For some reason then it took me five years to get around to watching "Terra Nova", despite the fact that a friend told me good things about it when it was showing back in 2011. But I happened to come across it in a second hand DVD store, and decided to give it a chance.
I must say that I have been missing out on something quite entertaining. Sure, while the concept idea is not original, and might actually be a rip off at certain stages, it still proved to be quite entertaining.
What worked for me here, was a myriad of things. Let's start with the concept idea of time traveling back to the prehistoric time and starting a colony, which was the focal point of the movie. That worked out quite well, and made for a good foundation for the series. Although there were some blanks here and there in the background of it all. And the storyline in the series was also quite good, lots of interesting things happening here, and the writers were good at including multiple people and families in the events that took place in and around the Terra Nova colony. And finally, the characters in the series. There was clearly a lot of thought being put into the characters, as they had good details and often an elaborate background story to be told as well.
The effects in "Terra Nova" were good, well most of the time anyway. There were some moments when the dinosaurs looked quite fake and it was painstakingly clear that it was CGI. But for most parts it was working out nicely, and the dinosaurs were well animated and looked realistic enough.
However, the driving force of "Terra Nova" was the cast. They had managed to put together a great ensemble of cast for this series. Especially Stephen Lang, he was shining in this role.
Normally I am not overly keen on Sci-Fi as per se, but creators Kelly Marcel and Craig Silverstein managed to put together something quite entertaining here with "Terra Nova".
If you haven't already seen the series, I can warmly recommend that you take the time to watch all thirteen episodes, as it is quite entertaining. I am rating "Terra Nova" a solid score of seven out of ten stars.
