{"id":12865,"date":"2025-08-22T15:14:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12865"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:19:07","slug":"primitive-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/08\/22\/primitive-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Primitive War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Primitive War<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fathom Events\/Sci-Fi-Action-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 135 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (strong graphic violence\/gore and language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Luke Sparke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ethan Pettus and Luke Sparke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Frederik Wiedmann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Wade Muller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 21, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ryan Kwanten, Tricia Helfer, Nick Wechsler, Jeremy Piven, Anthony Ingruber, Ana Thu Nguyen, Aaron Glenane, Carlos Sanson, Albert Mwangi, Adolphus Waylee, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Lincoln Lewis, Jake Ryan, Henry Nixon, Marcus Johnson, M.J. Kokolis, John Reynolds.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I typically don\u2019t go to Fathom Events. They\u2019re not AMC A-List eligible and I\u2019m not willing to plunk down $20 for the likes of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. I probably wouldn\u2019t have seen Primitive War<\/strong> if not for my new movie buddy Chris who invited me to join him after we caught a late afternoon showing of Honey Don\u2019t. When I heard what is was about, I thought why not. It sounded like it would be fun. It is. It\u2019s loads of goofball fun.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Aussie filmmaker Luke Sparke (Bring Him to Me), Primitive War<\/strong> is a crazy mix of Platoon, Predator and Jurassic Park with hints of Apocalypse Now and Missing in Action thrown in. It\u2019s topped off with a Russian villain right out of a Cold War-era James Bond movie. It\u2019s every bit as wild as it sounds.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The action takes place in Vietnam circa 1968. After liberating a POW camp, Sgt. Ryan Baker (Kwanten, The Hurricane Heist) and his men (aka \u201cThe Vulture Squad\u201d) are ordered to report to Col. Jericho (Piven, PCU) for a special assignment. Their mission (they have no choice in accepting it) is to locate a platoon of Green Berets who went missing during a mission. Baker and his men don\u2019t have a lot to go on; all of the crucial details are classified and above their pay grade. Government spooks from an unnamed agency are there to oversee the goings-on. That\u2019s never good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Baker and his guys are dropped into an isolated jungle valley under the cover of darkness. It isn\u2019t long before they discover that they\u2019re dealing with more than Viet Cong. Imagine their shock when they see this part of the jungle is inhabited by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. So this is what Jericho wasn\u2019t telling them. And this isn\u2019t even the end of the story. There\u2019s more!<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a villain behind this situation, an insane Soviet general hunkered down in a lair. He\u2019s invented some kind of collider with world-ending capabilities. The US government would love to get their hands on it. So would a lot of people. That\u2019s why it needs to be destroyed. And who better to do it than Sgt. Baker and his Vultures. They get help from Sophia (Helfer, Lucifer), a Russian paleontologist hiding in an abandoned research facility. She\u2019s the one who clues the guys in on what\u2019s happening. In return, they help her overcome her morphine addiction.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sparke wears a lot of hats on Primitive War<\/strong>. In addition to directing, co-producing and co-writing the script, he\u2019s also the editor, production designer and visual effects supervisor. I have to say it looks pretty good for a low-budget independent film made for far less than the average Hollywood movie. At a bargain price of $7.2M, it looks better than most of the DCEU movies. It\u2019s obvious that the effects are CGI, but at least the movie doesn\u2019t look like a video game.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Also, I love how Sparke clearly understands the genres to which he\u2019s paying homage. He uses the CCR song \u201cFortunate Son\u201d in an early establishing scene. They use that one in practically every Vietnam War movie. Later, when the platoon is lost, CCR\u2019s \u201cRun Through the Jungle\u201d comes on. The only tune he misses in Buffalo Springfield\u2019s \u201cFor What It\u2019s Worth\u201d. Surely, Sparke could have fit it in somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Primitive War<\/strong> isn\u2019t without its flaws. At 135 minutes, it\u2019s longer than it needs to be. It drags in parts with scenes than run too long. The acting isn\u2019t anything to write home about either. Piven chews up the scenery as the pseudo-tyrant Army colonel who keeps a tiger as a pet. Kwanten is okay as the soldier trying to cope with a past tragedy while running his outfit with a tight fist. His platoon is the usual collection of military types (e.g. the traumatized guy overdue for a Section 8 discharge, the drunk, the rookie and a couple of black guys). We don\u2019t get to know anything more about them. Most of them are there to feed the dinosaurs and I don\u2019t mean offering them peanuts. Helfer, sporting a convincing Russian accent, is the only character that gets any kind of development.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Primitive War<\/strong> is the exact kind of movie I would have made a beeline for in my teen years. I always went for the B-movies. I still do. This one is cool. It\u2019s a dark, bloody take on the Jurassic films. Sparke doesn\u2019t even try to make it kid friendly. Sure, the scenes between the male and female T-Rexes are sort of cute, but the creatures are really savage for the most part. There\u2019s a lot of chomp-chomp action here. People are eviscerated, decapitated and torn in half by the beasts. That\u2019s on top of all the war action (i.e. shooting, stabbing, slicing and being blown up). Let\u2019s see Spielberg top that!<\/p>\n

\u00a0In short, I like Primitive War<\/strong>. It\u2019s wild, it\u2019s bonkers and best enjoyed with the brain shut off. That\u2019s the way I like my B-movies. What about you?<\/p>\n

P.S. Thanks again, Chris.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Primitive War (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fathom Events\/Sci-Fi-Action-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 135 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (strong graphic violence\/gore and language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Luke Sparke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ethan Pettus and Luke Sparke\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Frederik Wiedmann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Wade Muller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 21, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ryan Kwanten, Tricia Helfer, Nick Wechsler, Jeremy Piven, Anthony Ingruber, Ana Thu Nguyen, Aaron Glenane, Carlos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Primitive-War-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C941&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12870,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12865\/revisions\/12870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}