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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?

#301

Post by actionfromafar »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #265
GMoromisato wrote: post #94

The Alien, Terminator, and Matrix franchises have similar problems. Aliens successfully changed genres, from horror to action. But subsequent movies could never recapture the primal horror of the original or the fun action of the second. It's almost like there are only two local optima in the Alien movie universe and Alien + Aliens took them both. Terminator is the same. The first movie was a perfect sci-fi action mo…

> The first movie was a perfect sci-fi action movie The first movie was more of a sci-fi thriller. Second one is, indeed, a sci-fi action.

Alien, to our jaded minds, can be a sci-fi thriller. Alien at premiere in 1979 was most definitely a horror movie. (It still holds up though. It's close to flawless.)

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#302

Post by CobaltFire »

sdenton4 wrote: post #190
CobaltFire wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to look this up because I wasn't aware of it. It seems the creators themselves have refuted this and said that it was a journalist twisting their answers. https://www.them.us/story/lilly-wachowski-work-in-progress-s...

That's a bit overly reductive of their answer: 'It's not something that I want to come out and rebut. Like, yes, it's a trans allegory — it was made by two closeted trans women, how can it not be?! But the way that they put that question in front of my answer, it seems like I’m coming out emphatically saying, “Oh yeah, we were thinking about it the whole time.”'

I have to say, thats like someone saying anything I write is an allegory for my career (military). It may be informed by it, but its not an allegory beyond the fact that it shaped me.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#303

Post by bmacho »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #228
nurettin wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My reaction when I watched it 20+ years ago: Hallucinogens were definitely involved.

> Hallucinogens were definitely involved. If these result in better movies: why not?

I have this theory that maybe governments should ban all the art that were produced by methods that are harmful for the artists, just to level the playing field. Similarly how athletes are not allowed to take a ton of pills, win everything, and then die in years. (Tho athletes are in a much direct competition with each other, than artists.)

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#304

Post by devilbunny »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #275
aredox wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that there is something called "Intellectual Property" and "copyright" that makes any attempt to use fan fiction a libility and open to endless litigation. J. Michael Straczynski (of _Babylon V_ fame, and many others) immediately blocks anyone who tries to ptch him ideas, and he's not the only one: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/j-michael-straczynski-would-l...

But as a franchise owner, you can have a look into such fan(fiction) forums to recognize writing talents who do care about the franchise and which you might want to hire to work on a screenplay for a sequel.

Yeah, if you 1) trust that they actually know how to write a screenplay (a very different skill from writing a novel) and 2) believe they won't sue you for stealing their idea.

That's a problem with fanfic in general. People who would have written fanfic ten or fifteen years ago are writing stuff like litrpg's now; you can steal the general concept as long as you don't rip off the details. And it's a big enough world that you can practice your writing and actually become decent at it before you try to take on a big work. If you compare early drafts of, say, Dungeon Crawler Carl to the latest books in the series? You can see the skill improvement.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#305

Post by mwcampbell »

api wrote: post #300
GMoromisato wrote: post #94

The Alien, Terminator, and Matrix franchises have similar problems. Aliens successfully changed genres, from horror to action. But subsequent movies could never recapture the primal horror of the original or the fun action of the second. It's almost like there are only two local optima in the Alien movie universe and Alien + Aliens took them both. Terminator is the same. The first movie was a perfect sci-fi action mo…

I always thought the best ending to The Matrix would be for Neo to learn that he (and all the other escapees) is the AI, and that escaping the Matrix is the test for true sentience in a project to evolve sentient AI, and that the Architect, Smith, and the Oracle are humans jacked into the system. The war and all the rest of it are lies and it’s really like 2085. Smith was playing the bad cop, trying to test, similar…

So then in this version, when someone escapes the Matrix, they're really just having their consciousness switched to a different simulated world?

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#306

Post by snowwrestler »

adastra22 wrote: post #83
nicce wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that it still isn’t really known? Is is one common theory, but we have just probabilities to play with.

It'll be settled when the generation of researchers who fought over it retire/die off. The short TL;DR is that the guy who came up with the asteroid theory knew basically nothing about paleontology and paleoclimate, was way outside of his depth (he was a physicist that worked on the Manhattan project). He then made some pretty wild claims given the evidence that was available. When criticized by people who actually k…

The Alvarez hypothesis is notable not just because of its power in explaining the Cretaceous mass extinction, but because of its Copernican-like effect on paleontology.

Up to that point, it was a matter of belief among paleos that bolides were not a significant factor in the history of life. Essentially, that the Earth did not experience frequent or significant impacts after the initial formation of the solar system.

The evidence supporting Alvarez became so compelling that it not only became accepted as the K-T cause, it opened the door to considering bolides for all sorts of previous extinctions--an idea explored by Raup in his book Extinction. It made "sudden catastrophes" acceptable as a serious research subject for the first time since Lyell.

Prior to Alvarez, it was a matter of faith that the K-T boundary must have a solely terrestrial explanation, and the Deccan Traps were elevated to the most likely candidate. But it just shifted the need for explanation--why was there sudden globally catastrophic vulcanism? You say "India hit Asia" but that was not a sudden thing, in fact it's still happening today. Hot spots are still active today. It never really worked, but it was the best they had (or were willing to consider at the time).

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#307

Post by api »

mwcampbell wrote: post #305
api wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought the best ending to The Matrix would be for Neo to learn that he (and all the other escapees) is the AI, and that escaping the Matrix is the test for true sentience in a project to evolve sentient AI, and that the Architect, Smith, and the Oracle are humans jacked into the system. The war and all the rest of it are lies and it’s really like 2085. Smith was playing the bad cop, trying to test, similar…

So then in this version, when someone escapes the Matrix, they're really just having their consciousness switched to a different simulated world?

Yes. The tanks, the outside, the dead Earth, all that is just the boss level of the same video game.

The final reveal could use the same “what if I told you…” but from the architect. Or maybe the architect just has two pills.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#308

Post by knicholes »

wishfish wrote: post #180
GMoromisato wrote: post #94

The Alien, Terminator, and Matrix franchises have similar problems. Aliens successfully changed genres, from horror to action. But subsequent movies could never recapture the primal horror of the original or the fun action of the second. It's almost like there are only two local optima in the Alien movie universe and Alien + Aliens took them both. Terminator is the same. The first movie was a perfect sci-fi action mo…

To me, the sequels were worthwhile just for one solitary scene. In the third movie, Trinity is piloting the ship and has to gain higher than usual altitude for some reason that I've now forgotten. This takes her above the black clouds permanently enveloping the Earth. Sunlight pours into the cockpit. For the first and only time in her life, she sees the real sun with her own physical eyes. She's overwhelmed. It's jus…

It's always sunny above the clouds.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#309

Post by RajT88 »

mindslight wrote: post #196
bartread wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And, of course, they never even bothered to make sequels to The Matrix. Like you, this is the reality I choose to inhabit. The Matrix was an incredible film, still stands as an incredible film, but that sequel tease at the end? Should have been a tease, or perhaps a prompt, for the viewer’s imagination only. There are no sequels to The Matrix.

Sorry, the sequels exist and they couldn't be any other way. Both the in-universe story and the production values line up exactly with the meta topic - It's a childish fantasy that we can escape the Matrix, and especially that once escaped we can remain somehow separate from it. Really, the act of "escaping" just means creating a bit of new raw material for the deduction-following simulation to start grinding forward…

My God The Matrix is The Internet.

Re: Why are there no good dinosaur films?

#310

Post by Hikikomori »

knicholes wrote: post #308
wishfish wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the sequels were worthwhile just for one solitary scene. In the third movie, Trinity is piloting the ship and has to gain higher than usual altitude for some reason that I've now forgotten. This takes her above the black clouds permanently enveloping the Earth. Sunlight pours into the cockpit. For the first and only time in her life, she sees the real sun with her own physical eyes. She's overwhelmed. It's jus…

It's always sunny above the clouds.

Unless it's night.
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