A pair of pre-teens explore a fantasy island full of (feathered) dinosaurs. These child dialogue-readers (“actors” is the wrong term here) reel off exposition-heavy lines written by director Matt Drummond, an Aussie special effects ace who should not quit his day job.

This movie is so lame on every level (including SFX) that I would probably just have ignored it had I not noticed the Japanese title. “Jurassic Island” smacks of a not-so-subtle shot at tricking people into thinking this is related to the classic dinosaur franchise. I know it’s for kids, but I for one think kids deserve better. (90 min)