Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia review
Hello everyone and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind.
If you do, you know what I mean. If not (or even if you do)... lemme introduce you to Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia, yet another palaeo-documentary released for IMAX theatres during the 2000's (notably came out alongside Dinosaurs Alive), during the early stages of the Awesomebro period when the Trilogy of Life was done and edgy tributes were coming in, and I adored the trailer alone for it.
80 million years ago, they ruled the earth. Come and see for the first time: real life sized dinosaurs... on the world's largest screen.
Oh, man, that's still cool 17 years on. Also, I thought from how the trailer was edited the humans were gonna interact with the dinosaurs by travelling back in time to study the dinosaurs, Nigel Marven-style. That would have been amazing...
Anyway, this creation of Quebecois creative Marc Fafard documents the Cenomanian dinosaurs of South America, specifically the classic giant duo and a half of the sauropod Argentinosaurus and the theropods called the giganotosaurs. I happened to find it on one of those free VOD services on my family's TV, and decided what the heck. Let's delve into it shall we?
The doc starts with a cosmic zoom into the milky way, as narrator Donald Sutherland... narrates about how the sun took the Mesozoic era to mover around it. There's also a cool shot of what appears to be the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hurling towards the camera, only to rotate around to reveal the real one. Afterwards, we see out first dinosaur, the ornithopod Anabisetia (or at least standing in for an elasmarian of the time and place), as it runs through the night. Cue the title card.
Afterwards, we get some gorgeous shots of aerial Patagonia, doubling for its prehistoric self, before we dive into the seas of the Jurassic Period on the northern coast of South America, where we see both ichthyosaurs and a giant oversized Liopleurodon swim by. The latter sequence is a bit perfunctory as it has nothing to do with dinosaurs besides bringing up Pangaea and continental drift, and the Lio itself looks rather odd around the eyes.
Cutting back to the present, we are introduced to palaeontologist Rodolfo Coria as he visits a dig site and assumes narrating, talking about his job and the discovery of Argentinosaurus 14 years before the doc was made. He's pretty good as a narrator.
By the way, through the modern segments we see archival footage of Coria's digs superimposed into various things in the segments, such as footprints, laptop screens and even sunglasses. It's a cool visual I can't remember being done elsewhere.
As for the dig scenes themselves, they are very much the same thing three times over, so I won't go into too much detail regarding them.
After an interlude with pterosaurs flying past the camera and Coria visiting a fossil trackway, we have a segment on the iconic Giganotosaurus, where a nest is raided by the same Unenlagia, only for the parent to drive it off. Its shot as though the camera were pointing up from the ground, which helps make the giga seem all the bigger and impressive; not to mention it's always interesting when docs contrast the with the parental care most theropods have. The hatchling a female is a female Sutherland names Long Tooth. Most notably, the baby Giga has feathers. Granted, they do go away as they get older, but we can see that feathers in palaeomedia have already gained traction in the 2000's even beyond coelurosaurs (a trend that would peak in the mid-2010's with if anything overfeathering).
Afterwards, we see Strong One and young Long Tooth growing up. Strong One travels with a herd, and browses, and all the while gives some pretty great shots that show off the size of them as the amble along. Meanwhile, a juvenile Long Tooth wanders by a canyon and tries to catch a dragonfly, before the Unenlegia, which Donald offhandedly names Sharp Feather, comes out and gets pushed off a cliff by the young carcharodontosaur, continuing it's comic relief as Donald notes it couldn't fly.
* Which if I'm not mistaken seems to be the same one seen in the Jurassic World Dominion Prologue... which as had Giga in it. Hmmmm.....
Coria later reveals that the giganotosaur we've seen over the last 20 minutes or so was gasp, not Giga, but the new genus Mapusaurus all along! Keep in mind, while fossils of it were known and even featured in a few docs before (BBC's Chased by Dinosaurs and Extreme Dinosaurs), this was made just a year after Mapu was fully described.
The climax is of Long Tooth and other Mapusaurus hunting the Argentinosaurus. However, its not an easy hunt, and Strong One defeats the pack and stomps down in a shot that is worth was was whatever price of admission. It ends with Long Tooth down and dead. It's implied the other Mapusaurus cannibalise her, which would be brutal for a documentary no doubt seen by kids - but this isn't shown, and they just leave (but not before frightening off Sharp Feather who pops in one last time).
However, the film ends with a cut back in the Maastrichtian and to the asteroid impact, but this time moved to North America as we see both Quetzalcoatlus, sauropods that are implied to be Alamosaurus, and even Tyrannosaurus getting in (does rex have to be in EVERYTHING!?). It seems odd a thing to end the last ten minutes with when its not set in Patagonia at all, and so comes off as out of place; not to mention makes the Argie hunt seem short and anti-climactic. That said, the silent scene of the sauropods (possibly Alamosaurus) wandering after the impact is certainly sad and sobering.
Giants of Patagonia end ends with the expected "Ah, but birds ARE dinos" and Coria waxing one last time about the thrill of discovery, and isn't too bad a conclusion.
So what do I think of Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia?
The scale of Giants of Patagonia is suitably epic, with almost every shot being wide and big, both in the Huincul of the past and the Patagonia of the present, worthy of being wallpapers (for they were all the rage). Meanwhile, I notice that there's a lot of Paddleball shots where the subject is centred and up close. These are clearly work best on the big screen for the 3D effect, and while not bad on anything else, does get a bit awkward-looking at times.
The story goes back and forth between the Huincul Formation and modern day, with the latter setting up either species before introducing them in the reconstruction sequences. It works fairly well in terms of syuzhet, even if I would prefer longer reconstruction sequences, because more dinosaur. Still, its better then Dinosaurs Alive in acually having a better ratio between the two at least.
The designs are nice, but they haven't aged entirely well. While the designs of the Argentinosaurus and gigas hold up relatively well with only a few problems to them (too high nostrils, pronated hands), the Unenlagia does not resemble the real thing with it's boxy head reminiscent of retro-Deinonychus instead of the slender one fossils show it had like its relatives. And do I even need to mention feather issues? Also as seen above, the juvenile Mapusaurus are basically adults but timy, when its more likely young Mapusaurus had a more gracile form; not as much as those of tyrannosaurs, but defunitely there.
Sutherland's narration, written by Fafard, has a few errors. Foir example, during the interlude with the pterosaurs, broad leaves or flowers for much of oit and there were no icer caps. Both are wrong: while angiosperms did only appear during the Cretaceous Period, they had been established by the 100 million year mark, AKA when the movie is set. Also climate models do show there were ice caps in the Mesozoic.
Plus, there is also the issue of anachronisms in the doc: both Unenlagia and Anabisetia (the latter of which goes unnamed in the doc) came after the time Argie and the Gigas lived. I'm not sure if it was because the formations were misdated at the time of production, or the staff just wanted "small theropod and ornithopod from Late Cretaceous South America" and the consultants weren't asked about them.
The sound design is nice too. The use of whale sounds for the Argentinosaurus was nice, but the standout was using zebra noises for the Unenlagia. As for behaviour, it's nothing bad, save Sharp Feather acting a bit too much like a cartoon character and not backing off when it could, and perhaps the topic of pack hunting in Mapusaurus, which even 17 years later is rather contentious, so I won't get into details beyond the doc does present evidence for both.
The CG models for most of the move a bit janky and without the level of weight you'd expect . It's admittedly not as bad as other docs I've seen, but if you watch it back to back with other palaeodocs, namely Sea Monsters from the same year, its noticeable. Doesn't help the film uses bright lighting a lot, which can really ruin the believability of CGI, whereas Sea Monsters uses water to soften the light.
Had I been in charge of this production, I would have not have had the Maastrichtian scenes period, instead just had it all be in the Cenomanian, which will give more time for CG sequences with Strong One and Long Tooth, however more slightly (maybe like, 5ish minutes).
While at it, maybe replace or add a couple more dinosaurs to the film. Perhaps Sharp Feather the Unenlagia can be replaced by an abelisaur actually from either time, like Skorpiovenator or Ekrixinatosaurus.
The ending in my version would instead see Strong One court a mate and being things full circle for his species. However, it will also have a bittersweet ending with Sutherland and Coria noting that changing climate conditions would lead to the extinction of these giant dinosaurs, and even as dinosaurs lived no dinosaur ever since would reach the sizes Argie and Gigas did, represented by the argie herd walking into the sunset as gigas follow, something like the end of the Late Jurassic segment in When Dinosaurs Roamed America.
- Accuracy- 7/10
- Aging- 7/10
- Plot - 6/10
- Visuals - 8/10
- Behaviour - 8/10
- Narration - 8/10
- Music - 6/10
- Rewatchability - 7/10
- Overall - 7/10
Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia is good. While it does have an unfocused narrative, there is a lot to enjoy about it from the epic scale that earns the IMAX treatment to giving time for taxa not commonly seen in palaeomedia.
Thank you for reading.
Sources/See Also
- Coria R. A. & Currie P. J. 2006. "A new carcharodontosaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from
- the Upper Cretaceous of Argentina". Geodiversitas 28 (1) : 71-118.
- The other dinosaur docs about giant South American sauropods and theropods covered at Mesozoic Mind before
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