Sending an elite military squad into hostile territory overrun by prehistoric predators is the precise type of high concept that’s all but guaranteed to get butts in seats. Blending a violent Vietnam war movie with dinosaur carnage dangles thrilling potential for genre fun, but Primitive War, writer/director/VFX supervisor Luke Sparke’s adaptation of author Ethan Pettus’ sci-fi military novel, squanders it with a bloated runtime overstuffed with tropes yet stretched thin on plot.

Set during the Vietnam War in 1968, Primitive War introduces its core team, a recon unit known as Vulture Squad, a search and rescue group demonstrating their skills through gunfire in a jungle combat opening sequence. Upon returning from that mission, they’re assigned new orders that will send them into an isolated jungle valley to rescue a missing Green Beret platoon, only to discover that a Soviet experiment has unleashed hordes of ravenous dinosaurs that will thwart their path at every turn.

There’s not much to Primitive War beyond that. A group of soldiers facing dangerous threats at every turn, fighting their way to complete their mission, and often dying in grisly fashion. The good news is that the deaths do frequently come with buckets of blood and entrails spilled, and the dino onslaught is constant. But that’s also about where the good news ends.

Primitive War presents an ensemble cast of dino fodder, but it’s nearly impossible to tell who’s who or why we should care. Sergeant First Class Ryan Baker (Ryan Kwanten) stands out as the squad’s leader, but only barely due to his affinity for getting into other characters’ faces and screaming orders or venting frustrations. Beyond that, the Vulture Squad is indistinguishable in both appearance and personality, each cookie-cutter depictions of war movie cliches. The film’s R-rating feels more earned by its constant f-bombs than gore; it mistakes shouting and cursing for characterization without ever bothering to venture further to set each member apart. Sophia (Tricia Helfer) comes the closest to resembling a fully realized character, as the guilt-ridden morphine addict who aids the squad, but still can’t overcome paper-thin writing or a cartoonish Russian accent.

That’d be fine, considering most are designated for brutal demises, but it’s clear by the emotional music swells and slowed-down hero moments that we’re meant to know who they are and care before they perish. Also unhelpful is the way that most deaths and the action are framed. Photosensitive viewers beware; Sparke is fond of employing strobing lights to obscure both the action and the dinosaur VFX, which in turn also further obscures the characters we’re meant to grow attached to. There’s no real sense of blocking in combat scenes, either, just unfocused chaos on screen. As for the dinosaurs themselves, Sparke’s VFX struggles to render them realistic in broad daylight but fares better under the shroud of night and white flashes of gunfire. 

Tonally, Primitive War tends to take itself way too seriously to a tedious degree, stretching that two-hour and fifteen-minute runtime into a grueling marathon, but will occasionally insert puzzling bursts of silliness, like introducing a Tyrannosaurus rex mated pair, one with a feminine tuft of feathery hair. They’re the only dinosaurs of the entire film to display any intelligence beyond the animalistic instincts, pointing to the film’s disregard for consistency or logic. 

Despite the constant forward movement of the soldiers running and gunning their way through war terrain while dodging prehistoric attacks, Primitive War is surprisingly inert. There’s not enough meat on its bones to sustain its padded runtime, giving audiences nothing to grab hold of while we wait for the next dino attack. It’s a mashup that fails both sides of the equation, resulting in a violent dinosaur actioner more interested in overused tropes and soundtrack than B-movie fun.

 Primitive War releases in theaters on August 21, 2025.