I saw this movie for the second time yesterday. It is much better the second time around.

Rob Gronovius

And there are "Jurassic Girl" figure model kits.

https://kingshobby.com/store/jurassic-girl-andrea-g-036 ...

"Jurassic Girl."  That's good!  Andrea is adept at dodging copyrights.  Like "Space Captain" for Spock from "Wrath of Khan".

You are right. Top Gun Maverick is like a Stars War movie. The evil looking black helicopter looks like an Empire weapon.

I've seen so many movies this year; Uncharted, Secrets of Dumbledore, No Way Home, Multiverse of Madness, The Batman, Thor Love and Thunder, Jurassic World: Dominion, Top Gun: Maverick.

And I've seen many movies that went quickly to HBO or some other streaming service like The Northman and the Lost City (both still in the theaters when I saw it at home), Death on the Nile.

Maverick was ludicrous, but awesome. Best of the bunch for a fun time.

The Batman was probably the most intelligent of the movies, quite the thinker.

But, it was the Star Wars Death Star trench run done with F/A-18s. I half expected Hangman Solo to scream, "You're all clear Mav!" as he made the final run on the Death St...umm...nuclear weapons base.

That is the perfect analogy. It was like they took the story straight from Star Wars. But like you, I enjoyed it. The rest of the movie made up for it.

And there are "Jurassic Girl" figure model kits.

https://kingshobby.com/store/jurassic-girl-andrea-g-036

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153612967249?chn=ps&msclkid=205a5c32052511edb1c63b523bf6853c

plasticjunkie

Who cares about special effects and dinosaurs with Raquel in the movie

  

 

Lol Raquel made any movie better!!!

Thanks guys, this has been a great thread!!!

missileman2000

The thing I like about the first movie was the discussions on a control system going  chaotic/out-of-control.  It was pretty accurate about chaos math- now called complex system science. 

You should read the novel, Don.  In the novel, as Malcom gradually succumbs to his injuries, he gives several soliloquies on that topic.  Those discussions were watered down significantly for the movie. 

The thing I like about the first movie was the discussions on a control system going  chaotic/out-of-control.  It was pretty accurate about chaos math- now called complex system science.

Rob Gronovius

Yeah, she was serious eye candy.

Recently, the most absurd movie I saw, I absolutely loved. Top Gun: Maverick was an awesome movie. It is a popcorn crunching, fun filled movie for the new moviergoer as well as someone who loved the original.

But, it was the Star Wars Death Star trench run done with F/A-18s. I half expected Hangman Solo to scream, "You're all clear Mav!" as he made the final run on the Death St...umm...nuclear weapons base.

Even had Mav Solo and Rooster Chewie "flying casual" in the stolen Imperial shuttle...I mean...F-14 Tomcat trying to exfiltrate out of the Moon of Endor.

 

Heh...when Rooster's targeting pod crapped out on him and he had to bomb visually, he says "Talk to me, dad."  I was expecting to hear the ethereal voice of Anthony Edwards saying "Use the force, Rooster."

Yup, absurd movie, but the most fun I have had in a movie theatre in a long time.

Yeah, she was serious eye candy.

Recently, the most absurd movie I saw, I absolutely loved. Top Gun: Maverick was an awesome movie. It is a popcorn crunching, fun filled movie for the new moviergoer as well as someone who loved the original.

But, it was the Star Wars Death Star trench run done with F/A-18s. I half expected Hangman Solo to scream, "You're all clear Mav!" as he made the final run on the Death St...umm...nuclear weapons base.

Even had Mav Solo and Rooster Chewie "flying casual" in the stolen Imperial shuttle...I mean...F-14 Tomcat trying to exfiltrate out of the Moon of Endor.

Who cares about special effects and dinosaurs with Raquel in the movie

The old Pyro/Life-Like "Prehistoric Monsters" kits were among the first models I ever built.  I was around 6 or 7 at the time.  No paint, just Duco Household Cement.  I enjoyed them immensely, though even back then, I noticed the poor fit on some of them  I think the head on the ankylosaur was the worst.  Just the top plate and a left and right side, that just formed a V under the top plate.  The kits were right out of the Peabody Museum's mural, and reflected contemporary understanding of dinosaurs at the time.  The Corythosaurus was probably the best of the lot, as far as detail and fit go.

When I was a little older, I built Aurora's Prehistoric Scenes kits, too.  Those were also really cool, and some weren't all that bad as far as details go.  Some bits were recycled, too.  The Cave Bear was apparently the same tooling as the bear from Aurora's wildlife kits.  And I think the vulture from the Tar Pit was used in one of the horror kits.  I built them all, except the tyrannosaur, never got that one.

I never did get to build Tamiya's or Airfix's dinosaur kits from back then.

By the 90s, when the newer research and interpretations were published, we got an explosion of better-researched and well-engineered kits, especially in resin.  Tamiya revamped its dinosaur kits, too, and their second generation and much better than the earlier ones.  I'm building the T-rex kit right now, the diorama set, and it looks like it could have been based on Jack Horner's books.  Fit is less than optimal, with a lot of seams to clean up.  But it should build into a nice model of a rex.  

Gamera

Rob: Thanks! I've seen lots of the models around at shows, never knew what the quality of them was. Thanks for filling me in!

Yeah, it seemed like the perfect lead in to talk about the model kits. I got my modeling start with the old Aurora prehistoric scenes Saber-toothed Tiger and Allosaurus. I did eventually "collect them all" between my brother and me, we had most of those dinosaur kits.

So, when Jurassic Park kits were released, I bought the new dinosaur kits by Lindberg and the Explorer. When The Lost World was released, I bought the vehicles for myself and the raptors for my kids.

ikar01

They did ok with the Andromeda strain back in the last century, but I think that was the only movie they made from his stories.  As for the dinosaur movies, I haven't been all that interested since the first J.P. movie and then saw part of the second one.  At that point I pretty much gave up on them.

They've made about a dozen movies from Michael Creighton's books. The Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Banderas (the book was Eaters of the Dead), Congo, Disclosure (Demi Moore, Michael Douglas), Rising Sun (Sean Connery), Timeline (Paul Walker), The Terminal Man and of course the Jurassic Park and Lost World books.

Hi,

Reading through these posts make me remember that I'm old enough that when I was young, I was taught that dinosaurs were big slow moving (cold-blooded) grey and brown things.  Then later I was taught that they were actually much more agile, and that modern birds were related to them.  Then later I was told that they probably had feathers, and even later that maybe they didn't totally go extinct and that modern birds aren't just related to them, but might actually be them after eons of evolution.

Now I'm just waiting for that Ancient Aliens guy to tell me that they really built the pyramids and flew off into outer space along time ago 

Gamera

Eagle I have to warn you though it's one of those movies where they glue plastic horns to a lizard and a rubber fin to a young alligator and then poke and harrass them into fighting. It's kinda disturbing to watch but it happened over fifty years ago and there's nothing I can do about it so I can let it slide. Still someone with a lizard pet might find it a lot more annoying.  I looked it up- there's two copies on YouTube so you don't have to pay for it. And the MST3K version as well- the movie deserves a good ribbing. 

Thanks for the heads-up on other parts of the movie, Gamera.  You're right, seeing that kind of stuff probably would have sent me right over the falls.  I don't have much hands-on experience with alligators, but iguanas are extremely intelligent and form a bond with people they trust.  That line in Jurassic Park from Muldoon about the raptors described theirs quite well "They show extreme intelligence...even problem-solving intelligence."  Bugs me to no end to see people doing things like what was done with the alligators to an animal for entertainment purposes.

Rob: Thanks! I've seen lots of the models around at shows, never knew what the quality of them was. Thanks for filling me in!

Baron: I've read a lot about the new stuff and find it really interesting. Big change from what people thought back when I was a kid in the '80s. And yeah I think some people go a little too far. 

And thanks guys for the low-down on 'Walking With Dinosaurs'. As a biologist I find this stuff really interesting. I'm going to have to stream it, or if I can find it cheap I might just pick up the DVDs. 

Gamera

...'Walking With Dinosaurs' was something I've always wanted to see but wasn't crazy about just ordering it cold. So Baron you'd give it your recommendation? Anyone else? 

Gamera

...And the whole feathered dinosaurs thing and the 'Park' novel and movie- I can't remember which came first or when... 

Crichton published his novel before new discoveries and interpretations about feathers on dinosaurs came out.

There was Archeaopteryx, of course.  But it was around 5 years or a little later after that, that new research came out, making the case for feathers in other members of the therapod group.  That includes raptors and tyrannosaurids, as well as the ancestor of modern birds.  Apart from more fossils showing feathers, what I find very interesting is the structures on bones that indicate the anchor point for the tissue that supports some kinds of feathers.

So, to show raptors with feathers is not unplausible.  But the artists who depict dinosaurs go a little crazy with the effect sometimes, I think.

Gamera

Thanks guys, I've read the original novel but that was decades ago. I really need to again. 

And the whole feathered dinosaurs thing and the 'Park' novel and movie- I can't remember which came first or when. 

I haven't seen any but the three original 'Park' movies. And I really disliked two and three wasn't that great either. 'Walking With Dinosaurs' was something I've always wanted to see but wasn't crazy about just ordering it cold. So Baron you'd give it your recommendation? Anyone else? 

Jurassic Park: Lost World and Jurassic Park III, were not very good movies. That's probably why it took another 25 years to reboot the series into Jurassic World.

Lindberg did a very good series of dinosaur kits based on the new dinosaurs from the first movie. The T-Rex (I had her and the raptor) along with the spitter were excellent kits. The movie used Ford Explorers instead of Jeeps and Lindberg just reissued an Explorer with the J-P logos on it. I still have the J-P Explorer in their dunky 1/20 scale.

Then they got even cheaper and rolled out 40 year old dinosaur kits they had in the vault with new J-P boxes.

Revell picked up the license for The Lost World. They did four kits, the Mercedes Benz M Class (I still have one) is a very well engineered kit. The Hummer with capture cages is the same base kit as their civilian/sometimes military Hummer kit in 1/25 scale.

The M Class had "dino-anti-intrusion" bars along the windows and an observation dome in the cargo area and can't be built into a non-J-P kit. The entire roof is a plexiglass piece and does not have protection from dino-attack!

They did the T-Rex and a pair of raptors both on display bases. The two bases will fit together a la the old Aurora Prehistoric Scenes kits.

If I remember, the dinosaurs came molded in tan and the bases were dark green. While the Lindberg kits were huge, like 1/6 scale, the Revell kits were much smaller. I'd guess 1/20.

The M Class is the best of the car models by both companies; albeit very simplified in construction.

Eaglecash867

 

 

Gamera

There are worse films though. Like 1955's 'King Dinosaur'. I know that the technology back then wasn't that great. But still I think most people know a T. rex wasn't a four-legged animal. Using a modern lizard as a stand-in was um well strange. And there were older movies using stop-motion animated T.rex's that were bipedal. 

 

 

I'll have to watch that one just so I can get a chuckle.  I'd have a hard time being scared of the female green iguana it looks like they used for the "King" dinosaur...although they can get pretty scary when they're in a bad mood from being gravid.  One of my female iguanas was giving me exactly the look in that photo, and she was normally so sweet that I didn't take it seriously.  I went to pet her on the head to calm her down (which usually worked)...big mistake.  This time she wasn't bluffing...grabbed the tip of my right index finger and de-gloved it.  "Fun" night in the emergency room after that one.  LOL.

As for the new movie, I think the biggest plot hole in all of them is dinosaurs walking the earth again.  After that?  Anything goes.  Love those movies...and I always thought the Velociraptors were cute, especially Blue in the Jurassic World movies.

 

Eagle I have to warn you though it's one of those movies where they glue plastic horns to a lizard and a rubber fin to a young alligator and then poke and harrass them into fighting. It's kinda disturbing to watch but it happened over fifty years ago and there's nothing I can do about it so I can let it slide. Still someone with a lizard pet might find it a lot more annoying. 

I looked it up- there's two copies on YouTube so you don't have to pay for it. And the MST3K version as well- the movie deserves a good ribbing. 

Thanks guys, I've read the original novel but that was decades ago. I really need to again. 

And the whole feathered dinosaurs thing and the 'Park' novel and movie- I can't remember which came first or when. 

I haven't seen any but the three original 'Park' movies. And I really disliked two and three wasn't that great either. 'Walking With Dinosaurs' was something I've always wanted to see but wasn't crazy about just ordering it cold. So Baron you'd give it your recommendation? Anyone else? 

They did ok with the Andromeda strain back in the last century, but I think that was the only movie they made from his stories.  As for the dinosaur movies, I haven't been all that interested since the first J.P. movie and then saw part of the second one.  At that point I pretty much gave up on them.

The one Micheal Chricton movie that I would like for them to make into a movie is Prey

I have to offer an addendum about the novel.  I work as a quality assurance analyst on a software development team.  I test software, and analyst requirements (aka specs) and offer observations, to improve our product and our process.  "Jurassic Park" is a great example of the value of using quality assurance to reduce the possibility of bugs.  When someone says, "We want to add this feature! It'll be great!", or even worse, "Oh, we don't need to test that-that'll never happen", I'll reply, "Let's build an amusement park, put dinosaurs in it, and have people pay to come see 'em!  What could possibly go wrong?"  Or, "Yeah, the raptors'll never get out of the pen."

Crichton used Malcolm's solilioquies as he gradually succumbs to his wounds to present the main themes of the novel.  It's definitely worth reading.

In fact, I think it's time to re-read it myself...

Michael Crichton's original novel is excellent, and if you've never read it, I recommend it highly.  I find it to be the kind of novel that I can start and read straight through without stopping.  I did that when I first got it, and I still do now, though I've read it 20 times or more and I know what's coming.

I read it when it was first published, and I thought to myself, "This would make a great movie, if only they could figure out how to animate the dinosaurs realistically."

Crichton drew on the latest interpretations of the fossils, and the work of both Jack Horner and Bob Bakker had a strong influence on his depictions of the animals and descriptions of the science.

Spielberg's movie came out a couple years later, and I saw it, and I was disappointed.  The animation was outstanding, with new techniques and technologies used, both in terms of computer generation and in terms of models. But the changes he made to the story ruined it.  Grant loved children, for example, because they shared his love of dinosaurs.  And in the novel, Hammond is not a kindly little elf of a man, but an arrogant ***, who gets his come-uppance, for screwing with Nature.

I thought to myself, "If they just took out all the human scenes, this would be great!"  And then a couple years later, the BBC brought out "Walking With Dinosaurs", which was pretty much that-a nature show about prehistorical animals.

As far as the sequels go, Crichton hadn't planned on writing one, but he was encouraged to do so by the studio.  And it shows.  Though the novel is relatively fast-paced, the story is pretty much more of the same.  And it bears little relationship to the movie, apart from some characters and dinosaurs.  I did enjoy Pete Postlethwaite as Roland the game hunter, though.

And the sequels got worse from there, in my opinion.  I know there are millions who disagree, but it is what it is.

I've seen the "Lost World" reboot series, and they're entertaining adventure flicks, pretty much, but again, they're formula.

I haven't seen this latest one yet.  I was going to pay to see it in the theater when it premiered, but then decided it wasn't worth the price to do so.  I'll wait till it's streaming or on cable, on DVD, etc.

The whole basis for the series is using dinosaur DNA extracted from amber. This book was written in the 1980s, first book released in 1990. We didn't know as much about DNA back then that we do now.

Dolly the cloned sheep and test tube babies were the hot new science.

JP just takes it to a new level.

Gamera

There are worse films though. Like 1955's 'King Dinosaur'. I know that the technology back then wasn't that great. But still I think most people know a T. rex wasn't a four-legged animal. Using a modern lizard as a stand-in was um well strange. And there were older movies using stop-motion animated T.rex's that were bipedal. 

I'll have to watch that one just so I can get a chuckle.  I'd have a hard time being scared of the female green iguana it looks like they used for the "King" dinosaur...although they can get pretty scary when they're in a bad mood from being gravid.  One of my female iguanas was giving me exactly the look in that photo, and she was normally so sweet that I didn't take it seriously.  I went to pet her on the head to calm her down (which usually worked)...big mistake.  This time she wasn't bluffing...grabbed the tip of my right index finger and de-gloved it.  "Fun" night in the emergency room after that one.  LOL.

As for the new movie, I think the biggest plot hole in all of them is dinosaurs walking the earth again.  After that?  Anything goes.  Love those movies...and I always thought the Velociraptors were cute, especially Blue in the Jurassic World movies.