I watched Jurassic Park a few months ago with my kids, who can’t read subtitles yet, and they were mesmerized, and scared out of their minds. The younger one still hasn’t figured out where SLJ’s arm came from.
Just cook up a conspiracy theory in support of it, reanimate his corpse, let it find the theory on the internet and I’m pretty sure he’ll jump on board.
Yeah, not a big fan of Cautionary-Tale-Crichton.
Two things that hit me here.
One: That picture immediately made me think: That would have been Terra Nova season two.
Two: The smartest dinosaur was only about as smart as “a really dumb chicken.” It was a brawn over brains world then. So the seal team? Would the raptors have to have big melon-heads, maybe with space helmets, to fit this newly-expanded brain?
Actually, that might be kinda cool.
Heh. Hehe. Hehehehehe.
They made concept art for a velociraptor with a big melon-head.
Hollywood has too much damn money on their hands.
Director of Safety Not Guaranteed.
Colin Trevorrow tweeted this about the dinos in JP4:
Scientists get huffy about it.
I have no idea what dinosaurs are due to appear in Jurassic Park 4. I wish that I did. But if Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus are reprising their roles, these dinosaurs should certainly have some kind of plumage. That comes right from fossil evidence and evolutionary logic. But this is about more than just visuals. A blockbuster summer film has the opportunity to introduce audiences to dinosaurs as have never been seen before on the big screen while simultaneously throwing some much-needed support to evolution by visualizing one of the critical traits that connects avian and non-avian dinosaurs. And speaking as an unabashed dinosaur fan myself, a dinosaur bearing fuzz, feathers, or quills is so much stranger and more wonderful than yet another olive green, scaly monstrosity. Hollywood, let paleontologists help you push the boundaries of fantastic dinosaurs.
Franchise purists might point out that Trevorrow’s plan is in the spirit of the original Jurassic Park. Nobody loves a retcon. But the franchise has already changed its dinosaurs several times with no explanation. The first sequel introduced new color palettes for the dinosaurs, as did the third film. (Not to mention the fact that Jurassic Park III raises the mystery of why Site B contains species that InGen didn’t clone, and never actually resolves this point.) If the dinosaurs are changing from film to film to start with, why not take a jump and show audiences something they have never witnessed before?
He respects the world of Jurrassic Park…he talks like its some revered franchise. I can’t even remember the last one.
The original Jurassic Park is one of the first movies that I remember seeing in the theater. Indeed, I saw it at least twice. I can also vividly remember opening night for The Lost World.
Crichton’s book is now something of an American classic. Like Moore’s The Watchmen, it appears with increasing frequency on high school reading lists in the United States. Both books explore questions of morality. Crichton’s specifically examines questions of human nature by looking at how man attempts to better himself through the application of science. Almost inevitably in Crichton’s works, he fails spectacularly.
The original film was a tightly-wound monster movie driven by special effects and good acting. The novel was a morality tale that put corporate espionage front-and-center. The second film was an excuse for big-budget action, roving and without much coherent plot. The high point cinematically was Ingen’s dinosaur hunt and the subsequent trouble with the Tyrannosaurs. Nobody remembers what happened in the third movie.
Richard Attenborough’s health is now failing, and he is unlikely to reprise his role as John Hammond. Presumably, InGEN’s successors will fund a return to the islands because of (A) impending ecological disaster, or (B) the financial lure of stealing dinosaurs and/or their eggs.
It’s almost certain that velociraptors had feathers, but the movies already deliberately distorted them from 2 foot tall creatures into giant monsters, so complaining about accoutrements seems strange. Plus they were given a few feathers in Jurassic Park 3, at least.
And while a new feathered dinosaur was recently discovered in China and added to the Tyrannosaurid family, there’s no evidence that North American Tyrannosaurs were feathered-- and there’s actually direct contrary evidence in the case of Tyrannosaurus Rex, since there are several fossilized skin impressions that all show scaled skin. Nothing about dinosaurs seems to inspire more angry derision among paleontolgists than attempts, usually from Jack Horner, to diminish Tyrannosaurus in ferocity or importance. It’s strange how vested some people seem, but being sensationalistic is obviously the best way to get attention and funding.
I hope that, in Jurassic Park IV, InGen clones Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, and they joust on the backs of tyrannosaurs.
I see what you did there.
“You fought in the Bone Wars with my father?!”
They just used the wrong name on the raptors:
No, those dinosaurs weren’t known at the time of the film. Utahraptor had actually been discovered, but wasn’t really identified and classified until after the movie was in production.
The creatures called “velociraptors” in Jurassic Park were actually based upon Deinonychus, which was still considerably smaller than the monsters in the movie, but it was the largest known Dromaeosauridae (family of velociraptor) known at the time.
No, those dinosaurs weren’t known at the time of the film. Utahraptor had actually been discovered, but wasn’t really identified and classified until after the movie was in production.
The creatures called “velociraptors” in Jurassic Park were actually based upon Deinonychus, which was still considerably smaller than the monsters in the movie, but it was the largest known Dromaeosauridae (family of velociraptor) known at the time.
I like that the little scale dude in the size comparison picture is so waving so friendly. “Hey, how are you doing? What, these two dinosaurs? Nah, don’t worry about me, they seem to be staring at something over my shoulder!”
When I told my school friends how the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were Deinonychus not Velociraptors they just made of me and my nerdy ways. :(
In other news, I watched all of Enlightened on HBO over the weekend, and I think it’s ruined the original Jurassic Park for me way more than feathers ever could.