Review: 'Tarbosaurus' evokes the majesty of the Cretaceous era

Film: Tarbosaurus
Director: Han Sang-ho
Cast:  The voices of Goo Ja-Hyeong, Lee Hyung Suk and Sin Yong-woo
Rating: *

Tarbosaurus’ peaking moment of ‘it’s so-bad-it’s-good’ is a single shot of Speckles the titular tarbosaurus’s wet foot interrupting his arch nemeses, a Tyrannosaur called One-Eye from (presumably) committing dino rape on his mate Blue Eyes. What makes the scene especially funny is that not a minute earlier he cast into a chasm by the villainous creature (who pops up inexplicably time and again after doing in Speckles’s mum and siblings and going on to endanger his children).

The film, which promises to be a 100% CGI adventure, is set 80 million years ago. Promisingly, the film attempts to go beyond the predatory aspects of the extinct species, delving on its life, love and the endless dangers posed by cliffs.

It ambitiously attempts to make human’s identify with a scaly monstrosity called ‘Speckles’, who must forge through life after he is left orphaned by One-Eye.

The film, while having potential to be unique and touching, is as lumbering as its tiny-handed protagonist. With awkwardly translated dubbing from the Korean, the tarbosaurus’s narration which begins from his hatching, points out what the visuals made obvious (sometimes with hilarious effect). Bizarrely omniscient at times, with Speckles providing knowledge about events he could in no way have known, the narration also ungracefully crams facts and details about the creatures that seem purloined from plaques at a museum.

Tarbosaurus stops short of evoking some kind of solidarity in viewers about dinosaurs as living beings. With the possibility of a cataclysmic ending for them looming, ‘Good Riddance’ was what was coming to this reviewer’s mind.

It is perhaps for this information and some of the scenery, evoking the majesty of the Cretaceous era that almost makes Tarbosaurus a film worth taking your kids to, especially if they are budding palaeontologists. However, the not overly impressive CGI and above unrefined points of the film, such as those mentioned above, would without a doubt come in the way of their enjoyment.