Review of Turok: Son of Stone (2008) by Ian S — 05 Nov 2008

Sometimes I spend my days wondering how a Conan animated movie can be stuck in limbo while a Turok animated movie, heavy on violence and low on star power, slips out to the masses. I'd have sooner guessed more people know of the Robert E. Howard barbarian of Hyborian lore than the dinosaur hunting Indian of '50s comic books. Perhaps the Activision published video games have bolstered some recent fame for the title, though "Turok: Son of Stone" thankfully has nothing to do with the lacking game series.

Having only played the Turok games, the movie's representation of the comic book intrigued me. Here Turok is an overly skilled warrior banished from his tribe for almost killing his friend. Years later, he helps rescue his friend's wife and son from an enemy tribe and they all wind up in a strange lost land filled with dinosaurs and volcanoes. How they got there is explained no more than they walked through the wrong cave while chasing the leader of the enemy tribe. Once in the lost land, the three seek to escape but instead battle dinosaurs and cave men and meet up with a local tribe of Indian warriors.

While the movie boasts adult oriented action, heavy on blood, it doesn't fair so well with the story and animation. The explanation of how Turok and his cohorts found themselves in the lost land is lacking, as is the entirely missing explanation as to how Turok became such a skilled warrior without any apparent training. While the movie avoids obvious clichés, it ends with a uninspired finale eager to ignore what is happening around it so the revenge plot can be resolved. The animation, meanwhile, is comparable to Saturday morning cartoons. It's not bad animation, but it doesn't support the mature theme of the film very well.

I'd like to see more of "Turok: Son of Stone," if only because the movie feels like the first step to something better. They've gotten Turok into the lost land, now let's see what he can do there. Unfortunately, it wouldn't surprise me if a sequel failed to repeat its predecessor's release success.