It was Edwin Starr who sang in 1970 “War? What is it good for?” Well, war films for one, which were clearly inspired by conflict, but it seems Starr wasn’t much of a fan of them either.

Perhaps he would have been won over if a film like this one was made earlier, that sees the war genre crossed with sci-fi, producing a monster of a result.

1968, Vietnam, and US army are there, in the jungle fighting the ‘gooks’. Getting a new mission is team leader of the Vulture Squad, Sergeant Ryan Baker (Ryan Kwanten); a Green Beret squad were on a classified mission before all communication with them was cut. Colonel Jericho (Jeremy Piven) wants to send Baker and his squad after them, deploying them in the same valley, to determine what happened to them.

Baker and his squad are soon in the middle of the jungle in search of the missing squad, but are unprepared for a whole new enemy to face – dinosaurs!

Australian filmmaker Luke Sparke has created an eye-catching cross-genre title, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Ethan Pettus, which plays out like Platoon meets The Land that Time Forgot.

It is a brassy B-movie that takes itself seriously just enough, as US soldiers in Vietnam ’68 take on various prehistoric creatures.

They’re not the only dinosaurs featured, as the cast includes a number of TV dino stars, such as True blood’s Jason Stackhouse played by Kwanten, Entourage’s Ari Gold played by Piven, and Battlestar Galactica’ s Number Six played by Tricia Helfer.

Sparke captures a gripping atmosphere, that’s certainly helped by some striking lighting, pulling off the high concept premise of a war film with dinosaurs.

Perhaps he take it a little too seriously, with a two and a quarter hours flick, keen on fleshing out his soldiers’ characters, especially with their interaction, that didn’t necessarily need that amount of attention. And the script doesn’t make much sense, but due to the bizarre plot, you can give it pass – just.

Still, he makes up for it with some impressive dinosaurs, who visually could take on any of those from the Jurassic Park franchise. And the blending of the two worlds is handled perfectly, drawing you into their newly formed realm.

It’s all the more impressive by the fact it was made with a $7 million budget, which compared to Jurassic World: Rebirth and its budget around $225 million, is pretty good going. And far more entertaining to boot.

It’s a high concept feature that is ridiculously silly, But Sparke’s tight and committed direction delivers one helluva genre bender, showing just what war is good for, a wildly entertaining film on a monster level.