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Great Film overall

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

"The Ballad of Big Al" is a 29-minute short film from 2000, so this one will soon have its 20th anniversary. It is an add-on for the television show "Walking with Dinosaurs" from one year earlier and Kenneth Branagh is once again the narrator, at least if you listen to the English version. The focus here is on the ill-fated life of a young allosaurus, so if you see the running time of under half an hour here, you may already guess correctly that it was cut short. Also with basically almost everything in here being fiction about the life of a dinosaur, I also would not really call it a documentary. The fact that they made a connection between a skeleton they found recently and a fictitious character is not enough to say it is a documentary. The name Big Al says it all already. This does not mean it's a weak or even bad film though. I mean 2 Emmy wins and a rating above 8 may be a bit on the exaggerated side, but it was an entertaining half hour with a nicely written fictitious plot. We also learn a bit about what life back then must have been like, so the film also delivers on an educational level. Overall, I give it a thumbs-up and it is certainly worth checking out, almost a must see if you got an above-average interest in dinosaurs.

Big Al Ballad is basically an extra episode of the Walking with Dinosaurs mini-series and it focuses on the life time of an Allosaur named Al, the originality in the name just kills me!! Anyway it is a great time revisiting the Late Jurassic and seen in a sense from the point of view of a predator, how was this environment. I love this documentary , because it feels like a 30 short movie with dinosaurs as the main characters and the fact that they made Al just an animal ,which it was and we still rooted for him ,is a sign of how well-made is this episode. Keep in mind that this, about 30 minutes long episode, makes you feel emotions for a creature ,which is dead for about a hundred forty five million year and there are directors today who can not achieve that with trained humans for the job! In the end just add it in your dinosaur documentary collection and show it to your kids.

This is without doubt one of the very best documentaries have ever seen. The Ballad of Big Al is a follow-up or extra episode for Walking With Dinosaurs. It describes the life of a particularly big Allosaurus, called Big Al, from the point where it hatches to it's death.The amazing CGI seen in Walking With Dinosaurs was even better in The Ballad of Big Al. This documentary is missing absolutely nothing. It has breath-taking scenes as well as suspenseful and terrifying moments. I found myself often at the edge of my seat.The story was well thought out and directed very nicely. The music and sound effects were top notch. Overall there are no real flaws in this documentary. There are absolutely no boring parts.If you have the slightest interest in dinosaurs this documentary will definitely greatly satisfy you.My Rating: 9.8/10

I was honestly touched by this show, really. Both parts of it, how they entirely made the show in part 2, and the show itself in part 1.Big Al is an amazing insight into the life of this creature, and what amazes me even more, was that I felt for the creature. I felt as though I was watching its life, and when Al died, I honestly felt bad for how it all ended for him.I thought it was greatly done, just all in all. visually stunning, extremely informative, and it really does tell a story, a story that seems real.For making me actually care about this, and for just such beautifully work (scientifically and story-line, which is also technically science :P) I give Big Al a 10/10.And I'd like to say. Rest in Peace Big Al.