soon as the new Jurassic Park movie hits but it’s a completely harmless and enjoyable way of passing the time until the real big boys show up.
THE JURASSIC GAMES / CERT: TBC /DIRECTOR: RYAN BELLGARDT / SCREENPLAY: RYAN BELLGARDT, GALEN CHRISTY / STARRING: RYAN MERRIMAN, PERRY REEVES, ADAM HAMPTON, KATIE BURGESS, ERIKA DALEY/ RELEASE DATE: MAY 21ST
