The Lost World, 20 years on

Last week, fanpersons all over the world were sent into a tizzy by a precious few seconds of footage from next year's Jurassic World sequel. In it, hunk-o-saurus Chris Pratt appeared to be acquainting himself with some sort of slightly unconvincing-looking, bug-eyed, lizardlike CG creature. It got me thinking about an idea that I had earlier this year, but rejected 'cos it seemed way too predictable and slightly tiresome - a retrospective on the first JP movie sequel, The Lost World, which was released 20 years ago this year. You never know - it might be more fun than trashing San Diego and eating the family dog.

From Jurassic Wiki.

The Good Dinosaur - Marc's review

Given the extraordinarily high standards set by many of their previous films (perhaps not Cars 2), Pixar's first foray into the world of dinosaurs (that aren't toys) was an exciting prospect. As it transpires, The Good Dinosaur tells a rather well-worn story with ample flair, with Pixar's deftness at handling what could otherwise be mawkish emotional moments coming to the fore. It's also stunning to look at. On the other hand, there's no getting away from the fact that it feels like something of a missed opportunity - in terms of story and especially in terms of celebrating the weird and wonderful world of dinosaurs.

UK poster

Welcome... To Waterloo Station

The dust of Jurassic World may have settled too long to warrant sharing these pictures now, but I was in the throes of moving house, followed by a lengthy period without home internet, and lacked the opportunity previously. Still, I felt I couldn’t have these pictures on my hands without posting them on the blog. 

During the first week of Jurassic World’s release, London’s Waterloo Station took part in what can only be described as a promotional extravaganza with a display featuring models of the film’s ‘raptors’. Visitors were encouraged to take their own JW selfie with the beasties and to share them on Twitter. Yes, folks, it had its own hashtag. I had hoped to drag Marc along for this privilege. Sadly, the display only lasted a week and there wasn’t enough time.

 

Marc's Jurassic World review: not your father's de-extinction theme park

Aptly enough, Jurassic World feels like a theme park ride, and certainly not one of the sedate, trundle-along-in-a-gyrosphere variety. It's a high-tech, towering, gleaming steel roller coaster, with a breakneck pace that very rarely relents (only when they need to force a little character development in). It's certainly enormous fun, a spectacle worthy of being seen on the biggest screen possible. What it isn't is a Jurassic Park movie.

I've tried to keep it brief, but as a warning, this might get unusually wordy.

Forewarned is forearmed

Image courtesy of SimplyWallpaper.net

I was with Marc on that solemn journey to the 'Shiny Multiplex Enormodome' to see the Walking with Dinosaurs film. There is very little that I can add to his review, given that we are pretty much in exact agreement and Marc has already mentioned all the points he and I discussed in the post-movie debriefing. Nor do our opinions differ greatly from the near-universal verdict that it is, in effect, a stunning visual treat marred by inane dialogue.

Having gone to it with this already in mind, however, I didn't find that dialogue quite as intolerable as I had anticipated (though, make no mistake, I would have longed for its absence to begin with), a view shared by some reports, including those of Darren Naish and Gareth Monger. The latter found it easy enough to mentally 'switch off'. Like Marc, I even found Alex's narration surprisingly palatable in some parts, and perhaps that should have been the extent of the script, if it was felt necessary at all. The whole was fairly endurable enough until the fight between Patchi and his brother, Scowler, during which the exchange took an evisceratingly embarrassing turn in resembling a scene from a dreadful high school drama. The sequence, much like so many others, would have been entirely spared this indignity had it been speech-free. Even the arguably sillier visual jokes and slapstick would have worked organically and induced fewer groans if the silent storytelling had been left untouched. The soundtrack complaint extends to a degree to the music. My genuine enjoyment of the orchestral score was abruptly bridled by the sudden introduction of Barry White when Patchi first encounters Juniper amid a cloud of butterflies, for example. Incidentally, later in this sequence -- and quite after the Barry White had been dispensed with -- I was amused to recall David's mention of Cyrano de Bergerac as the pudgy young Patchi trotted back day after day to the waterfall in hopes of meeting the rosy Juniper again, but I digress...

 It might be superfluous of me to say more with regard to the beauty of the animals and the animation, but it is worth emphasizing once more. I refer you once again to Marc's description in lieu of my gushing further on the rendering of skin, scales, and feathers, or the palpably alive movement of flesh and muscle.

If the bathos between the sublime visuals and the ridiculous soundtrack is galling for dino-geeks, then, how much more so is it for the artists behind the creation? If it is true that the executive Pooh-Bahs bowed to the opinion of test screen audiences in the retroactive introduction of the script, then my heart is doubly heavy. My frustrations with the greater public's penchant for turning tea into soda are too great to mention and certainly too close to home in my own profession. Nobody can be at a loss to follow so simple a story, or to identify -- and identify with -- the characters, so well conceived and delineated in their designs. I wonder, were folks always so dense when they watched the numerous dialogue-free Pixar shorts? And what of Wall-E? Or what of Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed? The list goes on.

I conclude by reiterating Marc that 'the artistic and scientific talent behind this film do deserve our support'. The plain fact of the matter is that the hope of more such films being made in future does rest upon sales, and perhaps we may hope, however feebly, that the collective intelligent response to this film may bend a few ears of the powers-that-be. Thus forewarned, go and see this film, and hold fast to its merits.

Terra Nova, Walking with Dinosaurs update

For dinosaur enthusiasts, a constant item of conjecture is what the next big dinosaurian pop culture event is going to be. There's been a bit of news lately concerning some high profile dinosaur projects in the media.

First, Steven Spielberg's Terra Nova project has been the subject of some speculation. The Hollywood Reporter writes that most of the writing staff has been sacked in an effort to reduce its enormous budget. But in a report in the New York Post, Fox maintains that the show is still on schedule, and will receive a two-hour preview in May. About the preview, the Post says:

The two-hour episode gives viewers a first look at the series, which revolves around a family living on Earth in the year 2149. With the planet on the brink of destruction, thanks to years of aggressive scientific experimentation and an exploding population, the family agrees to go back to prehistoric times in hopes of finding a way to save the Earth by attempting to correct mistakes made in the past.

A crazy premise, but I'll be able to forgive some of that if the dinosaurs are done well.

Though its stage show winds down, the Walking With Dinosaurs brand isn't giving up quite yet. Deadline reports that Fox is rumored to be doubling its dinosaur pleasure, inking a distribution deal for a forthcoming WWD 3D documentary. This is quite a show of faith, and the production probably has March of the Penguins to thank for it. Hat tip to Michael May for alerting me to this on twitter.

The other big upcoming project, Discovery's Reign of the Dinosaurs, has been pretty quiet since Comic-Con, which is probably a good sign. For a brief post on the event and a few pictures, check out the Discovery blog. All in all, there is good reason to be stoked about dinosaurs in the media. While Terra Nova will surely be more devoted to story and spectacle than accuracy, I have high hopes for Reign of the Dinosaurs and the WWD 3D project to widen peoples' appreciation for the science of dinosaurs.