SasquaDash
MemberBrachiosaurusJun-12-2021 11:13 AMSo recently, it's been revealed that Jurassic World: Dominion will feature a prehistoric "flashback" that will feature various dinosaurs in the Cretaceous. While the dinosaur designs are going to be pretty scientifically accurate, the issue is that it's going to feature dinosaurs that did not live together coexisting with each other (specifically it's going feature a battle between Giganotosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex). Needless to say the paleo community is pretty mad (and that's putting it lightly). While I was initially pretty disappointed by these inaccuracies, I've quickly gotten over it and accepted it for what it is. Yes, I would have preferred it being fully accurate, however, I don't think that it's worth being that mad over. Unfortunately, the paleo community doesn't feel the same and for the past 3 days they have been going on enraged twitter tirades, hurling hatred and even threats towards the film's paleontological consultant, Steve Brusatte. They are even going so far as to call for the "cancellation" of his career. Are we seriously at the point where we're trying to ruin someone's life and career because of some inaccuracies in a dinosaur movie? This is honestly pretty pathetic and it legitimately makes me sick thinking about it (as if I didn't hate the paleo community already). Thankfully, this doesn't seem to be negatively affecting Steve Brusatte's life and he's taking the situation pretty well (You know, like an actual, mature, adult). He and a couple of other paleontologists are even calling out some of these people on their over dramatic behavior, informing them that this is just a movie, that it won't harm paleontology (as some of these crazed elitists are claiming) and that Jurassic Park/World's presence can actual help the paleontological field by inspiring more public interest in dinosaurs.
(Here's an example of one of their tweets on the subject)
He goes on to say that the these creative choices and liberties were made to serve the story that the film is trying to tell and shuts down accusations of it being harmful to the public's perception of dinosaurs. Which I fully agree with, seriously how many times have we seen media where stegosaurus and tyrannosaurus are living in the same time period and fighting each other? Hell, there are a number of movies and shows that depict humans and dinosaurs coexisting, that hasn't negatively impacted paleontology. So why should this? While a T. rex fighting a Giga in prehistoric times is pretty inaccurate, the fact that the paleo community is acting as if this is some "horrible, world destroying" event is pretty ridiculous and childish. Personally, I think that life's too short to be constantly angry over every little detail, so maybe instead of acting like a bunch of whiny brats, the paleo community should learn to grow up and enjoy something for once in their "miserable" lives and stop this "Cretaceous Cancel Culture"...
Djdndnejwnwn
MemberAllosaurusJun-12-2021 11:40 AMyeah, I see that.
“Cretaceous Cancel Culture” Love that.
“He goes on to say that the these creative choices and liberties were made to serve the story that the film is trying to tell and shuts down accusations of it being harmful to the public's perception of dinosaurs.” Yeah, I agree with that.
And a counterargument could be made. theres no evidence against Giga and T rex living in the same place. You cant say well theres no fossils, because we barely have any fossils and even though we learned a lot about Dinosaurs, our view of them and their time is probably very inaccurate.
expecting the worst, sets you up for thr worst
SasquaDash
MemberBrachiosaurusJun-12-2021 11:42 AMIt's funny, the paleo community often stereotypes the Jurassic Park/World fandom as being "immature", "mindless", and "cult-like". Yet, the Jurassic fandom has shown more maturity and class in this situation (and in others) than any of these so-called "professionals"...
SasquaDash
MemberBrachiosaurusJun-12-2021 11:53 AM"And a counterargument could be made. theres no evidence against Giga and T rex living in the same place."
I would slightly disagree with that, I think there's enough evidence to show that T .rex and Gigas didn't live together (in location and time), but I do understand what you're saying.
Personally, I find it weird that it's always the Jurassic series getting crap for its inaccuracies, yet not a lot of people complain about inaccuracies in other prehistoric franchises. I've rarely seen people complaining about the accuracy of The Land Before Time, Ice Age, The Flintstones, Primal or any other piece of media featuring prehistoric animals. I get that the Jurassic series is more "mainstream" and has a larger influence on the public, but it seems pretty hypocritical to target one specific piece of media, while giving others a pass.
Djdndnejwnwn
MemberAllosaurusJun-12-2021 11:58 AMCult Like? well I guess real maturity shows through its practice. Not declaring your maturity because you think you know more about a certain subject than others.
The film makers arent the ones destroying the views of dinosaurs in the public its the community. Who in the right ind would want to learn about dinosaurs when the community for them is shouting death threats at a film maker because a T. Rex and Giga fight in a probably very cool scene
expecting the worst, sets you up for thr worst
Djdndnejwnwn
MemberAllosaurusJun-12-2021 12:01 PMI know my point isnt completely valid, but its not imposssible we find a t rex and giga together at the same time.
Also I hate Ice Age. Just a random side note
expecting the worst, sets you up for thr worst
SasquaDash
MemberBrachiosaurusJun-12-2021 1:47 PM"The film makers arent the ones destroying the views of dinosaurs in the public its the community."
I agree, 100%
It's their crappy attitude towards everyone that's harming the way people view prehistory, people don't want to learn about dinosaurs if they are constantly being insulted and harassed by a bunch of jerks who think they know everything. Hell, I've been obsessed with dinosaurs for as long as I can remember and grew up wanting to be a paleontologist. However, after seeing the way people in the community act, it makes me want nothing to do with them, so I can only imagine what it would be like for newcomers.
As far as Ice Age goes, It's cool if you don't like it. I personally enjoy the first 3 movies, mainly because I grew up with them (the series went completely downhill after the 4th movie though). The reason I brought it up was to point out the double standard of the paleo community. There are a lot of scientific inaccuracies in that series (some that are technically worse than anything in the Jurassic series), however, rarely does the paleo community complain about it, but the second Jurassic World does anything, they absolutely loose their minds.
7amey
MemberTriceratopsJun-13-2021 1:17 AMIt's Jurassic Park that encouraged me to become a palæontology enthusiast.
SasquaDash
MemberBrachiosaurusJun-13-2021 7:49 AMOne of the first introductions to dinosaurs that I had as a kid were the Land Before Time movies. Needless to say, there are a lot of inaccuracies in that series, dinosaurs from the Cretaceous and Jurassic coexisting, herbivorous toothed Pteranodons, heck the first movie had a Dimetrodon (a very lizard-like one) in it and those guys were extinct long before the dinosaurs showed up. Not once did these inaccuracies "harm" my perception or knowledge of prehistoric life, nor did my future knowledge of dinosaurs harm my view of the series (the first Land Before Time is still one of my favorite animated movies, despite me being in my mid 20s).
I think the paleo community needs to realize that inaccuracies in dinosaur films are kind of inevitable and that we shouldn't be so enraged over every tiny detail, we should instead enjoy things for the way they are. Life's too short to be constantly mad over fictional depictions of long dead animals (ones that we've technically never seen).
Xenotaris
MemberAllosaurusJun-13-2021 1:19 PMI love The Land Before Time movies and most of their sequels. But TLBT also had incorporated dinosaur concepts that were for its time accurate compared to its contemporaries something Disney doesn't do because they are still stuck in the past. (Disney's Dinosaur is the only exception)
The Land Before Time gave us:
Dinosaurs living in herds
Most of the time the dinosaurs have their tails off the ground.
Little Foot's mother and grandparents resembles at the time a paleontologically correct Apatosaurus. Unlike Arlo from a Good Dinosaur that looks like a lizard horse.
Tyrannosauruses were capable parents as seen as Pappa and Momma Sharptooth in the sequel.
They eventually added in feather dinosaurs in the later sequels.
I don't mind inaccuracies as long as they make it a worth while watch, I would watch any The Land Before Time movies over the Good Dinosaur
SasquaDash
MemberBrachiosaurusJun-14-2021 8:19 AMThe paleo community often gets angry at the smallest details. Here's a quote that I think the paleo community can learn from:
Alphadino65
MemberTriceratopsJun-15-2021 9:16 PMToo many times, a certain demographic (whatever it may be) has such focused "tunnel vision" that it refuses to look at the big picture.
Part of it is because the Jurassic Park movies are the most realistic-looking dinosaur movies of all time, bar-none. The science is actually so reasonably believable that that is why Spielberg leaped at the opportunity to buy the movie rights to adapt the novel when he had that lunch with Crichton about writing up ER. He had looked and waited for so long before the right story that involved dinosaurs to come his way...and he finally found it in 1989.
The other part of it actually comes from a good place: wanting to show what the dinosaurs really were because they know them best.
The other movies/tv series just aren't "realistic" enough to fuss over a lot.
@SasquaDash, you're completely right. Jurassic Park is, on a deep level, not about dinosaurs at all. It's about how chaos theory permeates into genetic engineering. Dinosaurs are the results of the leap in genetic engineering that Crichton wanted.
Now, I am ironically a bit of a stickler for this timing issue. This is so blatantly wrong that I'm at a loss for words. I know it's for storytelling, but just...ugh. It sounded more like my old story The Tyrant's Roar...but at least I gave a reason for why the Giganotosaurus and T.rex were able to exist at the same time.
Even so, I'm not going to let it temper my enjoyment for Dominion. For the love of Pete, it's a Jurassic movie
There's something ironic I realized a few years ago: the 2nd LBT movie (from what I remember) showed what would happen in TLW, with the mother and father T.rex coming to search for their hatchling. And LBT2 only came out 3 years prior to TLW. Talk about a prediction!
SasquaDash
MemberBrachiosaurusJun-19-2021 4:25 PMWe could nitpick every tiny detail in dinosaur movies to the point where it drives us crazy. But buy doing so we prevent ourselves from enjoying them. I've seen so many people in the paleo community that constantly complain and rage over the tiniest detail and, honestly, it seems like those people have extremely miserable lives. I kind of feel bad for some of them, they claim to love dinosaurs yet they are constantly getting angry over the subject to the point where they are unable to enjoy something they love.
