I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the stop-motion animation. There was one particularly cool shot of a Ron Jeremy look-a-like getting skewered by a triceratops. The acting was entertainingly bad, though some witty banter shone through here and there. Nothing special in the story department - very straight forward survival story, but I did find myself rooting for our heroes. This type of pulpy schlock movie usually benefits from some female nudity, unfortunately the most you get is one very attractive girl in a skimpy outfit (she reminded me of Olivia Munn, yummm). In closing, crack open some beers and enjoy!

I gave this sci-fi outing a 5 because of the incredible special effects. A stranded space crew must fend for itself on a primitive planet full of dinosaurs and the like. The dinosaurs are classic stop motion creatures, most probably by Jim Danforth, a student of Ray Harryhausen's and best known for his work on "The Outer Limits" and "Jack the Giant Killer." Danforth, if it was indeed he who worked on this film, obviously learned well from the master, not just the quality of the stop motion work but the blending of live and animated footage, employing a technique invented by Harryhausen called Dynamation or Super Dynamation. The human actors in this flick are pretty awful, and the plot is from nowheresville. But the dinosaurs make up for a good deal. I understand Harryhausen visited the set during production, so I'm not surprised by the excellence of the animated sequences..

The plot is B movie. Astronauts somehow crash land on a planet with a perfect Earth like atmosphere and carbon life forms, including dinosaurs.Aside from the plot, the film is anything but B movie. It is a bona fide drama, with only one "throw away" character. The "throw away" character brings this down from a rating of 8 to 7. He really didn't fit in with the other three dimensional characters.That's what makes this an interesting film. We have genuine "drama" here. There is a conflict that slowly brews over the decision making.What makes the film extra refreshing is that the writer is savvy enough to show characters in a state of panic. Yes, panic. If you think you would keep your head in unknown territory, with these kind of creatures, you have watched too many real B movies.The characters squabble a little, but not as much as modern people, but the people who wrote and directed this can't be blamed for not knowing that people of the future would be immature. This is well written drama.Again, it's the times of panic and split second decision making that make this look realistic on a human behavior standpoint. And that's what makes good Adventure films-credible characters in an incredible situation. This fits the bill.

I would have to say the acting on this film is some of the worst I have seen not including James Withworth he did a great job. The others were nobody's hired cause of the low-budget production. Almost similar to "The Crater Lake Monster" from '77 which most reviewers on here gave bad comments cause of the acting & low-budget production values. Special effects buffs on here most like me usually say the only thing that saved the film was the remarkable Stop-Motion Effects done by the great David Allen. This film is very much like that. I honestly have to say Crater Lake had better acting. This film was Directed by James K. Shea. I thought he did a great job at pulling it all together with the budget & staying in the budget rang considering him having the effects used being done through the painstaking Stop-Motion Animation Techniques conceived by Willis O'Brien & Ray Harryhausen. Which all guys who worked on this film were inspired by both men & pay homages to them in their little film. 90% of the animation sequences in the film were done by Doug Beswick yes for u Special Effects buffs, the same guy who helped Rick Baker create the costume for the 1972 Sci-Fi Cult Classic "Octaman". Which I would wish would turn up on DVD someday soon, I love that film too. I had no idea Doug was such a great animator I mean the dino fighting sequences are amazing in the film. Some of the best I have seen better then Willis O'Brien & his counterpart Pete Peterson. I also think they rival Ray Harryhausen's work as well as David Allen & Jim Danforth. I think his animation was as good as their stuff. Jim Aupperle also did some nice sequences he did a tad bit of Doug's T-Rex & Stegasaurus battle. Jim's spotlight though was the horned dinosaur sequence with that guy running across the cliff & the dinosaur impaling him with it's horn, in the chest. Steve Czerkas did a great job at building the miniatures & models he also did a bit of animation I can't recall which sequence he did though. The film also won the Saturn Award from The Academy Of Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Films because of the brilliant Stop-Motion Effects. For special effects buffs this film is great to others though not so great I give it an 8 though cause of the animation effects.