Plot: After their space vessel crashes into an unknown planet, the ship’s crew is forced to improvise in order to survive. With the spacecraft damaged beyond repair, the group comes up with some makeshift weapons from the scrap pieces and wreckage, to fend off whatever predators might inhabit the landscape. The group has some hope in the form of their trusty spherical robot assistant, who can analyze the surroundings and maybe lead them to an escape pod that separated from the main ship. While the group expects to run into obstacles and perhaps even dangerous local beings, they’re not prepared for the kind of creatures that lurk in the shadows. The planet is teeming with dinosaurs of all kinds and armed with only crude weapons to protect themselves, will anyone survive this prehistoric onslaught?

Entertainment Value: Dinosaurs…in space! That is the premise of Jurassic Galaxy, but the movie itself lacks the vision and resources to deliver on the potential of the concept, despite a few bursts of dinosaur related fun. I do think dinosaurs can spice up any worn out formula, but this is a bland, generic sci/fi narrative and even the wonderful beasts can only do so much. As often happens, the marketing leads us to think this is all about the dinosaurs and epic space battles, but of course, those are minor elements and that’s a disappointment. There are no real large scale set pieces to be found here, even the most action oriented moments are run of the mill, so it is up to the CGI dinosaurs to rescue what little entertainment is available. And to be fair, those dinosaurs do their job and provide the most entertainment, with some wild and more violent than expected attacks and chases. The issue is that these majestic killing machines aren’t around enough and when the humans take the spotlight, the pace grinds and the fun is sapped out of Jurassic Galaxy. I don’t mind low rent production values as long as the fun is there, but this ride just doesn’t have enough thrills.

The real stars of this movie are of course the dinosaurs, but their human costars tend to soak up the most screen time. To be honest, I found the performances here to be more or less forgettable across the board. I wouldn’t call all of the efforts bad by any means, but no one steps up to carry the movie or pump life into the dull affair, everyone just seems to go through the motions. I think with low budget b movies like Jurassic Galaxy, some colorful performances can go a long way to sprucing up bland material, or even just a dialed up, over the top turn can work wonders. But that kind of enthusiasm isn’t present here and that’s a shame. The performances are just kind of there, not good enough to add to the experience, but not bad enough to add camp value. The cast here includes Doug Burch, Madison West, and Ryan Budds.

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