‘Primitive War’ Blu-ray Review
Stars: Jeremy Piven, Nick Wechsler, Ryan Kwanten, Tricia Helfer, Aaron Glenane, Anthony Ingruber, Carlos Sanson Jr. | Written by Ethan Pettus, Luke Sparke | Directed by Luke Sparke
There’s a very specific childhood fantasy that Primitive War taps into with gleeful precision: a bunch of soldiers heading into the jungle and discovering that the real enemy isn’t another army, but dinosaurs. Not metaphorical dinosaurs. Actual, teeth-gnashing, limb-ripping prehistoric monsters. It’s the movie many of us thought we were getting when Jurassic Park first teased military hardware alongside raptors, and then never quite delivered. Director Luke Sparke finally does.
Set in Vietnam, 1968, the film follows Vulture Squad, an elite recon unit sent into an isolated valley to discover what happened to a missing Green Beret platoon. The opening moments make it clear something has gone catastrophically wrong, and before long Baker (played by Ryan Kwanten) and his team realise the jungle is crawling with something far worse than enemy combatants. The eventual reveal – involving a rogue Russian research operation and a time-ripping scientific experiment – is gloriously pulpy, and the film leans into its alternate-history sci-fi madness without apology.
Where Primitive War truly excels is in its cast. Kwanten is terrific as Baker, anchoring the film with real leadership presence and emotional weight. Jeremy Piven, as Colonel Jericho, chews the scenery in the best possible way: all bluster, secrecy, and Vietnam-era bravado; while Tricia Helfer grounds the sci-fi elements as Sophia, a Russian scientist caught in the moral fallout of her work. The rest of Vulture Squad feels lived-in and authentic, especially Aaron Glenane’s sniper Logan, whose harrowing psychological unravelling delivers one of the film’s most unexpectedly powerful scenes.
For a film reportedly made on a fraction of a typical dinosaur-movie budget, the ambition here is staggering. The visual effects aren’t flawless; there are moments where the seams show, but far more often, the dinosaurs feel massive, physical, and genuinely dangerous. T-Rexes, raptors, Spinosaurus, and Pterodactyls all show up, and all leave a bloody trail behind them. The body count is high, the gore is unapologetic, and yes, soldiers absolutely get eaten, which somehow still feels like a novelty in this sub-genre.
If there’s a flaw, it’s length. At over two hours, the film occasionally pauses for extended character banter or exposition dumps that slightly stall the momentum. That said, those moments also pay dividends later, making certain deaths hit far harder than expected. This is a film that earns its emotional beats, even when it arguably could have trimmed a few minutes along the way.
Visually impressive, surprisingly heartfelt, and unapologetically fun, Primitive War is a war movie, a monster movie, and a sci-fi thriller rolled into one, and it works. It’s rare to see an independent genre film punch this far above its weight, and rarer still to come away feeling like you’ve watched the exact movie it promised to be.
On Blu-ray, Primitive War looks rock-solid, with a clean 1080p presentation framed in its original 2.00:1 aspect ratio. The MPEG-4 AVC encode handles the dense jungle environments and large-scale action well, delivering strong detail and contrast while keeping compression artefacts to a minimum, even during the film’s effects-heavy dinosaur sequences. This release also includes:
Special Features:
- Director’s Commentary
- Behind the Scenes
A full-throttle soldiers-versus-dinosaurs epic that delivers spectacle, character, and pure genre joy. Primitive War is easily the most fun dinosaur movie in years – and proof that big ideas still thrive outside blockbuster budgets.
***** 5/5
Primitive War is out now on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital, courtesy of Signature Entertainment.
