Phonearl
Good start, but then it gets ruined
BroadcastChic
Excellent, a Must See
Supelice
Dreadfully Boring
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Dinosaurs Alive" is a 40-minute documentary from 2007, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year. The people who made this are Emmy winner David Clark and Oscar nominee Bayley Silleck. The title makes it pretty obvious what this one is about of course. So if you care about dinosaurs or paleontology, this one may very well be worth it. Or you will be especially disappointed because you find the lack of depth here really irritating. Depends on you I guess. I myself as someone with not too much interest in the subject must say that none of the aspects made me curious about the subject. Still I have watched dinosaur documentaries in the past that were clearly superior to this one here. No surprise that this one is not among the most known IMAX documentaries out there, but really goes more under the lesser known. Narrator and Oscar winner Michael Douglas is not really making things better as he has way too much text to be honest and you can't blame him for it. It seems as if they were trying to make up for lack of information by having Douglas (admittedly a huge star) talking random stuff all the time. And the reenactment scenes were just as uninteresting as the paleontologists we see and find out about. Thumbs down from me. Not recommended.
John Krull
This movie shows about 2 minutes of recreations of dinosaurs actually being alive. My son, who loves dinosaurs, thought the movie was OK, at best. 95% of the 40 minute movie includes shots of deserts and badlands from the air or boring, staged interviews with scientists. Calling the film "Dinosaurs Alive" is misleading, to say the least. For me, it was the worst IMAX movie I've ever seen and hardly deserves to be even put on the screen.We saw it at the Chabot Science Center in Oakland and it cost the two of us $25. Luckily that included entrance to the center which helped improve the experience (a bit - but that's for another review).
scottyr
I've recently taken my two sons to see this at my local science center, and all of us were very disappointed with Dinosaurs Alive! This very dry documentary mainly focuses on archaeologists in 1920s Mongolia and modern day New Mexico. CG dino scenes were not only sparse and short (why call this film Dinosaurs Alive if you're not going to focus on them?), but the special effects were poor. I've seen effects on Discovery Channel specials and cheaply-done Sci-Fi network movies that far exceeded what was in this movie. Come to think of it, I would have rather watched the Discovery Channel's "Walking with Dinosaurs" on my TV than this big screen snooze.Occasionally there was a beautiful, panoramic shot of some cliffs or a desert vista; but other than this there wasn't much redeeming about this film. If it's still playing at an IMAX theater near you, go see something else.
sallydaverman
I took my 6 year old daughter to see this film at the California Science Center and we both really enjoyed it. The 3D glasses really make the Dinosaurs jump out and off the screen. We both jumped in our seats more than once! The film is short, only about 40 minutes long or so, but that is the length of most of the IMAX film I have seen at the Science Center. The film does contain a lot of educational material, which is interesting to learn about, especially when you are taken back in time to see the very real looking dinosaurs walking around in Mongolia and New Mexico.If you get a chance to see this movie I would recommend it. It is fun, and won't take up 2 hours of your day.