A family ripped apart by a totalitarian state and internal dissension tries to mend itself in a new home —
Oh, who cares?
In Steven Spielberg’s “Terra Nova,” all we want to see are some rampagin’ dinosaurs.
Spectacular they are in the brave new world of “Terra Nova,” a sci-fi drama set 85 million years in the past.
The two-hour premiere, “Genesis,” opens in the gray year of 2149, which looks suspiciously like Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” after global warming. Humans need “rebreathers” — oxygen masks — just to venture outdoors. An orange might be more valuable than a diamond.
After a confusing and best forgotten prologue, ex-cop Jim Shannon (Jason O’Mara, “Life on Mars”), his wife Elizabeth (Shelley Conn) and their three children make their way into a facility that looks like an airport, except, instead of boarding a jet, everyone walks down a corridor, into a bright light, a “time fracture.”
This is “Stargate: SGU” by Dr. Seuss.
Still, it’s the destination that counts, not the journey.
Once in their new home, a veritable jungle paradise with exotic fruits and clean air, the Shannons almost become interesting.
Oldest daughter Maddy (Naomi Scott) is a nerd with an almost preternatural sense of her new environment but no people skills. Little Zoe (Alana Mansour) discovers the joy of feeding herbivores. Josh (Landon Liboiron) immediately falls in with a bad group of teenagers, and their act of rebellion leads to the big dino showdown of the night.
It’s “Jurassic Park” in its execution, but the CGI is scary in the rough cut and no doubt will be even more impressive in the final version tonight. A couple of scenes are not for the young’uns or the squeamish.
Camp commander Nathaniel Taylor (Stephen Lang) clashes violently with Mira (Christine Adams), who leads the rival colony, the Sixers. The discovery of geometric etchings on some nearby stones is intriguing. Scenic Australia makes a beautiful stand-in for the Cretaceous era, and the cast is remarkably integrated for a commercial network show.
Still, excuse me if I’m skeptical about this show’s prospects. The pilot reportedly cost $10 million. Spielberg has a spotty record when it comes to television. “Amazing Stories” really wasn’t. TNT’s “Falling Skies” first season was notable for how the budget plummeted each week, to the point where the season finale centered on a battle that happened off-camera.
So long as the dinos roam, “Terra Nova” has a future.
