Battle at Big Rock Review!

Battle at Big Rock is a short film that aired after Jurassic World (2015) on the FX network.  The run time is 8 minutes and the film is directed and co-written by Colin Trevorrow.  The other writer is Emily Carmichael who also co-wrote Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018).  Trevorrow has guided the franchise starting with Jurassic World, co-writing and directing, and then co-writing the sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).  He introduced Battle at Big Rock noting that it takes place a year after Fallen Kingdom.  The last film had the dinosaurs transported from Isla Nubar to the Northern California estate of Benjamin Lockwood.  The dinosaurs were freed and now roam the country.  The opening has the Universal logo over the world now with a T-Rex fossil forming a continent!  The Big Rock National Park Campground is in the Angeles National Forest, California.  We hear reports of sightings of the dinosaurs.  Then, we get the father grilling a chicken leg which he passes to his daughter.  Melody Hurd plays the eight-year old daughter who is not happy at the burnt chicken.  The father is played by André Holland who was in the series Castle Rock and also Moonlight (2016).  

He sees his neighbor, Greg (Chris Finlayson) who is relaxing outside of his RV.  There are other people around the campground.  Inside their RV, his wife, Arianne, is played by Natalie Martinez busy getting the kids to the table.  She is in The I-Land series and was also in the film End of Watch (2012).  The brother played by Pierson Salvador is trying to show his sister his card trick.  Arianne says that they are a family for two years.  The daughter says that Greg let her use his crossbow.  The father calls out to Greg, but no one is at the camp!  Something stirs in the dark forest, it is the snout of a two-horned Nasutoceratops, the Dino checks out the area next to the campfire.  The daughter notices that there is a baby Nasutoceratops that nuzzles a flashlight.  The adult lets out a warning bellow.  Out of the mist, comes the roar of an Allosaurus!  The family stares out of the window of the RV at the confrontation.  This is some interesting dinosaur behavior, but of course the Allosaurus isn’t satisfied with just dealing with large prey, so the family is in jeopardy!  After the film, there are snippets of encounters with other dinosaurs.  It is released on Youtube so you can catch it there as well as other outlets.  Side note: if dinosaurs are loose in the world, shouldn’t there be barricades and warnings not to have people in isolated areas like camps?  A nice teaser to the next Jurassic World film!        

#BattleatBigRock, #ColinTrevorrow, #MelodyHurd, #AndreHolland, #NatalieMartinez