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Why are there no good dinosaur films?

briannazigler.substack.com

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Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#41

Post by blibble »

dylan604 wrote: post #5
jxjnskkzxxhx wrote: post #3

> As Brusatte notes, a lot of what we now know about dinosaurs has been naturally accumulative knowledge spanning decades of ongoing research. Yeah I've felt this. I'm old enough (41) that some of the things that I was taught as a child are no longer beloved to be true. Not sure if I should feel sad that it's happening so slowly, or happy that's happening at all. Or concerned that we have no first principles way of e…

Which is interesting in how I grew up "knowing" the asteroid/meteor killed the dinosaurs, but TFA suggests it was just a theory at the time of my learning. Or how I grew up with images of the planets, not knowing that they were only taken when I was a small kid. It is just a weird thing to think about how some knowledge we accept as known might not have been known by our grandparents or even our parents. It just seem…

it's still "just" a theory, in the same way gravitation is "just" a theory

and always will be until it's dis-proven, or someone invents a time machine and we can go and see it for ourselves

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#42

Post by booleandilemma »

OJFord wrote: post #40

Because there's only one story to tell, for adults, and it's the Jurassic Park (et al.) story. You can't tell a period story for adults, with dinosaurs birthed normally and no modern science, because then it's not a 'talkie', and we're about a century past it being possible to have the budget for a state of the art dinosaur-prop film with no dialogue.

This is the very problem Hollywood is facing now: a lack of imagination.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#43

Post by mpalmer »

LeftHandPath wrote: post #27

The other thing that differentiates Spielberg's original work from all that's followed is the way it explored the details. From the sourcing of the amber, to the need to have paleontologists, botanists, and lawyers check Hammond's work, to the inclement weather, to the social interactions and workplace frustrations of the staff -- it all felt like much more of a living, breathing park than any of the renderings since…

This applies to most modern scripts. Writers/studios have largely decided people don't care about detailed, reasoned-out worlds with unspoken "show-don't-tell" internal logic. Are they wrong? I shudder to consider.

Shows like Better Call Saul and Andor are the most recent high-profile counter-examples. So detailed and lived-in, because the writers wanted to ask interesting questions:

How does the Empire do what it does?

What does a career striver look like in the imperial ranks? What internal forces help/hinder them? Do they struggle with the ethics? Is there even time/opportunity for that?

Was the Rebel Alliance really that organized from the start, or were there growing pains?

Asking and attempting to answer questions like these lays the groundwork for telling interesting character-driven stories that are grounded in the reality of the fictional world.

Neglect to do that, and you generally end up with a bloodless theme park ride with no emotional stakes.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#44

Post by heikkilevanto »

conductr wrote: post #22

My son is a dinosaur enthusiast to say the least. At some point, well into his accumulation of Dino facts we read an old book I had as a kid (mid 80s) and the book says all kinds of weird stuff I forget but abruptly ends with “they went extinct and we may never know how” and my son (age 4 at the time) is at a loss for words, “it was a asteroid dad, what dummy wrote this book?” For weeks he’d randomly look at me, “hey…

They are not extinct. There are a few making noises in the trees in my backyard now, and I dined on some dino-meat today!

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#45

Post by pests »

conductr wrote: post #22

My son is a dinosaur enthusiast to say the least. At some point, well into his accumulation of Dino facts we read an old book I had as a kid (mid 80s) and the book says all kinds of weird stuff I forget but abruptly ends with “they went extinct and we may never know how” and my son (age 4 at the time) is at a loss for words, “it was a asteroid dad, what dummy wrote this book?” For weeks he’d randomly look at me, “hey…

Fantasia gets this wrong, depicting the dinosaurs dying from lack of water.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#46

Post by bruce511 »

dylan604 wrote: post #19
zdragnar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pictures of the planets bit makes sense, as even with a telescope (through which we've seen the plants for a very long time) there's not really enough light for early film techniques to capture well. I do identify a bit with the dinosaur example, and to use another: plate tectonics wasn't a formalized and accepted theory until late in the 1960's. It spread to schools quickly, but by that point my parents had alre…

plate tectonics is a good one. I definitely remember my mom telling me as a kid how South America and Africa look like they fit together, and my dad talking about Pangea being the name when the pieces were fit together. it wasn't until much later that I realized that my parents were not taught this in school, but my dad just kept up with current events much more. It is weird to think that something is so new that eve…

Obviously it will vary by location and age. But I was in high school in the early 80s, and plate tectonics & Pangea were already in our text books. (And in my country it takes forever for stuff to make it into textbooks.)

I don't recall there being any controversy about it - it was used as the basis for a number of topics in geography (Indian Subcontinent forming Himalayas, bio-diversity and gene relations in Biology etc.)

I suspect the real lesson here us that education is far from consistent both regionally, nationally and historically.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#47

Post by dylan604 »

blibble wrote: post #41
dylan604 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is interesting in how I grew up "knowing" the asteroid/meteor killed the dinosaurs, but TFA suggests it was just a theory at the time of my learning. Or how I grew up with images of the planets, not knowing that they were only taken when I was a small kid. It is just a weird thing to think about how some knowledge we accept as known might not have been known by our grandparents or even our parents. It just seem…

it's still "just" a theory, in the same way gravitation is "just" a theory and always will be until it's dis-proven, or someone invents a time machine and we can go and see it for ourselves

until it's dis-proven, or until it is proven.

we have plenty of evidence of the movement of plates. we know where subduction zones are. what does it take to prove a theory if not repeatable tests/observations?

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#48

Post by n3storm »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #36
LeftHandPath wrote: post #27

The other thing that differentiates Spielberg's original work from all that's followed is the way it explored the details. From the sourcing of the amber, to the need to have paleontologists, botanists, and lawyers check Hammond's work, to the inclement weather, to the social interactions and workplace frustrations of the staff -- it all felt like much more of a living, breathing park than any of the renderings since…

Let's be fair. This was all Michael Crichton. It's in the original book. He worked through the details. Spielberg just didn't delete them.

Thank you. Nobody read the book? The problem with dinosaurs is the problem with Hollywood in general: lack of original ideas and good storytelling.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#49

Post by zhynn »

If you love hard-science dinosaur books, I cannot recommend Abby Howard's "Earth Before Us" series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/257878-earth-before-us

They are so so SO good, they have so much care about the science while also being delightfully whimsical and the art is beautiful. Please check them out!

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#50

Post by jtrn »

I’m not sure if “kicking in open doors” is an idiom in English, but this is a good example of that concepts. This is basically a rehearse of old tropes.

Hollywood has lost its story telling edge.

Jurassic park is inaccurate but successfully combines historical context with fictional storytelling, creating a sense of awe and reverence for dinosaurs.

Modern dinosaur films often suffer from heavy reliance on CGI and lacks soul.

The article is basically these points made over and over

So ironically the article is exactly what it accuses Hollywood of being: unoriginal and boring.

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