Mesozoic Mind

I saw Jurassic World: Rebirth in theatres couple nights ago, with Gareth Edwards at the helm. Here are my thoughts with it. Both the designs (for the most part) and action setpieces are generally excellent, some of the strongest in the franchise. My favourite would have to be the Mosasaurus and Spinosaurus chase are a great example of both, updating both away from the lasts films aesthethics something closer to current understanding yet still having the movie flair. The bahaviour meanwhile returns more to the first trilogy rather then the World trilogy. Meanwhile, the scene with the Titanosaurus is perhaps even more beutiful then the Brachiosaurus scene from the very first movie. Gareth Edward's love of scale really shines in it as Loomis strokes the leg, and any dino lover will cry like he does. Characters, while not nessicarily the deepest the franchise, are likable. Its especially for Dr. Henry Loomis himself, who's a nerdy sweet type closer to Grant then the generic macho...

Well, Walking with Dinosaurs 2025 came and went. The reboot to the icon of palaeodocumentaries, promising a new take that would appeal to audiences not versed in the nitty gritty by showing dig sites in action to show how palaeontology works alongside the usual nature doc-style life reconstruction sequences. It .... was .... Not very good. While no one ws expecting it to surpass the original, so much seems to conspire to make it subpar. There's a reduced budget compared to the original, so there aren't that many species, and to choose active dig sites only limited the sites, meaning half the series is Cretaceous North America. Conbine that with being made in the fog of COVID and at a time when nature docs are bing underfunded by a society caring only for sating the rich, and you thus get a series which feel thin and empty, not really a succesor to the classic. But which reaches the heights of what came before it and which plunged deeper then even the movie? Let's find out....

I finally went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum earlier this month, alongsife Calgay Zoo and Dinosaur Provincial Park. It was amazing. It lived up to my hopes for it. I took a lot of photos too. And yes, I'm back.