Film Review: Primitive War (2025) - Australia
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critic Circle of Australia)
I rated it 7/10
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Australian director Luke Sparke’s “Primitive War” arrives with a premise so gloriously blunt it demands attention: American soldiers deep in the Vietnam jungle, locked in a desperate firefight not just with the Viet Cong, but with resurrected dinosaurs hungry for G.I. Joe. Based on Ethan Pettus’s cult novel, this is not the tame - “Jurassic Park”, it’s more brutal like “Predator”. Does it work? As a pure, unadulterated, R-rated genre assault? Absolutely. As a profound war film? Not so much. But sometimes, viscera is enough.
Where the Monster Mash Meets the Meat Grinder - Sparke understands his assignment. He plunges us headfirst into a grimy, sweat-drenched, blood-spattered 1970s grindhouse aesthetic. The jungle isn’t just a setting; it’s a claustrophobic character, dripping with menace and hiding terrors both human and prehistoric. He borrows the oppressive dread of “Predator”and marries it to the weary, fatalistic tone of a Vietnam potboiler. The "Vulture Squad" feels authentically ragged, a band of brothers defined by exhaustion and the thousand-yard stare. Ryan Kwanten, as their leader, delivers a performance grounded in believable fatigue and reluctant courage, providing a crucial anchor amidst the escalating chaos.
The true stars, however, are the dinosaurs. Forget the theme park attractions of recent years. Sparke presents raptors – feathered, fast, and terrifyingly intelligent – not as wonders, but as slasher villains scaled up to nightmare proportions. The terrifying Utahraptor is less a scientific marvel and more the ultimate primal fear given claws and teeth. This is “Jurassic Park”s R-rated nightmare. Crucially, Sparke relies heavily on practical effects augmented by quality CGI, and the results are brutally effective. The kills aren't just spectacular; they’re impactful, visceral, and genuinely unsettling. You feel the crunch, the tear, the spray. It’s creature feature filmmaking with its fangs bared and claws out.
“Primitive War” occasionally stumbles under the weight of its own ambitions. It wants to be both a grim meditation on the psychological hellscape of war and a cheerfully cheesy B-movie romp where dino-guts fly with abandon. This creates moments of jarring tonal whiplash. One scene lingers on the haunted eyes of a soldier; the next revels in the splatter of a raptor evisceration.
Furthermore, the dense jungle that provides such effective atmosphere also becomes a narrative thicket in the second act. The pacing sags as the squad navigates repetitive "ambush/retreat" sequences. We get the point: the jungle is hell, the dinosaurs are relentless. We don’t need quite so many variations on the theme before the admittedly explosive finale kicks in. The film wants to have its jungle cake and eat it too, but sometimes the recipe gets muddled.
So, where does the thumb land? Firmly up, for the audience craving exactly what “Primitive War” offers. This is not a film that reinvents the military thriller or the dinosaur genre. It doesn’t possess the thematic heft of genre classics. What it does possess is a singular, blood-soaked vision executed with considerable craft and a refreshing lack of compromise. Sparke delivers a grim, stylish, and unapologetically violent trip into a prehistoric heart of darkness. It’s a B-movie with A-level gore and atmosphere, a potent reminder that sometimes, the simple pleasure of watching well-designed monsters tear through authentically terrified soldiers is more than enough. If you long for the days when creature features weren't afraid to get messy, “Primitive War” is your primal scream of satisfaction. Just don't expect subtlety with your savagery. (Neo, 2025)