Today's Review: Walking with Dinosaurs 3D

Oh my! Look what movie I rated 2 out of 5 (or 4 out of 10) stars on MovieScene:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/152438/walking_with_dinosaurs_3d_-_recensie

I really wanted to like this movie more than I could (since it's a dinosaur movie!), but it made it impossible to do so because it was so hugely disappointing. However, I was emotionally prepared for the disappointment by increasingly disturbing trailers and related marketing material that indicated the renowned BBC dinosaur documentary suffered from severe dumbing down under the shameless supervision of  the conservative 20th Century-Fox studio (do execs there even believe dinosaurs once existed for real, instead of only in the easily exploitable minds of innocent children?). So I knew the end result would not be to my liking, and it sadly proved to be true. This movie was just nothing like the original WWD series and everything like Disney's Dinosaur (but worse). Interestingly enough, it's the second 3D movie I reviewed this week that consists of a poor mix of drama and documentary, both featuring animals and using spectactular nature photography (WWD at least has made good use of fabulous landscapes, I'll grant them that). At least Amazonia didn't overly anthropomorphize its non-human protagonists, though in that film's case the addition of a narrative was also used to attract a younger audience.

So that's one new dinosaur film down the drain. I have better hope for Pixar's The Good Dinosaur and Jurassic World, but this certainly does not bode well for a dinosaur popularity revival. Says the guy who bought most of the new WWD action figures regardless. Hey, at least those don't talk, they roar, as dinosaurs ought to.

Today's Review: Atlantis' pilot episode

Another first for me at MovieScene, the 'first impression' of a TV-series. In this case a new series (as opposed to a season premiere of a running show), the BBC's latest expensive fantasy production Atlantis:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/150482/atlantis_-_eerste_indruk

So, not a very good start for this show. Too bad really, since I was looking forward to it and wanted to like it. The rushed script, predictable and overly modern dialogue, poor FX work and overall messy plot line didn't make it easy to get into the story, though it was at least agreeable to see Mark Addy and Alexander Siddig back in action. Hopefully their characters will be put to good use further down the road. Addy's Hercules so far seems destined to be a character providing mostly comic relief instead of his own dramatic plot lines and that's a real shame. Also, it seems this show will be a 'monster of the week' type action series, like a fantasy successor to Primeval (which is now definitely cancelled in at least two countries), but thanks to all the wonderful original and compelling television series America has unleashed upon us over the last few years, such simple 'all in good fun' shows just don't cut it these days. This isn't the Nineties anymore. This is the 21st century and audiences have grown more sophisticated, demanding and spoiled with regards to telly. If you don't convince them fast, your show won't survive. And in all honesty, if Atlantis continues its merry way the pilot indicates the show is taking, I can see it sinking within a few years. And this Atlantis won't become the stuff of legends... Nevertheless, for now I'll keep watching in hopes it gets better soon. I know pilot episodes are rarely sufficient to judge a whole series on. It's not nearly as bad as, say, Terra Nova after all.