Yes, I know. It's a miniseries for kids, but some grownups seem to enjoy it. I have loved dinosaur movies ever since I saw Jurassic Park (1993) as a kid, so I decided to give it a try.
The overarching story is an exciting tale of adventure. Two half-brothers survive a plane crash. After this brush with death they discover an island where humans and dinosaurs live together. The brothers have different personalities and deal with this discovery in different ways. There are dangers ahead for the brothers and the inhabitants of the island, but I won't reveal any more about that now.
The story itself is great, but of course, it also matters how a story is told. About the script, certain things are just not explained. Maybe it has to do with limitations on the running time. An example early on is when the brothers take a bus. To get on they need a ticket. Presumably, if you need a ticket you need to buy it. They just get them from a man in a booth with no explanation. Would it had been so hard to just have someone lend them some coins in the local currency? No spoilers, but the ending was even worse to the point of being sloppy. I could see the screenwriter in front of me going: "Ops, I only have three more pages to finish this!" He would have needed half an episode.
Another important aspect in a series about dinosaurs is of course the practical and digital effects. For scenes in broad daylight, the CGI is not that impressive. It didn't look much better than a video game at the time. However, there were a few suspenseful scenes, in the dark, that mixed CGI with animatronics, and these worked much better. It's clear that great care had been taken to make the most of what they had in order to make these scenes as thrilling as possible. Of course, if you're mainly interested in realistic-looking creatures, you might as well re-watch Jurassic Park. Even if the industry had nine years to improve the technologies, you have to consider that Dinotopia is made for TV and Jurassic Park was a blockbuster, and had groundbreaking effects.
The acting wasn't always great, but wasn't what bothered me the most. Maybe it was because I half-expected it from a TV production.
I'm sorry I didn't watch Dinotopia at age ten, as I probably wouldn't have noticed the flaws as much. It's not terrible, but I suspect that the grownups who give it the most praise might be watching through a nostalgic filter.
I would recommend this if the following is true: You want something to watch with your kids. Your kids like adventure and/or dinosaurs. They can handle some scary sequences, but aren't yet ready for Jurassic Park. If you are looking for something to watch on your own, there are better options, even if you like dinosaurs.
