LEAPIN' LIZARDS! PREHISTORIC PREDATORS REALLY BIG IN IMAX FILM.

Byline: David Bloom Staff Writer

``T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous'' has chewed through more pocketbooks than any 3-D movie ever made for the large-format IMAX screen, grossing more than $43 million so far, yet it somehow has managed to avoid the Los Angeles market. Until now.

With the opening of an IMAX screen at Universal CityWalk's theater complex in Universal City, the movie has finally come to L.A., about two years after it first hit the very big screens of IMAX around the country.

It arrives at an auspicious time for oversized ancient reptiles, in the weeks leading up to Disney's much-awaited animated epic ``Dinosaur,'' with Universal Studios' own ``Jurassic Park'' ride still going strong down the hill, and the BBC releasing a fabulous DVD compilation of its terrific TV series, ``Walking With Dinosaurs.'' And it comes paired with another IMAX megahit, ``Everest,'' to form an adventurously commercial pair of science-oriented films.

To watch this 45-minute movie, viewers must don headsets with sensors and special polarized lens that alternately shutter open and closed 48 times a second. The heavy headsets are somewhat annoying, but the tradeoff is that they allow the filmmakers to use a more mobile, compact 3-D camera, and in turn, to get shots that really weren't attainable with older, bulkier 3-D rigs.

In the film itself, we see bright but neglected teen Ally Hayden (played somewhat flatly by Liz Stauber) as she becomes frustrated with her preoccupied paleontologist father (Peter Horton) and his inability to focus on either her own small science project or her desire to join him on bone digs in the fossil-rich rock formations of Canada's Dinosaur Provincial Park.

Left in her father's work area at what is supposed to be the American Museum of Natural History, Ally is overcome by gases emitted when what may be a fossil T. Rex egg (which is the correct way to write the creature's name) falls from a workbench.

The rest of the film follows her hallucinatory expeditions through time, visiting with storied dinosaur digger Barnum Brown (a century later, scientists are still picking through his accumulated discoveries) and painter Charles Knight, who at the turn of the century imaginatively put flesh on the bones Brown found for an increasingly fascinated public.

Of course, the film features a number of authentically re-created dinosaurs too, in compelling 3-D animations, as Ally makes her fume-induced way through the museum's treasures. There are at least half a dozen different species represented, including a very protective and vividly realized mama T. Rex.

As performances go, Stauber isn't particularly engaging, her range of expressions more limited than one might prefer. But Horton is a pro, and the camera technology allows for some startling shots, such as those on a platform suspended on a cliff face where Horton and his assistant have spotted a new find.

The dinosaurs themselves look great, even for 3-year-old technology, because the 3-D visuals and huge IMAX screen (six stories high by eight stories wide) give them a corporeality impossible on the smaller, 2-D screens of most

theaters or television.

Director Brett Leonard (``Lawnmower Man,'' ``Virtuosity'') moves the story along briskly. Unlike in ``Jurassic Park'' and many other dinosaur movies, however, he and the rest of the film's creators have tried to stick closely to the scientific facts behind dinosaurs, not exaggerating their look for scary effect, for instance.

Other than an unlikely moment when Alex pets the nose of the territorial T. Rex, it hews closely to the science of things, while providing solid entertainment.

As a result, the film, though occasionally mildly surprising, is fine viewing for children of most any age. There's not even blood shown when the female T. Rex grabs an egg stealer in her jaws and tosses it to the side. Bet that never happened back in the Cretaceous.

THE FACTS

--The film: ``T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous'' (not rated; suitable for all ages, although there are moments where a teen is in danger or distress.)

--The stars: Peter Horton, Liz Stauber, Kari Coleman, Laurie Murdoch, Tuck Milligan.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by Brett Leonard. Produced by Antoine Compin and Charis Horton. Stereographer and camera operator is Noel Archambault. Visual effects by Blue Sky/VIFX Studios.

--Running time: 45 minutes.

--Playing: IMAX Theater, Universal CityWalk.

--Our rating: Three stars.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Tyrannosaurus rex reacts to Ally Hayden (Liz Stauber) in the IMAX film ``T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous.''

(2) A flying Pteranodon is one of the many dinosaurs featured in the 3-D animation playing at Universal CityWalk. The movie is on a six-story screen, and viewers use headsets.